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Page 76
Burns took him away. "If they hadn't, you'd have missed your train. We've
got to make time, now."
As he took his place in the Green Imp Leaver looked across the street at
the cottage back among the trees. Its windows were quite dark, although
the hour was barely ten o'clock. Burns looked over, too.
"By the way," he said, as they moved away, "why wasn't Miss Ruston among
the crowd assembled to see you off? As an acquaintance of yours in
Baltimore she ought to join in the send-off back to that town."
"She gave me her good wishes this afternoon, after taking the photograph.
Red, speaking of Baltimore, when are you coming down?"
"When I get a card saying you are holding a clinic on a subject I'm
anxious to see demonstrated."
"Do you expect me to go to holding clinics?"
"Surest thing in the world. You can't keep out of them."
"Do you suppose the men who saw my breakdown will be eager to welcome me
back?"
"No question of it. Good Lord, man, you're not the first nor the
ten-thousandth man who has broken down from overwork. Because my axe
becomes dull I'm not going to refuse to use it when it comes back from
the grindstone with a brighter edge than ever on it, am I? Wait till you
see your reception. Some of those fellows have been making a lot of
mistakes in your absence--have been trying to do things too big for them.
They'll be only too glad to turn some of their stunts over to you. And
the big ones, who are your friends, will rejoice at sight of you. Of
course you have rivals; you don't expect them to welcome you with open
arms. They'll be sorry to see you back. Let them be sorry, and be hanged
to them! Go in and show them that they're the ones who need a rest now,
and that you'll take care of their work in their absence."
Leaver laughed. "Red, there's nobody just like you," he said.
"That's lucky. Too many explosives aren't safe to have around. I know,
and have known all along, Jack, that it's been like a cat lecturing a
king, my advice to you. A better simile would be the old one of the mouse
gnawing the lion out of the net. If I've done anything for you, that's
what I've done."
Leaver turned in his seat. "Red," said he--and his voice had a deep ring
in it as he spoke--"you're about the biggest sized mouse I ever saw. I
want to tell you this: Since I've been watching your work up here I've
conceived a tremendous admiration for your standards. There are none
finer, anywhere. I've come to feel that you couldn't do anything bigger
or better in the largest place you could find. Indeed, this, for you, is
the largest place, for you fill it as another man couldn't."
"The frog, in the marsh, where he lived, was king," Burns quoted, in an
effort at lightness, for he was deeply touched.
"That's not the sort of king you are. You would be king anywhere. But
you're willing to rule over a kingdom that may look small to some, but
looks big as an empire to me, now that I understand. I've reached this
point: I am almost--and sometime I expect to be entirely--glad that the
thing happened to me which brought me here to you. You have done more for
me than any man ever did. And there's one thing I think I owe to you to
tell you. The greatest thing I've learned from you, though you haven't
said much about it, is faith in the God above us. I'd about let go of
that when I came here. Thanks to you, I've got hold of it again, and I
mean never to let go. No man can afford to let go of that--permanently."
Burns was silent for a moment, in answer to this most unexpected tribute,
silent because he could find no words. When he did speak there was a
trace of huskiness in his voice. "I'm mighty glad to know that, Jack," he
said simply.
Then, presently, for they had flown fast over the smooth road, they
were entering the city limits, traversing a crowded thoroughfare, and
approaching the great station on whose tower the illuminated face of the
clock warned them there was little time to spare. Arrived there, every
moment was consumed in a rush for tickets and in checking baggage.
Leaver secured his sleeper reservation with some difficulty, owing to a
misunderstanding in the telegram engaging it, and at the last the two men
had to run for the train. At the gate there was only space for a hasty
grip of two warm hands, a smile of understanding and affection, and an
exchange of arm-wavings at a distance as Leaver reached his car, already
on the verge of moving out.
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