These tactics proved strangely disconcerting to Mr. Pat, obsessed as he was by a sudden sense of shame at having thumped so impotent an adversary.
"Leave me be, Mr. Queed. I"m sorry I hit ye, and I niver would "a" done it--if ye hadn"t--"
The man"s voice died away. He became lost in a great wonder as to what under heaven this little Four-eyes meant by standing there and staring at him with that white and entirely unfrightened face.
Queed was, in fact, in the grip of a brand-new idea, an idea so sudden and staggering that it overwhelmed him. He could not thrash Mr. Pat. He could not thrash anybody. Anybody in the world that desired could put gross insult upon his articles and go scot-free, the reason being that the father of these articles was a physical incompetent.
All his life young Mr. Queed had attended to his own business, kept quiet and avoided trouble. This was his first fight, because it was the first time that anybody had publicly insulted his work. In his whirling sunburst of indignation, he had somehow taken it for granted that he could punch the head of a proof-reader in much the same way that he punched the head off Smathers"s arguments. Now he suddenly discovered his mistake, and the discovery was going hard with him. Inside him there was raging a demon of surprising violence of deportment; it urged him to lay hold of some instrument of a rugged, murderous nature and a.s.sa.s.sinate Mr. Pat. But higher up in him, in his head, there spoke the stronger voice of his reason. While the demon screamed homicidally, reason coldly reminded the young man that not to save his life could he a.s.sa.s.sinate, or even hurt, Mr. Pat, and that the net result of another endeavor to do so would be merely a second mortifying atmospheric journey. Was it not unreasonable for a man, in a hopeless attempt to gratify irrational pa.s.sion, to take a step the sole and certain consequences of which would be a humiliating soaring and curveting through the air?
It was a terrible struggle, the marks of which broke out on the young man"s forehead in cold beads. But he was a rationalist among rationalists, and in the end his reason subdued his demon. Therefore, the little knot of linotypers and helpers who had stood wonderingly by while the two adversaries stared at each other, through a tense half-minute, now listened to the following dialogue:--
"I believe I said that I would give you a good thrashing. I now withdraw those words, for I find that I am unable to make them good."
"I guess you ain"t--what the divil did ye expect? Me to sit back with me hands behind me and leave ye--"
"I earnestly desire to thrash you, but it is plain to me that I am not, at present, in position to do so."
"Fergit it! What"s afther ye, Mr. Queed--?"
"To get in position to thrash you, would take me a year, two years, five years. It is not--no, it is _not_ worth my time."
"Well, who asked f"r any av your time? But as f"r that, I"ll give ye your chance to get square--"
"I suppose you feel yourself free now to take all sorts of detestable liberties with my articles?"
"Liberties--what"s bitin" ye, man? Don"t I read revised proof on the leaded stuff every night, no matter what the rush is? When did ye ever before catch me--?"
"Physically, you are my superior, but muscle counts for very little in this world, my man. Morally, which is all that matters, I am your superior--you know that, don"t you? Be so good as to keep your disgusting vermin out of my articles in the future."
He walked away with a face which gave no sign of his inner turmoil. Mr.
Pat looked after him, stirred and bewildered, and addressed his friends the linotypers angrily.
"Something loose in his belfry, as ye might have surmised from thim damfool tax-drools."
For Mr. Pat was still another reader of the unanswerable articles, he being paid the sum of twenty-seven dollars per week to peruse everything that went into the _Post_, including advertis.e.m.e.nts of auction sales and for sealed bids.
Queed returned to his own office for his hat and coat. Having heard his feet upon the stairs, Colonel Cowles called Out:--
"What was the rumpus upstairs, do you know? It sounded as if somebody had a bad fall."
"Somebody did get a fall, though not a bad one, I believe."
"Who?" queried the editor briefly.
"I."
In the hall, it occurred to Queed that perhaps he had misled his chief a little, though speaking the literal truth. The fall that some _body_ had gotten was indeed nothing much, for people"s bodies counted for nothing so long as they kept them under. But the fall that this body"s self-esteem had gotten was no such trivial affair. It struck the young man as decidedly curious that the worst tumble his pride had ever received had come to him through his body, that part of him which he had always treated with the most systematic contempt.
The elevator received him, and in it, as luck would have it, stood a tall young man whom he knew quite well.
"h.e.l.lo, there, Doc!"
"How do you do, Mr. Klinker?"
"Been up chinning your sporting editor, Ragsy Hurd. Trying to arrange a mill at the Mercury between Smithy of the Y.M.C.A. and Hank McGurk, the White Plains Cyclone."
"A mill--?"
"Sc.r.a.p--boxin" match, y" know. Done up your writings for the day?"
"My newspaper writings--yes."
In the brilliant close quarters of the lift, Klinker was looking at Mr.
Queed narrowly. "Where you hittin" for now? Paynter"s?"
"Yes."
"Walkin"?--That"s right. I"ll go with you."
As they came out into the street, Klinker said kindly: "You ain"t feelin" good, are you, Doc? You"re lookin" white as a milk-shake."
"I feel reasonably well, thank you. As for color, I have never had any, I believe."
"I don"t guess, the life you lead. Got the headache, haven"t you? Have it about half the time, now don"t you, hey?"
"Oh, I have a headache quite frequently, but I never pay any attention to it."
"Well, you"d ought to. Don"t you know the headache is just nature tipping you off there"s something wrong inside? I"ve been watching you at the supper table for some time now. That pallor you got ain"t natural pallor. You"re pasty, that"s right. I"ll bet segars you wake up three mornings out of four feelin" like a dish of stewed prunes."
"If I do--though of course I can only infer how such a dish feels--it is really of no consequence, I a.s.sure you."
"Don"t you fool yourself! It makes a lot of consequence to you. Ask a doctor, if you don"t believe me. But I got your dia"nosis now, same as a medical man that"s right. I know what"s your trouble, Doc, just like you had told me yourself."
"Ah? What, Mr. Klinker?"
"Exercise."
"You mean lack of exercise?"
"I mean," said Klinker, "that you"re fadin" out fast for the need of it."
The two men pushed on up Centre Street, where the march of home-goers was now beginning to thin out, in a moment of silence. Queed glanced up at Klinker"s six feet of red beef with a flash of envy which would have been unimaginable to him so short a while ago as ten minutes. Klinker was physically competent. n.o.body could insult _his_ work and laugh at the merited retribution.
"Come by my place a minute," said Klinker. "I got something to show you there. You know the shop, o" course?"
No; Mr. Queed was obliged to admit that he did not.
"I"m manager for Stark"s," said Klinker, trying not to appear boastful.
"Cigars, mineral waters, and periodicals. And a great rondy-vooze for the sporting men, politicians, and rounders of the town, if I do say it.