"I"ll wager you have. Well, among a certain cla.s.s of people there seems to be an idea that you can"t show real sympathy without telling the victim that he"s looking very ill, and that you have known several such cases which didn"t recover. I have one little woman on my list who would have been well long ago if she hadn"t had so many loving friends to impress her with the idea that her case was desperate. I talk Dutch to such people now and then, when I get the chance, but it doesn"t do much good. Sometimes I get so thundering mad I can"t stand it, and then I rip out something that makes me a lasting enemy."
"You get some comfort out of the explosion, anyhow," King commented, with a glance at the strong profile beside him. "Besides, you may do more good than you know. Anybody who had had a good dressing down from you once wouldn"t be likely to forget it in a hurry."
Burns laughed at this, as they stopped in front of a house. King had a half-hour wait while his friend was inside. The car stood in heavy shade, and he was very comfortable. He took a letter from his pocket as he sat, a letter which looked as if it had been many times unfolded, and read it once more, his face very sober as his eyes followed the familiar lines:
DEAR MR. KING:
I was very, very sorry to go away without seeing you to say good-bye after our interesting correspondence. Mrs. Burns and I had such a pleasant visit with your mother, in your absence, that we felt rewarded for our call, and it was good to know that you could be out, yet of course we were very disappointed. I do hope that all will go well with you, and that very rapidly, for I can guess how eager you are to be at work.
Of course once I am off on my travels I shall have no time for letters. No, that isn"t quite frank, is it? Well, I will be truthful and say honestly that I am sure it is not best that I should keep on writing. I am glad if the letters have, as you say, helped you through the worst of the siege; they surely have helped me. But now--our ways part. Sometime I may give you a hail from somewhere--when I am lonely and longing to know how you get on. And sometime I may be back at my old home. But wherever I am I shall never forget you, Jordan King, for you have put something into my life which was not there before and I am the better for it. As for you--your life will not be one whit the less big and efficient for this trying experience; it will be bigger, I think, and finer. I am glad, glad I have known you.
ANNE LINTON.
For the hundredth time King felt his heart sink as he thought of that prevented last interview. His mother had prevented it. It was perfectly true that he was out, and away from home--out in a wheeled chair, which had been pushed by Franz through a gap in the hedge between the Kings"
lawn and the Wentworths" next door. Just on the other side of that hedge the chair had paused, where Sally Wentworth, his friend of long standing, was serving tea to a little group of young people, all intimates and all delighted to have the invalid once more in their midst. Under the group of great copper beeches which made of that corner of the Wentworth lawn a summer drawing room, King had sat in his chair drinking tea and listening to gay chatter--and wondering why he had not been able to get Anne Linton on the telephone so far that day. And at that very time, so he now bitterly reflected, she and Mrs. Burns had made their call upon him, only to be told by Mrs. King that he was "out."
His mother was unquestionably a lady, and she had told the truth; he could not conceive of her doing otherwise. He knew that she undoubtedly, quite as Anne had said, had made the call a pleasant one. But she had known that he was within a stone"s throw of the house, and that he would be bitterly disappointed not to be summoned. She had not mentioned to him the fact of the call at all until next day--when Anne Linton had been gone a full two hours upon her train. Then, when he had called up Mrs. Burns, in a fever of haste to learn what had happened and what there might yet be a chance of happening, he had discovered that Ellen herself had tried three times to get him, upon the telephone, and had at last realized--though this she did not say--that it was not intended that she should.
King understood his mother perfectly. She would scorn directly to deceive him, yet to intrigue quietly but effectively against him in such a case as this she would consider only her duty. She had seen clearly his interest in the stranger, unintroduced and unvouched for, taken in by kind people in an emergency, and though showing unquestionable marks of breeding, none the less a stranger. She had feared for him, in his present vulnerable condition; and she had done her part in preventing that final parting which might have contained elements of danger. That was all there was to it.
For the present King was helpless, and there could be no possible use in reproaching his mother for her action--or lack of action. Once let him get up on his feet, his own master once more--then it would be of use to talk. And talk he would some day. Also he would act. Meanwhile--
Red Pepper Burns came out of the house and scrutinized his friend and patient closely as he approached. "Want to go on, or shall I take you home?" he inquired.
"Take me on--anywhere--everywhere! Something inside will break loose if you don"t." King spoke with a smothered note of irritation new to him in Burns"s experience.
"You"ve about reached the limit, have you?" The question was straightforward, matter-of-fact in tone, but King knew the sympathy behind it.
"I rather have," the young man admitted. "I"m ashamed to own it."
"You needn"t be. It"s a wonder you haven"t reached it sooner; I should have. Well, if you stand this drive pretty well to-day you ought to come on fast. With that back, you may be thankful you"re getting off as easily as you are."
"I am thankful--everlastingly thankful. It"s just--"
"I know. Blow off some of that steam; it won"t hurt you. Here we are on the straight road. I"ll open up and give you a taste of what poor Henley felt the first time his crippled body and his big, uncrippled spirit tasted the delight of "Speed." Remember?"
"Indeed I do. Oh, I"m not complaining. You understand that, Red?"
"Of course I understand--absolutely. And I understand that you need just what I say--to blow off a lot of steam. Hurt you or not, I"m going to let loose for a couple of miles and blow it off for you."
In silence, broken only by the low song of the motor as it voiced its joy in the widening license to show its power, the two men took the wind in their faces as the car shot down the road, at the moment a clear highway for them. King had s.n.a.t.c.hed off his hat, and his dark hair blew wildly about his forehead, while his eyes watched the way as intently as if he had been driving himself, though his body hardly tensed, so complete was his confidence in the steady hands on the wheel. Faster and faster flew the car, until the speed indicator touched a mark seldom pa.s.sed by King himself at his most reckless moments. His lips, set at first, broke into a smile as the pointing needle circled the dial, and his eyes, if any could have seen them, would have told the relief there was for him in escape by flight, though only temporary, from the grinding pull of monotony and disablement.
At the turn ahead appeared obstruction, and Burns was obliged to begin slowing down. When the car was again at its ordinary by no means slow pace, King spoke:
"Bless you for a mind reader! That was bully, and blew away a lot of distemper. If you"ll just do it again going back I"ll submit to the afternoon of a clam in a bed of mud."
"Good. We"ll beat that record going back, if we break the speedometer.
Racing with time isn"t supposed to be the game for a convalescent, but I"m inclined to think it"s the dose you need, just the same. I expect, Jord, that the first time you pull on a pair of rubber boots and go to climbing around a big concrete dam somewhere your heart will break for joy."
"My heart will stand anything, so that it"s action."
"Will it? I thought it might be a bit damaged. It"s had a good deal of reaction to stand lately, I"m afraid."
There was silence for a minute, then King spoke:
"Red, you"re a wizard."
"Not much of a one. It doesn"t take extraordinary powers of penetration to guess that a flame applied to a bundle of kindling will cause a fire.
And when you keep piling on the fuel something"s likely to get burned."
"Did I pile on the fuel?"
"You sure did. If there had been gunpowder under the kindling you could have expected an explosion--and a wreck."
"There"s no wreck."
"No? I thought there might be--somewhere."
King spoke quickly. "Do you think I carried it too far?"
"I think you carried it some distance--for an invalid"s diversion."
The young man flushed hotly. "I was genuinely interested and I saw no harm. If there"s any harm done it"s to myself, and I can stand that. I"m not conceited enough to imagine that a broken-backed cripple could make any lasting impression."
Burns turned and surveyed his companion with some amus.e.m.e.nt. "Do you consider that a description of yourself?"
"I certainly do." Jordan King"s strong young jaw took on a grim expression.
"Know this then"--Burns spoke deliberately--"there"s not a sane girl who liked you well enough before your accident to marry you who wouldn"t marry you now."
"That"s absurd. Women want men, not cripples."
"You"re no cripple. Stop using that term."
"What else? A man condemned to wear a plaster jacket for at least a year." King evidently did his best not to speak bitterly.
"Bosh! Suppose the same thing happened to me. Would you look on me askance for the rest of my days, no matter what man"s job I kept on tackling? Besides, the plaster jacket"s only a precaution. You wouldn"t disintegrate without it."
King looked at Red Pepper Burns and smiled in spite of himself. "I"m glad to hear that, I"m sure. As for looking at you askance--you are you, R.P. Burns."
"Apply the same logic to yourself. You are you, and will continue to be you, plus some a.s.sets you haven"t had occasion to acquire before in the way of dogged endurance, control of mind, and such-like qualities, bred of need for them. You will be more to us all than you ever were, and that"s saying something. And the back"s going to be a perfectly good back; give it time. As for--if you don"t mind my saying it--that invalid"s diversion, I don"t suppose it"s hurt you any. What I"m concerned for is the hurt it may have done somebody else. I don"t need to tell you that it wasn"t possible for Ellen and me to have that little girl on our hearts all that time and not get mightily interested in her.
She"s the real thing, too, we"re convinced, and we care a good deal what happens to her next."
Jordan King drew a deep breath. "So do I."
Burns gave him a quick look. "That"s good. But you let her go away without making sure of keeping any hold on her. You don"t know where she is now."
King shot him a return look. "That wasn"t my fault. That was hard luck."