Part 25 (2/2)
” Yes, sir. He found us and brought us out safely.”
” Well, glory be to Coleman,” exclaimed the min- ister, after a long sigh of surprise. ” Glory be to Cole- man! I never thought he could do it.”
The students were alert immediately. ”Why, did you know about it, sir? Did he tell you he was coming after us ? ”
”Of course. He came tome here in Athens. and asked where you were. I told him you were in a peck of trouble. He acted quietly and somewhat queerly,. and said that he would try to look you up.
He said you were friends of his. I warned him against trying it. Yes, I said it was impossible, I had no idea that he would really carry the thing out.
But didn't he tell you anything about this himself?”
” No, sir ' ” answered Peter Tounley. ” He never said much about it. I think he usually contended that it was mainly an accident.”
” It was no accident,” said the minister, sharply.
”When a man starts out to do a thing and does it, you can't say it is an accident.”
” I didn't say so, sir,” said Peter Tounley diffidently.
” Quite true, quite true ! You didn't, but-this Coleman must be a man! ”
” We think so, sir,” said be who was called Billie.
” He certainly brought us through in style.”
” But how did he manage it? ” cried the minister, keenly interested. ” How did he do it ? ”
” It is hard to say, sir. But he did it. He met us in the dead of night out near Nikopolis-”
”Near Nikopolis?”
”Yes, sir. And he hid us in a forest while a fight was going on, and then in the morning he brought us inside the Greek lines. Oh, there is a lot to tell-”
Whereupon they told it, or as much as they could of it. In the end, the minister said: ” Well, where are the professor and Mrs. Wainwright ? I want you all to dine with me to-night. I am dining in the public room, but you won't mind that after Epirus.”
” They should be down now, sir,” answered a Student.
People were now coming rapidly to dinner and presently the professor and Mrs. Wainwright appeared.
The old man looked haggard and white. He accepted the minister's warm greeting with a strained pathetic smile. ” Thank you. We are glad to return safely.”
Once at dinner the minister launched immediately into the subject of Coleman. ” He must be altogether a most remarkable man. When he told me, very quietly, that he was going to try to rescue you, I frankly warned him against any such attempt. I thought he would merely add one more to a party of suffering people. But the. boys tell- me that he did actually rescue you.”
”Yes, he did,” said the professor. ” It was a very gallant performance, and we are very grateful.”
”Of course,” spoke Mrs. Wainwright, ”we might have rescued ourselves. We were on the right road, and all we had to do was to keep going on.”
” Yes, but I understand-” said the minister. ” I understand he took you into a wood to protect you from that fight, and generally protected you from all, kinds of trouble. It seems wonderful to me, not so much because it was done as because it was done by the man who, some time ago, calmy announced to me that he was going to do it. Extraordinary.”
”Of course,” said Mrs. Wainwright. ” Oh, of course.”
”And where is he now? ” asked the minister suddenly.
”Has he now left you to the mercies of civilisation ? ”
There was a moment's curious stillness, and then Mrs. Wainwright used that high voice which-the students believed-could only come to her when she was about to say something peculiarly destructive to the sensibilities. ” Oh, of course, Mr. Coleman rendered us a great service, but in his private character he is not a man whom we exactly care to a.s.sociate with.”
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