Part 53 (2/2)

Herr Gluck leaned forward and said: ”We all are Teutons, one family.

That is why we always have quarreled. But we understand each other. Come to Germany and build for other Teutons, since they will not have you here.”

”An expatriate! Poor dad!” muttered Jim. Then he said, in his quiet drawl, ”I'll come, but you'll be getting only half a man.”

The German looked away. He was a scientist, yet he was of a nation that had produced Goethe as well as Weismann and his heart was quick to respond to truth, shot with the rainbow tints of vision.

”I know!” he said. ”I know! Man needs the impulse of national pride and honor behind his mind. There are those that claim that they achieve for human kind and not for their own race alone. But I doubt it. After all, Goethe spoke for Deutschland, Darwin spoke for England. Therefrom came their greatness. And yet if they will not have you here, dear friend--Ach Himmel, I cannot urge thee! Come if thou wilt!”

Herr Gluck broke off abruptly to turn to Uncle Denny. ”Who is the highest authority in this Service?”

”The Secretary of the Interior,” said Uncle Denny. ”Come, we must eat supper or Mrs. Flynn will be using force on us.”

Jim took Herr Gluck over to the midnight train. The German was very quiet, but Jim was even more so. As Jim left him Herr Gluck said: ”Keep a good heart, dear friend. I shall say a few truths myself before I have finished.”

Jim shook hands heartily. ”There is nothing to be done, Herr Gluck, but I'm grateful for your sympathy. You will hear from me about the new work,” and he drove off in the darkness, leaving Herr Gluck in the hands of the ranchers Marshall and Miguel, who had spent the afternoon and evening at the dam, and were going to Cabillo by train.

Jim had received no answer from the Secretary of the Interior to his last letter. He was a little puzzled and hurt. There had been one flas.h.i.+ng look pa.s.s between himself and the Secretary at the May hearing that had stayed with Jim as though it had declared a friends.h.i.+p that needed neither words nor personal a.s.sociation to give it permanence. Jim had counted on that friends.h.i.+p, not to save him his job, but to save his idea. No answer had come to his letter. Jim believed that the story of the interview with Freet had finally destroyed the Secretary's faith in his integrity.

Pen had written a long letter jointly to Jim and Uncle Denny some two weeks after leaving the dam. It was the first word they had had except through telegrams. Sara's will had been read. He had left Pen all his property, which was enough to yield a living income for her. Pen enclosed a copy of the note Sara had left her with his papers.

”You have always felt bitter at my stinginess. But I knew that I could not live long and I wanted to repay you for your care of me. I did not spend an unnecessary cent nor did I let you. I have been ugly but it didn't matter to you. I knew you didn't care for me and so I didn't try to be decent.”

Uncle Denny shook his head over this note. ”No human soul but has its white side, and there you are! I hope I'll never sit in judgment on another human being.”

”Has she any comment on Sara's note?” asked Jim, who was resting on the couch while Uncle Denny read the letter to him.

Uncle Denny looked on the reverse side of the sheet. Pen had written: ”This touches me very much. But when I consider the sources of poor Sara's money I can't bear to touch it. I am arranging to give it to the home for paralytic children. I hope that both of you will approve of my doing so.”

The two men stared at each other and Jim said nothing. He was consumed by such a longing for Pen that he scarcely dared speak her name. But Uncle Denny nodded complacently and said:

”You can always bet on Pen!”

The day after Herr Gluck's visit there was to be a political rally of the Fleckenstein forces at Cabillo. To the great relief of Dennis and his two henchmen, Jim made no move to attend the meeting. The first concrete pouring on the last section of the foundation was to be made that day and Jim was engrossed with it. Fleckenstein was late in getting to the meeting. This, too, was better luck than the three conspirators had hoped for. The meeting was made up almost entirely of farmers who wanted to hear Fleckenstein's last statement of his pledges.

Before the chairman called the meeting to order, Oscar Ames mounted the platform and asked permission to say a few words while the audience waited for Fleckenstein. Oscar then put forth the great effort of his life.

He squared his great shoulders and threw back his tawny head.

”Fellow citizens, there is a great disgrace coming onto this community.

You all know the Project engineer, James Manning. Well, there ain't been anyone who's fought him harder or made him more trouble till lately than I have. But lately, fellow citizens, I've got to know him. I tell you right now that he's the smartest fellow that ever come into these parts.

He's got some ideas that I'm not smart enough myself to understand, but I do know enough to realize that if he gets a chance to carry them out he'll make this Project the center of America!”

Oscar paused and someone called, ”Go it, Oscar! Throw her in to low and you'll make it!”

”Well, fellow citizens, Fleckenstein and his crowd and all the rest of us, helping with kicks, have worked it so that Jim Manning has been asked to resign. They tell him that he's so unpopular here that the Service can't afford to keep him. Understand that? In other words, we farmers are such fools that we can't appreciate a good man just because his ideas differ from ours. But we can go crazy over a man like Fleckenstein because he'll take the trouble to jolly us. Fellow citizens, I ask you, are you going to sit by while the man that would make this Project into a valley empire is kicked out?”

Oscar stood for a moment glaring at his grinning hearers. Murphy climbed up beside him and shoved him aside.

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