Part 32 (1/2)

My doctor says so. I wouldn't persecute your enquiries at this late hour of the night.”

Ike's gravity was imperturbable.

”Well, I be blanked! I beg your pardon, Mr. Macgregor. Ike, you're a cool one. You've got the nerve of--”

Here The Kid began to laugh, and Shock, all unsuspecting of Ike's scheme for getting his boss out of the clutches of his spoilers, gazed from the one to the other with an air of such absolute perplexity that The Kid went off into immoderate fits of laughter. Ike's gravity remained unbroken.

”All the same, boss,” he said, ”you want to keep an eye on that outfit.

They'll get even. That man Crawley and the Inspector aint goin' to rest easy where they are. Marks like what you put on 'em burn to the bone.”

”They cannot hurt me, Ike,” said the Kid lightly, ”and I think they will be afraid to try. But Mr. Macgregor here has got into trouble. Is not Macfarren a church warden, or something, in your Church?”

”He is a manager, I think,” said Shock. ”Pretty much the same thing.”

”Well, he is a man to look out for. I can get along without him, but you cannot, can you? I mean, he can hurt you.”

”No,” said Shock quietly, ”he cannot hurt me. The only man that can hurt me is myself. No other man can. And besides,” he added, pulling a little Bible out of his pocket, ”I have a Keeper, as Ike said.”

As Shock opened the little Bible he became conscious of a sense of mastery. His opportunity had come.

”Listen to this,” he said, and he read in a voice of a.s.sured conviction:

”The Lord is thy keeper.

The Lord shall keep thee from all evil.

He shall keep thy soul.

The Lord shall keep thy going out and thy coming in.

From this time forth and forevermore.”

He closed the book and put it in his pocket.

”No,” he said, ”no man can hurt me.” Then turning to Ike he said quietly, ”I always say my prayers. My mother started me twenty-five years ago, and I have never seen any reason to quit.”

While his tone was gentle and his manner simple, there was almost a challenge in his eyes. The fair face of young Stanton flushed through the tan.

”You do your mother honour,” he said, with quiet dignity.

”I say,” said Ike slowly, ”if you kin do it just as convenient, perhaps you'd say 'em out. Wouldn't do us no harm, eh, Kiddie?”

”No, I should be pleased.”

”Thank you,” said Shock. Then for a moment he stood looking first at Ike's grave face, and then at The Kid, out of whose blue eyes all the gay, reckless defiance had vanished.

”Don't imagine I think myself a bit better than you,” said Shock hastily, voice and lip quivering.

”Oh, git out!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Ike quickly. ”That aint sense.”

”But,” continued Shock, ”perhaps I have had a little better chance.