CHAPTER VIII
CALEB CONOVER LISTENS AND ANSWERS
“Well,” began Conover, breaking the short pause, “what do you want?”
“I want to speak to you—alone,” answered Standish.
“Come up to my study. Gaines, tell the groom to keep Dunderberg moving. I’ll be down in ten minutes.”
In silence the Railroader led the way upstairs. He passed into the study, leaving Clive to follow. Nor, as he seated himself in his big desk chair, did he request his visitor to sit down. Ignoring these slights, Clive took up his stand on the opposite side of the desk.
“Now, then,” said Caleb, “get through your business as quick as you can. What do you want?”
“To speak to you in reference to this campaign.”
“Had enough, eh?”
“Altogether too much of the sort you’ve inflicted on me.”
“Good! You’ve got more sense than I thought. There’s two kinds of fools: the kind that put their heads in a hornet’s nest once and then have sense enough to admit they’ve been stung, and the kind that keeps their heads there because they’re too daffy to see the exit-signs or too pig-headed to confess that hornet-stings ain’t the most diverting form of massage. I’m glad to see you belong to the first class. I’d placed you in the second.”