"How can we thank you for your goodness?" he said gratefully. "I for one shall be glad to go with you——"
"And I feel that I could follow you anywhere, Mr. Mackay," broke in Armstrong, eagerly.
The elder man smiled grimly. "Maybe ye'll think more seriously o' these words some day," he replied enigmatically. "Meanwhile, get awa' hame and make your arrangements without any unnecessary delay, for we must catch the P. and O. Mongolia at London next Friday. Like enough," he concluded, with a laugh, "we'll hae mutual cause for congratulation over our partnership." He shook hands heartily with each of the lads, and accompanying them downstairs, watched them disappear into the street.
"Poor young fellows," he said musingly, as he turned away, "I was just the same mysel' at that age, discontented, ambitious.... But the likeness canna be doubted. Ah, well, I've just done what the Chief himsel' would have done had he been here."
"Well, Jack, what do you think of him?" asked Wentworth, as he and his companion walked homewards.
"I think he is the kindest-hearted man I have ever met," was Armstrong's enthusiastic response.
"I like him, too," admitted Wentworth, "and I expect to like him more when I know him better. What a strong man he must be; why, his chest measurement must be nearly fifty!"
"Only a strong man could have endured what he has suffered, Bob," said Armstrong, "and," with boyish delight, "he must be a real beauty in a scrimmage. His wrists seemed like bars of steel."
"He just bears out my opinion," spoke Wentworth, thoughtfully, "that travel broadens the mind more than is generally allowed, and destroys all trace of parochialism in a man's nature. I don't think, for instance," he declared, "that that man would care two straws whether we were Scotch, English, or Irish; it's humanity that counts with him——"
"Please don't wander me with philosophical reasoning just now, Bob," pleaded Armstrong. "All I can say is, that I liked the man immediately I saw him, and I think we were very lucky in meeting him."