“Of course, every one calls me Junior.”
“I guess you’ll go back if he wants you to,” smiled Rickard.
“Oh, but what a rotten trick it would be!” exclaimed the son of the man of iron. “To throw me out of college—I was daffy to finish with my class, and to get me here, to get me interested—and then after I’ve lost my place to pull me back. Why, there are things happening every day that are a liberal education. They are only just beginning to understand what they are bucking up against. The Colorado’s an unknown quantity, even old engineers are right up against it. There are new problems coming up every day. The Indians call her a yellow dragon, but she’s a tricky woman, she’s an eel; she’s giving us sums to break our teeth on.”
The man smiled at the eager mongrel imagery.
“I’ll not go,” said MacLean.
“Fathers seem wise the year after where they seem blind the year before!”
“I’ll not go!” the boy blustered. Rickard suspected that he was bolstering up his courage.
“Who has the next room?”
“Used to be the general manager’s. Ogilvie uses it now.”
“And who did you say was Ogilvie?” They turned back into the room.