Although, all too apparently, he was not in his usual vigorous health, Colonel Roosevelt was alert in a moment.
"Fine!" he said, with his teeth gleaming. "Couldn't invest better anywhere. How are you going to do it?"
"By asking you to assume the active headship of the National Boy Scouts of America, and paying you that amount each year as a fixed salary."
The colonel looked steadily ahead for a moment, without a word, and then with the old Roosevelt smile wreathing his face and his teeth fairly gleaming, he turned to his "tempter," as he called him, and said:
"Do you know that was very well put? Yes, sir, very well put."
"Yes?" answered Bok. "Glad you think so. But how about your acceptance of the idea?"
"That's another matter; quite another matter. How about the organization itself? There are men in it that don't approve of me at all, you know," he said.
Bok explained that the organization knew nothing of his offer; that it was entirely unofficial. It was purely a personal thought. He believed the Boy Scouts of America needed a leader; that the colonel was the one man in the United States fitted by every natural quality to be that leader; that the Scouts would rally around him, and that, at his call, instead of four hundred thousand Scouts, as there were then, the organization would grow into a million and more. Bok further explained that he believed his connection with the national organization was sufficient, if Colonel Roosevelt would favorably consider such a leadership, to warrant him in presenting it to the national officers; and he was inclined to believe they would welcome the opportunity. He could not assure the colonel of this! He had no authority for saying they would; but was Colonel Roosevelt receptive to the idea?
At first, the colonel could not see it. But he went over the ground as thoroughly as a half-hour talk permitted; and finally the opportunity for doing a piece of constructive work that might prove second to none that he had ever done, made its appeal.
"You mean for me to be the active head?" asked the colonel.