Jeff interrupted him.
“No, no. I can’t. It is not my place to take that money. Give it to Tim Crowley who was the one to discover Hammond pinned down there in the wreckage. Or, better still, divide it among the men of the wrecking crew. They earned it. If they had not come to the scene of the trouble the bonds and Hammond would have been destroyed in the fire and no one would have known a thing about them beyond the fact that a poor hobo had been caught in the wreck.”
“That’s all true enough and good reasoning, Thatcher. Somehow it pleases me to hear you speak that. I am going to see that Crowley and his men are properly rewarded for their part in it. But you,—what am I to do about you? Here is $2,000. It’s yours.”
Jeff hesitated a moment. Then shook his head.
“No, I can’t take it. Somehow it doesn’t seem right. I went down in that hole to save a man’s life if I could, not to earn $2,000.”
“Oh, fine. That’s just what I wanted to hear,—hoped you would say,” exclaimed Mr. Davidson jumping to his feet and coming over to Jeff’s side. He went on:
“I don’t want you to take the $2,000. Not now. That is too much money to give to an eighteen-year-old boy and the fact that you refuse to take it leaves the way open for me to help you the way I would prefer to help you,—the way I had planned to help you ever since Dr. Livingston called me up this morning. Thatcher, I want to send you back to Pennington at my expense,—or rather at the expense of the bank. I will see that your tuition is paid and your room and board cared for. Whatever money you need outside of that you will have to earn yourself as soon as you are permitted the privilege. Dr. Livingston assures me you are perfectly capable of doing that too after this term. Until that time comes I’ll advance you a little to help out. Will you let me—let the bank rather, do that for you?”
Just why a strange mistiness gathered before his eyes and why a lump should rise in his throat as Mr. Davidson spoke Jeff could not understand. Nor could he comprehend why he found it so difficult to say anything without gulping hard to keep from crying. Somehow the banker’s kindness simply overwhelmed him. It was the one thing in the world he wanted most and now to have it possible seemed too good to be true.
Mr. Davidson saw how it affected him and pressed his shoulder kindly, almost fatherly.