"Why we go? Why so—why so—" he had not the language to express the strange, brooding inquiry of his mind.
"I go to save Little Rivers."
"Sí!" said Firio, but as if this did not answer his question.
"I go to get the end of a story, Firio—my story!" continued Jack. "I have travelled long for the story and now I shall have it all from John Prather."
"Sí, sí!" said Firio, as if all the knowledge in the world had flashed into his head quicker than the hand of legerdemain could run the leaves of a pack of cards through its fingers. "And then?"
At last Firio had won a smile from the untanned face which could not be the same to him until it was tanned.
"Then I shall plant seeds and keep the ground around them soft and the weeds out of it; and I shall wear my heart on my sleeve and lay a siege—a siege in the open, without parallels or mines! A siege in the open!"
Firio did not understand much about parallels or mines or, for that matter, about sieges; but he could see the smile fading from Jack's lips and could comprehend that the future of which Jack was speaking was very far from another prospect, which was immediate and vivid in his mind.
"But you must fight Leddy! Sí, sí! You must fight Leddy first!"
"Then I must, I suppose," said Jack, absently. "All things in their turn and time."