Deane looked at him strangely.
“He disturbs me, Martin. I don’t like him.”
“He disturbs, me, Deane. He wanted me to have dinner with him to-night. When I told him I had an engagement he knew it was with you. One wheel in his brain spins on an eccentric.”
“What can he do?”
“He can kill the copper goose—cause me to lose my job. And it’s all wrong. We like each other. We should have been good friends. I admire him. He has a mind, and my brand of humor. The first time I saw him at that Relief place I was attracted to him. I wanted to know him better.”
“But couldn’t you see that he was—different?”
“You call it ‘different.’ Roberts calls it temperamental.’ Rio would call it——” He stopped.
“Rio! Who is Rio?”
“Oh. Rio? He was a shipmate. An individual. Sometime I’ll tell you what I know about him.... But to get back. I did know that Roberts was different. I believe I knew it the first time I saw him. It didn’t interfere with my admiration for him. I was lonely. Hard work on ships had surfeited me with the physical. I didn’t hesitate at the specter of consequences—although I did anticipate them. I believed that I could handle them. I couldn’t. You see, Roberts was convinced that I, too, was ‘temperamental.’”