“Birdseye,” corrected his prisoner, overcome with gratification, not unmixed with embarrassment.
“I beg your pardon,” said the master of ceremonies. Then more loudly again: “I should have said Col. Birdseye Maple.”
“Three cheers for the walking bedroom set!” This timely suggestion emanated from a wiry skylarker who had drawn nigh and was endeavouring to find Mr. Birdseye’s hand with a view to shaking it.
Three cheers they were, and right heartily given too.
“And to what, may I ask—to what are we indebted for the pleasure of this unexpected but nevertheless happy meeting?” asked the blocky man. One instant he suggested the prime minister; the next, the court jester. And was not that as it should be too? It was, if one might credit what one had read of the king-pin of managers.
[394]
“Why—why, I just ran over from Anneburg to meet you and ride in with you—and sort of put you onto the ropes and everything,” vouchsafed Mr. Birdseye.
“Well, isn’t that splendid—we didn’t expect it!” Once more he addressed his attentive fellows:
“Gentlemen, you’ll never guess it until I tell you. It is none other than the official reception committee bearing with it the keys of the corporation. I shrewdly suspect the Colonel has the words ‘Welcome to Our City’ tattooed upon his chest.”
“Let’s undress him and see.”
The idea was advanced by the same wire-drawn youngster who had called for the cheers. He laid hold on Mr. Birdseye’s collar, but instantly the happy captive was plucked from his grasp and passed from one to another of the clustering group. They squeezed Mr. Birdseye’s fingers with painfully affectionate force; they dealt him cordially violent slaps upon the back. They inquired regarding his own health and the health of his little ones, and in less than no time at all, it seemed to him, he, somewhat jostled and dishevelled, confused but filled with a tingling bliss, had been propelled the length of the aisle and back again, and found himself sitting so he faced the directing genius of this exuberant coterie of athletes. The rest, sensing that their leader desired conference with the newcomer, resumed their diversions, and so [395] in a small eddy of calm on the edge of a typhoon of clamour these two—Birdseye and the great manager—conversed together as man to man.