“I don’t know how to thank you, Captain Hardwick,” said Henry gratefully. “What I can’t understand is why you should be willing to do so much for a boy who is a perfect stranger to you.”
“Would you really like to know?”
“Indeed I would.”
“Then I’ll tell you. It is because of what I read in your face.”
“What can you read in my face?” cried Henry in amazement.
“A great deal that you don’t dream of. Perhaps you do not know that all of us write our histories on our faces.”
“Our histories on our faces!” repeated Henry. “What do you mean, Captain?”
“I mean just what I say. I know exactly the sort of boy you are, just as well as though I had known you all your life. And I would know just as truly if you were mean or cowardly or dishonest.”
Henry was too much astonished for words. The captain’s remark made him very serious for a time. “Gee whiz!” he thought. “If what the captain says is true, a fellow has to be mighty careful what he does. Why, just think of all the wonderful things that Captain Hardwick has done for me, and he says he did them because of what he read in my face. I can hardly believe it. Yet there must be something in it, for there are those two assistant radio men and I dislike the one and like the other, and it’s nothing in the world that makes me feel that way except their faces. Gee! I’m glad the captain didn’t dislike my face. And if what I do is going to affect my face and so affect my fortune, you can bet I’ll be mighty careful what I do.”
Imbued, from this time forward, with the idea of becoming a radio man, Henry spent much of his time in the radio shack. His friendship for young Belford grew rapidly, and the two spent many pleasant hours together. They were about of an age and had much in common. Henry tried to be friendly with young Black, too, but the latter did not seem to welcome his advances. Nothing seemed to please him. He did not like his life on the Iroquois. He said his job was a miserable one, and when Henry asked why it was distasteful, he replied that being a radio man wasn’t bad in itself if only a fellow had decent companions to work with. Nobody, he said, could be expected to like his work if he had a boss like the chief electrician.