“I guess he’s not feeling so worse, after all,” he mused, and went on his way with an easy mind to be fawned upon by his grateful firm.
Ruth was holding Kirk at arm’s length, her eyes full of tears at the sight.
“You poor boy, how thin you are!”
“I had fever. It’s an awful place for fever out there.”
“Kirk!”
“Oh, I’m all right now. The voyage set me up. They made a great fuss over me on board.”
Ruth’s hand was clinging to his arm. He squeezed it against his side. It was wonderful to him, this sense of being together again after these centuries of absence. It drove from his mind the thought of all the explanations which sooner or later he had got to make. Whatever might come after, he would keep this moment in his memory golden and untarnished.
“Don’t you worry about me,” he said. “Now that I’ve found you again I’m feeling better than I ever did in my life. You wait till you see me sparring with Steve to-morrow. By the way, how is Steve?”
“Splendid.”
“And Bill?”