In a short time Gunning arrived, a big man with a thoughtful, intelligent face and shrewd eyes with a humorous twinkle in them. The minister’s wife welcomed him warmly.
“So you did it!” she cried. “It was perfectly splendid of you. We have just heard from Jack.”
“Heard what?” said Mr. Gunning, raising his eyebrows in surprise.
“Heard all about you and how you put it over.”
“Oh, indeed?” replied Mr. Gunning. “Well, that’s very nice hearing, I must say.”
After the first cups of tea had been disposed of, the minister’s wife demanded a full account of the evening’s proceedings from her husband.
“Did you have a big fight, Jack? Tell us all about it. And begin at the beginning.”
“Fight? I should say so. I was backed into my corner and over the ropes when friend Gunning waded in. And after he got through we only had to shovel up the remains.”
“Do begin at the beginning, Jack. I don’t like your way of jumping into the middle of things.”
“Well,” said Jack, “it is a good story, a great story, and I shall give it to you as best I can. But you ought to have been there to really get the atmosphere. The proposition I put up to the Board, you see, was this, that if they would undertake the equipment of a Mission House I, with my friends down there, would undertake the erection of a building; I would look after the outside if they would look after the inside, in other words. Well, I put up the bluff as vigorously as I could, threw the dare at them and told them to come on.”