“You had better ask that question of Mr. Rockervelt,” suggested Steele, his temper rising.
“I shall certainly do so if you leave your post. You are either necessary here or you are not. If you begin to suspect that you are not the man for the position, then you should resign.”
“I am the man for the position, Mr. Blair; still, even the best of men, which I do not pretend to be, needs a little advice now and then, and I intend to seek it from Philip Manson.”
“A man who knows his business neither seeks nor acts on advice. If you go to New York you go in spite of my prohibition, and I shall take your departure as an act of resignation, and proceed accordingly. I am either general manager of this road or I am not.”
Now this latter phrase was one which Blair was exceedingly fond of using, and it had done duty several times during Philip Manson’s régime, who had invariably shown Mr. Blair in exceedingly few words that, when it came to the point, he was not the autocrat he pretended to be. Manson would have made an excellent poker-player. He could have been beaten by better cards, but never by a bluff, and Blair’s pet phrase was pure bluff.
“Oh, very well,” said John Steele, rising and leaving the table, while his opponent raked in the chips. Steele did not know he had reached the climax where a determined answer would have given him the game, nor did he realise how disastrous was his defeat. A poltroon is a bad man to run away from.
John Steele retreated to his own room, and a sweet smile overspread the chubby face of the corpulent man he had left victorious. A week later came the second encounter, which although it carried a second apparent defeat for John Steele, proved, nevertheless, to be the most important turning point of his life.
The division superintendent entered the general manager’s room with a telegram in his hand. Blair, looking up, noticed the agitation of his manner, and the paleness of his face.
“Mr. Blair, I have just received a telegram which says that my uncle is dying. I wish to go to him, and intend to leave by to-night’s train. He lives in the north of Michigan. I have therefore come to let you know that I shall be absent for a few days, perhaps.”
Blair continued to gaze at him with a winning smile on his cherubic face.