“Every word of it!” said Sam gravely.
So Poke, with the prize money supplemented by his own savings and the contributions of the club, drove out to the hotel, and paid his bill for breakage, and received a formal receipt, and drove back, a deal relieved in spirit, and full of projects to make money enough to repay his friends.
Paul Varley had not been invited to join in the contribution. He had, naturally enough, gained a pretty accurate idea of the story and Poke’s plight, but when he hinted at a wish to bear his share in the relief fund, Sam rather tactfully discouraged him. Paul understood: it was a club affair, and he was not of the club, though he was on the best of terms with its members. He had proof of their regard for him in a very friendly demonstration in his honor.
Rather unexpectedly, Paul was called back to the city. It was a summons by telegraph, and he had to obey it at once. He was surprised and gratified, therefore, when he reached the railroad station to find the Safety First Club gathered in full force on the platform.
Boys, on such occasions, do not make smooth and felicitous farewell speeches.
“Quitting us, eh? Sorry!” “Say, old sport, you’ll be running up to see us some time, of course.” “Paul, we’re going to miss you—you’re all right.” “What you got on for this summer? Don’t forget old Plainfield.”
That was the sort of thing they told him, and Paul made reply in kind. But he had a moment apart with Sam, when he spoke more freely.
“Parker, I’m older than your crowd, but, somehow, I’ve got a lot of good out of them. I’ve tried to keep up my end——”
“But you have kept it up,” Sam cut in. “Why, you’ve treated the lot of us over and over again, and——”
Varley interrupted him in turn. “I don’t mean that way,” he said hastily. “I mean in doing things, in taking the luck that came, in standing punishment with the crowd. I was what you might call soft, out of condition, at the start; and a lot of your game was new to me—the roughing it—the tramps over the snow—the flood—all that sort of thing. I didn’t want to show a yellow streak——”