"
"Who told you?"
"Himself."
"Didn't know you knew him well enough for that."
"Oh, yes, through mother; they're old friends. She sent me to see him
for her."
"I see. Well, wish me luck!"
"I wish you--your own skill at its highest power," said Jordan King
fervently.
"Thanks, youngster," was Burns's answer, and this time there was no
smile on the face which he lifted again for an instant from above the
tiny piece of steel which held in it such potentialities--in his hands.
"You seem to have got farther in under his skin than the rest of us,"
observed Chester to King as they walked slowly away. There was a touch
of unconscious jealousy in his tone. He had known R.P. Burns a long
while before Jordan King had reached man's estate. "I never knew him to
say a word about a coming operation before."
"He didn't say it now; I happened to know. Come out and see the rigging
we've put on the car so Aleck can work everything with one hand and two
feet."
"And a few brains, I should say," Chester supplemented.
* * * * *
Though Burns had plenty of other work to keep him busy during the
interval before he should lay hands upon Doctor Van Horn, his mind was
seldom off his coming task. In spite of all that Ellen knew of the past
antagonism between the two men she was in possession of but
comparatively few of the facts. Except where his fiery temper had
entirely overcome him Burns had been silent concerning the many causes
he had had to dislike and distrust the older man.
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