 foreshortened enough even to its own children to rob such details of their
importance. Stein was excusable, and his hinted intentions were so generous that
I begged him most earnestly to keep them secret for a time. I felt that no
consideration of personal advantage should be allowed to influence Jim; that not
even the risk of such influence should be run. We had to deal with another sort
of reality. He wanted a refuge, and refuge at the cost of danger should be
offered him - nothing more.
    Upon every other point I was perfectly frank with him, and I even (as I
believed at the time) exaggerated the danger of the undertaking. As a matter of
fact I did not do it justice; his first day in Patusan was nearly his last -
would have been his last if he had not been so reckless or so hard on himself
and had condescended to load that revolver. I remember, as I unfolded our
precious scheme for his retreat, how his stubborn but weary resignation was
gradually replaced by surprise, interest, wonder, and by boyish eagerness. This
was a chance he had been dreaming of. He couldn't think how he merited that I...
He would be shot if he could see to what he owed... And it was Stein, Stein the
merchant, who... but of course it was me he had to... I cut him short. He was
not articulate, and his gratitude caused me inexplicable pain. I told him that
if he owed this chance to any one especially, it was to an old Scot of whom he
had never heard, who had died many years ago, of whom little was remembered
besides a roaring voice and a rough sort of honesty. There was really no one to
receive his thanks. Stein was passing on to a young man the help he had received
in his own young days, and I had done no more than to mention his name. Upon
this he coloured, and, twisting a bit of paper in his fingers, he remarked
bashfully that I had always trusted him.
    I admitted that such was the case, and added after a pause that I wished he
had been able to follow my example. You think I don't? he asked uneasily, and
remarked in a mutter that one had to get some sort of show first; then
brightening up, and in a loud voice he protested he would give me no occasion to
regret my confidence, which - which...
    Do not misapprehend, I interrupted. It is not in your power to make
