They wanted to get him out of town. He saw that. They
took little enough trouble to hide it. Well, he would go. He
wanted to go anyhow, and he would show them something, too, if he
got a chance. He would show them that he was as much a man as
Clayton Spencer. He eyed Nolan's insolently slouching figure with
furious eyes. But he followed him.
Had he secured an immediate appointment things might have been
different for him. Like Chris Valentine, he had had one decent
impulse, and like Chris too, there was a woman behind it. But
Chris had been able to act on his impulse at once, and Rodney was
compelled to wait while the mills of the government ground slowly.
Then, on the fourteenth of August, Natalie telegraphed him:
"Have had bad news about Graham. Can you come?"
He thought of Graham ill, possibly dead, and he took the next train,
late in the evening. It was mid-week and Natalie was alone. He
had thought of that possibility in the train and he was miserably
uncomfortable, with all his joy at the prospect of seeing her again.
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