. "Life is so short! We need each other
so! What does it profit us or the world that all your wealth of
tenderness should go untouched and all my hunger for it unsatisfied? If
your touch on my hair will brace me for the fight of my life, why should
you deny it to me?"

Pen tried to laugh. "Still, what's happened to your morals?"

Jim replied indignantly: "You can't apply a system of ethics to your
cheek against mine except to say it's all wrong that I can't have you
now, in my great need. And I warn you, Pen, I shall come to you thirsty
until at last you give me what is mine. Only your cheek to mine is all I
ask for, Penny."

Pen looked up at the pleading beauty of Jim's eyes. "Don't plead with
me, Jim," she half whispered, "or I think my heart will break."

The two looked away from each other to the Elephant. The great beast
seemed to sleep in the afternoon sun.

"Tell me about your plans, Still," said Pen, her voice not altogether
steady.

"Murphy thinks I'm a fool," said Jim. "Perhaps I am. But Oscar Ames has
been a good deal of a surprise to me: Just as soon as I took the trouble
to explain the concrete matter to him, he got it instantly. And in a way
he got my talk about the new social obligations you showed me."

Pen interrupted eagerly: "You don't know how much you did in that talk,
Jim. Oscar has discovered you and he's as proud as Columbus. He has made
me tell him everything I know about you. You see you have that rare
capacity for making anyone you will take the trouble to talk to feel as
if he was your only friend and confidant. Oscar has discovered that you
are misunderstood, that he is the only person that really understands
you and he's out now explaining to his neighbors how little they really
know about concrete."

Jim looked surprised. "I don't know what I did, except to follow your
instructions, but if it worked on Ames, it ought to work on the rest. I
believe that after a few more talks with Ames, he will work against
Fleckenstein, Pen, and that I will accomplish it by just talking the dam
to him until he understands the technical side of it and the ideal I
have about it. And if it will influence him, why not the others?"

Pen looked at him thoughtfully. "I believe you can do it, Jim. A sort of
silent campaign, eh? And then what?"

"Well, if I can keep Fleckenstein out of Congress by those means, I
believe that this project will never repudiate its debt! I am going to
get the Department of