d Stebbins ought to be ashamed of yourselves. If I had
known what you fellows were up to I'd have pitched you all over the
dike. Cost Joppy a lot of money and break up all his summer work! What
did you want to guy him like that for and send him off to be scalded
and squirted on in a damned Dutch--"

"But we didn't think he'd take it as hard as that."

"You didn't, didn't you! What DID you think he'd do? Didn't you see how
sensitive and nervous he was? The matter with you fellows is that Joppy
is a thoroughbred and you never saw one of his kind in your life. Ever
since he got here you've done nothing but jump all over him and try to
rile him, and he never squawked once--came up smiling every time. He's
a thoroughbred--that's what he is!"

The days that followed were burdened with a sadness the coterie could
not shake off. Whatever they had laughed at and derided in Joplin they
now longed for. The Bostonian may have been a nuisance in one way, but
he had kept the ball of conversation rolling--had started it many
times--and none of the others could fill his place. Certain of his
views became respected. "As dear old Joppy used to say," was a common
expression, and "By Jove, he was right!" not an uncommon opinion. In
conformity with his teachings, Marny reduced his girth measure an inch
and his weight two pounds--not much for Marny, but extraordinary all
the same when his appetite was considered.

Pudfut, in contrition of his offence, wrote his English friend Lord
Something-or-other, who owned the yacht, and who was at Carlsbad,
begging him to run up and see the "best ever" and "one of us"--and
Malone never lost an opportunity to say how quick he was in repartee,
or how he missed him. Stebbins kept his mouth shut.

He had started the crusade, he knew, and was personally responsible for
the result. He had tried to arouse Joplin's obstinacy and had only
aroused his fears. All he could do in reparation was to keep in touch
with the exile and pave the way for his homecoming. If Joppy was ill,
which he doubted, some of the German experts in whom the Bostonian
believed would find the cause and the remedy. If he was "sound as a
nut," to quote Joplin's own words, certainty of that fact, after an
exhaustive examination by men he trusted, would relieve his nervous
mind and make him all the happier.

The first letter came from Schonholz. Liberally translated, with the
assistance of Mynheer, who spoke a little German, it conveyed