hat time
have understood it, if he had known of it (so I think), and yet there he
was, a mere boy, a stranger almost, closer to her than I was. A strange
thing, life!

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XVIII

NORT SNIFFS

I had thought the life in the office of the _Star_ exciting enough
before the explosion which resulted in the discharge of Norton Carr, as
indeed it was, but it was really not to be compared with that which
followed. No sooner had Nort returned than his spirits again began to
soar. He felt that he now had Anthy's influence strongly behind him,
and that, no matter what happened, Ed Smith could not interfere with
him. Ed himself accepted the situation as gracefully as he could, and
comforted himself with the reflection that Nort was, after all,
receiving no more wages than before.

Nort had at least one clear characteristic that must belong to
genius--he dared let himself go. He had supreme confidence in himself.
Most men when they spread their wings and sail off into the blue
empyrean more than half expect to fall, but Nort never cast his eye
downward nor doubted the strength of his wings.

I have only to close my eyes to see him, his whole slim, strong body
suddenly stiffening, quivering under the impact of an idea--a "great
idea" it always was with him--his eyes suddenly growing dark with
excitement, his legs nervously bestirring themselves to carry him up and
down the room, while he thrust one hand through his hair and with the
other emphasized the torrent of exclamations which poured out of him. At
these moments he was one of the most beautiful human beings that ever I
have seen. And in the midst of his wild enthusiasms he was as likely as
not, at any moment, to see some absurd or humorous angle of the subject
he was talking about, and to burst suddenly into laughter, laughter at
himself and at us for listening soberly to him. He never let us laugh
first!

One of his early suggestions after he came back was the autobiography of
the old Captain, of which I have already spoken. He knew it would be a
success, as indeed it was, a very great success; but it was only one of
a hundred things which Nort suggested during that winter.

"Say, Ed," he said one day, "why can't we get a new turn on our
advertisements, make 'em interesting!"

Ed looked at him incredulously. "What do you mean?"

Ed considered himself a pastmaster in the art of getting, writing, and
composing advertisements, and he rathe