quite miserable, but with a half smile on his
lips, his vigorous nature full of every conceivable possibility of good
or evil, of success or failure, every capability of great love or great
bitterness----Nort, arm in arm with Life, tugged at by both God and
Satan, standing there, aimless, in the sunny street of Hempfield.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VI

A MAN TO HELP FERGUS

It was really a moment of vast potentialities when Nort turned _down_
the street toward the town instead of _up_ toward the railroad station
and the open road. For down the street was the way to the
printing-office and the old Captain and Anthy and Fergus and me, and all
the things, big and little, I am about to relate. I tremble sometimes
when I think how narrowly this story escaped not coming into existence
at all.

It was upon this brief but historic journey that Ed Smith met Nort, and
like any true newspaper man with a "nose for news," stopped to pass the
time of day with the singular stranger. It took him not quite two
seconds to "size up" Nort. It was easy for Ed to "size up" people, for
he had just two classifications: those people whom he could use, and
those who could use him. His problem of life thus became quite simple:
it consisted in shifting as many as possible of those of the second
classification into the first.

"If you would not be done by a man, do him first," was one of Ed's
treasured Ben Franklinisms.

Nort was rather mistily in search of "something to do." Well, what could
he do? It took some groping in his mind to discover any accomplishment
whatever that was convertible into money, especially in a small town
like Hempfield. Finally he said he knew "something about machinery"--he
did not specify automobiles--and by some wild chance mentioned the fact
that he had once worked in a newspaper office (two months--and was
dreadfully tired of it).

Now, Ed Smith was as sharp as any lightning known in our part of the
world, and there being nothing he loved better than a "bold stroke" in
which he could "close a deal" and do it "on the spot," it took him not
above five minutes to offer Nort a trial in the office of the _Star_ at
wages which approximated nothing at all. If he could "make good," etc.,
etc., why, there were great opportunities, etc., etc. It was not the
first time that Ed had dealt with tramp printers! And Nort, still low in
his mind and quite prepared for anything, agreed to come.

Your sharp, shrewd man