eve this
now ... after all those dreadful years?

"Actually," his father was continuing, "your mother had become a victim
of multiple sclerosis. When we knew she had less than two months to
live, I talked to her, with the Corps' permission, about my going into
Secret Service work. With her death so near, it could be done
convincingly. Believing you would understand some day, and approve, she
agreed. I'm terribly sorry for all you've had to suffer during the
intervening years. Again I beg forgiveness."

As his father talked, Hanlon's eyes and heart gradually lost their
hardness, and at the end he ran forward and grasped the other's hands.

"Oh, Dad, I'm so sorry. I've hated hating you. If it hadn't been for the
long talks Pa and Ma Hanlon had with me, I don't believe I would ever
have gone into the cadet school."

The older man hugged his son hungrily.

"Believe me, Spence, it wasn't easy for me, either. But I didn't
actually desert you, even though it had to seem so. I know everywhere
you've been, everything you've done. You've been watched over
constantly. I engineered your adoption by the Hanlons--he was a retired
Corpsman, you know--and I've paid your expenses. You see, I happen to
love my son very much."

"And I loved my Dad so, too. That's why it hurt ... say, now I can
change my name back, can't I? The Hanlons both died since I started
cadet school, you know."

"Well ... no, for the time being I think not. You're well known as
'Hanlon' now, and you'd better leave it that way, for now, at least.
However, you'll find need of an alias from time to time in this new
job--you can use it then. I certainly will be proud to have you wearing
my name again."

But both men were shying away from all this frank expression of their
emotion, and Hanlon dropped back a pace.

"How does it happen I've never seen you around the buildings or grounds
here?"

"No one ever sees me in uniform, except in this or some other Base
office on special occasions. Outside, I'm always disguised. When I come
into a Reservation I'm a bearded janitor or something. You'll soon learn
about disguising, yourself."

Then he became all business, and his face sobered as he went back to his
desk.

"Sit there, Lieutenant. There's a lot to tell you, and you are to pay
strict attention and get it all in this one interview, for there can't
be another at this time. It would attract too much attention for you to
be called here more than this once."