Bat's delight softened his hard eyes for the moment, and his attitude
relaxed as Standing went on.

"You reckon I've no imagination," he said. "You reckon I'm just a
calculating machine that can juggle figures better than any other
machine." He shook his dark head. "I guess you don't do me full justice.
When I quit the university on the other side it was because I had built
myself up a big dream. I crossed to the United States with my
imagination full of the things I hoped to do. It was the chance I looked
for. And I found it in Hellbeam, and the Persian Oils it was his hobby
to manipulate. I jumped in and grabbed it with both hands. And, as you
say, I beat him at his own game. But that was only part of my dream. The
next part you also know, though you choose to think it was only as a
refuge from Hellbeam that I came here to Sachigo. I admit circumstances
have modified my original dream, but then I dreamed my first dream as a
man unmarried. Now I have added to it in the thought of the son my
wife's going to present me with. After beating Hellbeam and making the
fortune I desired, I didn't flee here to the coast of Labrador as a mere
refuge from the man you tell me I robbed. No. This place served its
purpose that way, it's true. But it was the place I selected long since
for the fulfilment of the second part of my dream.

"Bat--Bat, old friend. It isn't I who lack imagination. It's you, with
your bull-dog, fighting nature. Years ago, way back there in my rooms at
the university, I took up a study that interested me mightily. It was
when the European war was on, and was doing its best to unship the
brains of half the world. I took it up to relieve myself of the strain
of things. And it inspired me with a desire to achieve something that
looked well-nigh impossible. I was watching the Swedes, the
Skandinavians generally, and I saw them getting fat and rich by holding