"By the way, Mr. Ford; what time did you say your train would reach
Chicago?"

"At eight forty-five to-morrow evening," replied the beaten one; and
then the boat swung out of its slip and the retreat without honor was
begun.




VII

HAMMER AND TONGS


It was raining dismally the evening of the following day when Ford saw
from his Pullman window the dull sky-glow of the metropolis of the
Middle West. It had been a dispiriting day throughout. When a man has
flung himself at his best into a long battle which ends finally in
unqualified loss, the heavens are as brass, and the future is apt to
reflect only the pale light of the past failure.

It was after the train had entered the suburbs of Chicago that a
blue-coated messenger boy came through the Pullman, with the car
conductor for his guide. Ford saw himself pointed out, and a moment
later was reading a telegram, with a tumult, not of the drumming car
wheels, roaring in his ears.

Had a talk with my sister and made up my mind to see you