Page:Arthur Stranger--The Stranger.djvu/10

6 "Well, it was meant for a sacrifice," he averred. "Things were at a cherry-heat, then, and I felt the call for doing something for this Canada of ours. I dug down until it hurt, and thought I was being a hero. I tried to give my country something, but instead of getting sacrifice out of the deal I got a bunch of bonds that are carrying a five per cent. premium. It was like taking a dollar out of your right-hand pocket and putting it in your left—and then getting over-paid for the move. But God knows I was willing enough to give, when I saw what our boys were going through over there!"

"And now?" prompted the stranger.

"Now the nightmare's over I want to knuckle down and double the output of The Works while Europe's still calling for the goods I make." He slowed up his car at the crest of the hill as he spoke and pointed to the city that lay beneath them, the city overhung with its hazy crown of commerce, touched into pearl and pale gold by the pallid autumn sun. "That's The Works down there, strung along that bit of waterway. And I'm some proud of that place. And my men are too, for you don't see so many factories, in this land, with ivy on the walls, and flower-beds, and green lawns, and a sports-park like that to the west there. But I don't believe in doing things by halves. Do it right, and finish it up right when you're at it—that's my motto. Why, between Building Three and Four there I've got what the men call their Chin Quad—give 'em a band-concert now and then during the noon-hour and have a platform-talker or a college-man over to pow-wow on the things they've got to let off steam about. And it's good business, in the long"

"Would you mind stopping a moment or two, where we can see wider than usual?" requested the stranger, in a somewhat abstracted tone of voice.

"You can see pretty far, from this point," ventured the slightly perplexed Hardy, as the car came to a stop.

"I wonder if you can?" murmured the wistful-eyed stranger at his side. "I wonder if you are seeing far enough to see this Canada of yours as I see it now, this land of beauty that was born for glory, if only you and the men of your time could fathom its promise? I ask this because you have spoken of the need of