The way I look at it, Ramsey," Fred Mitchell said, when they reached their apartment, whither the benevolent Colburn accompanied them, "the way I look at it, this Linski kind of paid you a compliment, after all, when he called you a fake. He must have thought you anyway ~looked~ as if you could make a better speech than you did.
Oh, golly!"
And as Ramsey groaned, the jovial Mitchell gave himself up to the divan and the mirth. "Oh, oh, oh, ~golly~!" he sputtered.
"Never you mind, Brother Milholland," Colburn said gently. "The Lumen is used to nervous beginners. I've seen dozens in my time, just like you; and some of 'em got to be first rate before they quit. Besides, this crazy Linski is all that anybody'll ever remember about to-night's meeting, anyhow. There never was any such outbreak as that in ~my~ time, and I guess there nver was in the whole history of the society. We'll probably suspend him until he apologizes to the society--I'm on the board, and I'm in favour of it.
Who is the bird, anyhow? He's in your class."
"I never saw him before," Ramsey responded from the deep chair, where he had moodily thrown himself; and, returning to his brooding upon his oratory. "Oh, murder!" he moaned.
"Well," said the senior, "you'll know him when you see him again.
You put your mark on him where you can see it, all right!" He chuckled. "I suppose I really ought to have interfered in that, but I decided to do a little astronomical observation, about fifty feet away, for a few minutes. I'm 'way behind in my astronomy, anyhow.
Do you know this Linski, Brother Mitchell?"
"I've talked to him a couple o' times on the campus," said Fred.
"He's in one of my classes. He's about the oldest in our class, I guess--a lot older than us, anyhow. He's kind of an anarchist or something; can't talk more'n five minutes any time without gettin off some bug stuff about 'capitalism.' He said the course in political economy was all 'capitalism' and the prof was bought by Wall Street."
"Poor old Prof. Craig!" Colburn laughed. "He gets fifteen hundred a year."
"Yes; I'd heard that myself, and I told Linski, and he said he had an uncle workin' in a steel mill got twice that much; but it didn't make any difference, ole Craig was bought by Wall Street. He said 'capitalism' better look out; he and the foreign-born workmen were goin' to ~take~ this country some day, and that was one of the reasons he was after an education. He talked pretty strong pro-
German, too--about the war in Europe--but I sort of thought that was more because he'd be pro-anything that he thought would help upset the United States than because he cared much about Germany."
"Yes," said Colburn, "that's how he sounded to-night. I guess there's plenty more like him in the cities, too. That reminds me, I'd better arrange a debate on immigration for the Lumen. We'll put Brother Milholland for the negative, this time."
Ramsey started violently. "See here--"
But the senior reassured him. "Just wanted to see you jump," he explained. "Don't fear; you've done your share."
"I should think I have!" Ramsey groaned.
