But he held me to my
promise, so I'm sending it to you, with this apology for contaminating
either of us with the dope. Poor old Curly! He was a man who'd been a
little embittered by some early trouble, but he was a good scout, for
all that.
"We all missed you and Jonas,--don't forget Jonas!--very much, after
you left. Milton said half a dozen times that when he gets in shape to
go on with the work in the spring, he was going to try to persuade you
to finish the trip with us. So say we all! With best wishes,
sincerely yours, C. L. Harden."
After Enoch had finished Harden's letter he replaced it in its envelope
slowly and dropped it into the desk drawer. Next, as slowly, he picked
up the bulkier envelope and placed it on edge on the mantel under the
Moran painting. Then he began to walk the floor.
He knew that, in that dingy envelope, lay the whip by which he could
drive Brown to public apology. As far as fearing any publicity with
which Brown could retaliate, Enoch felt immune. He believed that he
had sounded the uttermost depths of humiliation. And at first he
gloated over the thought that now Brown could be made to suffer as he
had suffered. He would give the story to the newspapers, exactly as it
had come to him.
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