Page:Edison Marshall--The voice of the pack.djvu/107

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Repatriation
89

Lennox's answer was the last thing in the world to be expected. He opened his straight mouth and uttered a great, boyish yell of joy. His eyes seemed to light. It is a phenomenon that is ever so much oftener imagined than really seen; but the sudden, elated sparkle that came in those gray orbs was past denial. The eyes of the two men met, and Lennox shook him by the shoulder.

"You 're not Dan Failing's grandson—you 're Dan Failing himself!" he shouted. "No one but him would have had the self-control to wait till the game was almost on top of him—no one but him would have kept his head in a time like this. You 're Dan Failing himself, I tell you, come back to earth. Grandson nothing! You 're a throwback, and now you 've got those glasses off, I can see his eyes looking right out of yours. Step on 'em, Dan. You 'll never need 'em again. And give up that idea of dying in four months right now; I'm going to make you live. We 'll fight that disease to a finish—and win!"

And that is the way that Dan Failing came into his heritage in the land of his own people, and in which a new spirit was born in him to fight—and win—and live.