Hanson

“ I commanded the Ertak during practically her entire active life. Those were the days when John Hanson was not an old man, writing of brave deeds, but a youngster of half a century, or thereabouts, and full of spirit. Sometimes, when memory brings back those old days, it seems hard for me to believe that John Hanson, Commander of the Ertak, and old John Hanson, retired, and a spinner of ancient yarns, are one and the same—but I must get on to my story, for youth is impatient, and from "old man" to "old fool" is a short leap for a youthful mind. ”

“ The doctor warmly commended the prudence of the youthful guardian, and afterward spoke with enthusiasm of “that young Hanson” as one of the most excellent young men it had ever been his good fortune to meet.
It was about this time that Hanson wrote his cautious letter to Roma Fronde, telling her that the child was ill unto death, breaking her heart for her “Lady,” and that she would certainly die unless she could be restored to her benefactress; but that she could only be carried home by him—Hanson—and only on condition that he—Hanson—should be received with her. ”

“ This is the time when every man——"
"How many buildings have you got in this part of the country?" inquired the captain, shutting his right eye and laying his finger by the side of his nose. "Have you forgot the men who took Hanson away in the night, and piled up those weeds and stuff up agin my house?"
"Well, that's so; but still I don't think they would have been bold enough to do anything to you. You are a wealthy planter, while Hanson was nothing but a common overseer, without a friend or relative in the world so far as any one knows. Did you receive the proofs this letter speaks of?" ”

“ Hanson broke out in a kind of Excitement.
“Would to God!” said he, “that this Swede Vratz had stayed out of England, for I think he will be the Engine of some harm to my Lord.” Then he went on to say that he was in no way responsible for the Count Charles but only for the other lord, Philip his younger Brother.
“But I must help a great man where I can,” he added, and seemed Troubled.
The Polander Wondered he should speak so to a Servant, but dare say no more but followed him out into the cold streets of London. ”

“ Take his clay pipe from him, and he was fit for any society but that of fools. Quiet as he was, there burned a deep, permanent excitement in his dark blue eyes; and when this grave man smiled, it was like sunshine in a shady place.
Mrs. Hanson (née, if you please, Lovelands) was more commonplace than her lord. She was a comely woman, too, plump, fair-coloured, with wonderful white teeth; and in her print dresses (chosen by Rufe) and with a large sun-bonnet shading her valued complexion, made, I assure you, a very agreeable figure. ”

“ Sather Karf went on. "And you were assured of jewels to buy an empire. All this the council is prepared to give you. Are you ready for your reward?"
"No!" Bork's cry broke out before Hanson could answer. The big man was writhing before he could finish the word, but his own fingers were working in conjurations that seemed to hold back enough of the spells against him to let him speak. "Dave Hanson, your world was a world of rigid laws. You died there. And there would be no magic to avoid the fact that there you must always be dead." ”

“ Is I to denounce dem inter de drawin’-room or inter de kitchen?”
“I will go out and meet them on the porch,” said Hanson, rising.
He reached the hall door, which ’Rusalem attentively stepped before and opened for him, just as the first men came up—two sailors in the light blue uniform of the Roma.
They touched their caps and stood at “attention.”
“How are you, Coote? How are you, Reeves?” said Hanson, recognizing both; and then, without waiting for answer, he said: “Just follow this old man upstairs, and bring down the trunk he will show you, and take it down to the boat. ”

“ Hanson in the ferry, and I had always believed him to be a reasonable man, I had come to him to talk about the matter. Mr. Bayliss listened to my statements very kindly, but said he regretted the conversation that had taken place between Mr. Hanson and myself. If that had been otherwise he thought the matter might have been adjusted with little trouble, but Mr. Hanson was a very passionate man, and as he was then feeling toward me, he would not agree to any settlement that would be satisfactory to me. ”

“ Hanson, "who be a fine and proper young man, reg'lar to Church, one as walks in fear of the Lord and no beer drinker, nor smoker neither, and a steady worker with a nice cottage of his own, and standing high with Farmer Patcham. Aye, there be Abram Lestwick as would kneel down and kiss the very floor my maid treads on!" ”

“ Hanson, a merchant lately deceased. His brother, the Chaplain of Cape Coast, and Mr. R. Hanson from Whydah, were both there. From these gentlemen I experienced great kindness, both now as well as on former occasions. Here I again found my old charger, who had carried me during my long journey in the interior. He was now the property of the Rev. William Hanson, and had only arrived a few days before from Whydah. It had probably been taken little care of, for the poor animal was [Pg 314] much reduced in flesh. ”

“ Captain Hanson let out a blat like an angry lion.
"Mister Biggs! I thought you were reclaiming those Forenzi jars?"
"Yes, sir. I was. I mean—I am. But—"
"Never mind the 'buts'! Get back to work!"
"Y-yes, sir!" Biggs saluted meekly; tossed me a grateful glance. "Thanks, Sparks. I've got an idea, and if I'm right—"
"Get out, Biggs!" roared the skipper.
"Yes, sir." Biggs backed out hastily. He was thumbing the pages as he disappeared. Hanson yanked his lower lip angrily.
"The Corporation goes busted. The Saturn goes under the hammer. We're all out of jobs. ”

“ Hanson inquired, taking his pipe from the mantel over the fireplace. "Have you heard anything?"
"Well—I—yes, sar," stammered Julius, as if he did not know how to begin. "I—oh, yes, sar. Is you Union?"
"Of course I am," replied Hanson. "Every white man is."
"Den you ain't got no call to have truck wid de Missus. If she find out dat you is Union, she chuck you off'n de place quick's a cat kin bat her eye. She don't like Linkum. I hearn her say so dis bery day."
"Are you telling me the truth?" asked Hanson, looking sharply at the darkey, who met his gaze without flinching. ”

“ Yet his surface thoughts showed the man to be hard, cold and ruthless—a pure killer type. Hanson sensed he was one of those men who have such a will to power that the lives and rights of others are held cheaply, contemptuously. The kind who, if another gets in his way, removes him ... but carefully, lest his own highly-valuable skin be put in jeopardy. If he could get some one else to do the dirty work, so much the better. Such conscienceless killers were, Hanlon knew, usually arrant cowards. ”

“ Mr. and Mrs. Hanson and Louis thought it due to over-exertion, and when I tried to explain I made an unintelligible murmur, and only succeeded in bringing out one thought—my gratitude to them and the hope that I might one day repay it. Oh, how kind they were! Everything to make the transit easy for Hal was cared for, even to the beautiful blanket Mrs. Hanson gave him, which was doubly precious since her grandmother span the wool and colored and wove it with her own hands. It was a happy party which left Chicago on that memorable morning, and our journey was delightful. ”

“ Hanson came over and pulled up a chair.
“I pay for the drinks,” said the captain; “but you order, Daughtry. See, now, Hanson, this is a trick bow-wow. He can count better than you. We are three. Daughtry is ordering three beers. The bow-wow hears three. I hold up two fingers like this to the waiter. He brings two. The bow-wow raises hell with the waiter. You see.”
All of which came to pass, Michael blissfully unappeasable until the order was filled properly.
“He can’t count,” was Hanson’s conclusion. “He sees one man without beer. That’s all. He knows every man should ought to have a glass. ”

“ So friendly and so free are popular institutions.
When I had done my scrivening, Hanson strolled out, and addressed Breedlove, “Will you step up here a bit?” and after they had disappeared a little while into the chaparral and madrona thicket, they came back again, minus a notice, and the deed was done. The claim was jumped; a tract of mountain-side, fifteen hundred feet long by six hundred wide, with all the earth’s precious bowels, had passed from Ronalds to Hanson, and, in the passage, changed its name from the “Mammoth” to the “Calistoga.” ”

“ We can’t take you with us with that broken leg, and I don’t like to leave you to the natives. Better put you to sleep, eh?”
Parget nodded his head twice. There was blood on his lower lip, as he bit hard on it.
“Keep your eyes shut,” said Hanson. He took his revolver from his pocket and shot the man through the head. The crash of a falling floor drowned the sound of the shot. A volley of sparks flew skyward.
Hanson rejoined Sir John. “Only one man there, and he’s dead—Pentwin. We’d better get together, go round to the back and make a dash for it. We might be able to get through.” ”

“ The kindly eyes filled at once with tears.
“Oh, my dear, are you going to tell him? I am so glad, so pleased.”
“I must tell him in self-defense, for I find Sir Alfred’s spies are here.”
Miss Hanson clasped her hands with a little gesture of dismay.
“He might have left you in peace. He can have nothing to complain of. No life could be more quiet.”
“No,” she replied, with a little smile, “that is true. But do you not understand? He has not ruined me in the eyes of the whole world. There are many who believe in my innocence, as there are thousands who believe in my guilt. ”

“ He grimaced at the ruined sky. "Dave Hanson," he cried sharply, "by the unfailing power of your name which is all of you, I hold you in my mind and your throat is in my hand—"
The old hands squeezed suddenly, and Hanson felt a vise clamp down around his throat. He tried to break free, but there was no escape. The old man mumbled, and the vise was gone, but something clawed at [Pg 98] Hanson's liver. Something else rasped across his sciatic nerve. His kidneys seemed to be wrenched out of him.
"You will build a computer," Sather Karf ordered. "And you will save our world!" ”

“ You're Dave Hanson," Ser Perth said flatly. "Of all the powers of the Science, the greatest lies in the true name. We evoked you by the name of Dave Hanson. You are Dave Hanson, therefore."
"Don't try to deceive us," Nema suggested. Her voice was troubled. "Pray rather that we never have reason to doubt you. Otherwise the wisest of the Satheri would spend their remaining time in planning something unthinkable for you." ”

“ The shadow emerged from behind a lantana bush, resolving into the form of the white man. He stood quite still out there in the open, his white ducks looming clear against the inky background of the underbrush. The revolver was levelled from his hip in his right hand. The other hung inert by his side.
"Now," he said, "will you let me go without killing you, Hanson? I don't want to."
"Let you go!" snapped the voice of "the law," and a glint of white showed behind a palm trunk not forty paces distant.
"Don't come out!" cried the white man, as though afraid. ”

“ Bother Joe Hanson! I want to think about that poor chap lying out there amongst the bracken. What a miserable, haggard scarecrow he did look, just like some poor beggarly tramp. But one could feel that he was a gentleman as soon as he began to speak. There; best way will be to take him boldly up to the front door and right up the stairs, and chance it. One never tries to play the sneak and get anywhere unseen without running bang up against somebody. ”

“ Eight years before he had been a prosperous Lancashire manufacturer. Then for a week he had gone mad; and as his madness did not happen to be of a certifiable kind, he was now paying for it with the rest of his life in exile. He was the best chess-player in the club and perhaps the best all-round shot; with the revolver Dr Soames Pryce was in a class by himself. Hanson spent four hours every day over chess. He used work where the Rev. Cyril Mast used whisky, and he had not let himself slip down even in a climate where all occupations are a burden. ”

“ A visiplate in which was now depicted sweet, jet depths of darkness, pin-pricked with glowing points of light!
Cap Hanson's voice was a paean of joy.
"We're home again! Home in our own universe! By God—in our own solar system! For there's Io, the pretty little devil!"
Helen was crying, "Then you didn't fail, Hank! It worked! We're saved!"
And Biggs, only sane man in a roomful of delight-maddened lunatics, was ambling to the audio, face wreathed in a seraphic grin.
"Garrity?" he called down to the chief engineer. "Take a look out the viewpanes if you want to holler with joy. ”

“ Hanson is an irreligious, unprincipled man; yet, as he has more money than he knows what to do with, he will take good care of his own little daughter. You may assure yourself of that.”
309In this manner the good minister would seek to raise her drooping spirits.
One glorious forenoon, early in May, as Roma was seated in her Quaker rocking-chair, on her front piazza, engaged in her “contemplative knitting work,” with the little colored child, Ducky Darling, seated at her feet, nursing Owlet’s bull pup, George Thomas, she heard the sound of wheels. ”