Ken

“ Ken found himself up against a tall, brown-faced fellow who looked like an Arab and was armed with a long sword. He made a fearful slash at Ken, and though Ken saved his head by a guard with his cutlass, he was beaten to his knees.
Up went the Arab's sword again, Ken saw the glitter in his savage eyes, and thought it was all over when, in the very nick of time, a revolver spat and turned the fierce face into a blood-stained horror.
Struggling up, he saw Roy leap past and fire a second time at a man who was swinging at him with a rifle butt. ”

“ A long time afterward, when Kenelm was standing beside his window looking out into the starless dark, Felicia's special knock sounded hollowly at his door.
She came over to him, and stood for a while silently. Then she turned and said suddenly in a shy, low voice:
"Oh, Ken, I don't know how you feel about it, but—but, I think, whatever awful is going to happen, we must try to keep things beautiful for Kirk."
"I guess we must," Ken said, staring out. "I'd trust you to do it, old Phil. Cut along now to bed," he added gruffly; "we'll have to be up like larks to-morrow." ”

“ Ken drew Andree to him, but she did not respond; she was cold, frightened.
“But for a day ...” she said.
“Monsieur Bert and I we do not deceive ourselves. We tell each other that thees is not for always.... It is play—so there is no cloud between us.... But you—oh, you are ver’ wrong, mademoiselle. In your heart you know.... You love Monsieur Ken and he loves you—it is true. But—ask him the question, mademoiselle—does he stay forever? Or, when the day comes on which he mus’ depart, will he take you weeth him to thees America?... ”

“ Quietly he stepped under the gang-plank, swung a leg over it, drew himself aboard, and lay flat on deck beside the rail of the Celestine in a pool of shade. A man tripped over him and stumbled back with an oath. The next instant Ken was hauled up into the light of a lantern.
"Stowaway, eh?" growled a squat man in dungaree. "Chuck him overboard, Sam, an' let him swim home to his mamma."
In that moment. Ken knew that he could never have sailed with the Celestine, that he would have slipped back to the wharf before she cast loose her hawsers. ”

“ The others, steely eyes, fish eyes, cold eyes, resentful, suspicious, dangerous. Ken was, he knew now, a naturalized citizen of "our world." He had quit the old scheme of things, entered a new and happier region where life raced by so speedily that one never learned how to care. ”

“ Ken had never before felt quite so helpless. He wished, as much as she, that his father were there to tell them what to do—his tall, quiet father, who had always counseled so well. He breathed a great thankful sigh when the doctor came in, with Felicia, white faced, peeping beside his shoulder. Ken said, "I'm glad you'll take charge, sir," and slipped out.
He and Felicia stood in Kirk's room, silently, and after what seemed an eternity, the doctor came out, tapping the back of his hand with his glasses. ”

“ Through half-averted eyes they saw Ken.
Because Ken was not a Catholic he felt ill at ease; ashamed because he could not understand the genuflections, could not touch the holy-water to his forehead, nor make obeisance, nor pray.
The priest, venerable, hair snowy white, ascended the altar, faced the Virgin, made the sign of the cross and began to speak very rapidly in Latin. Ken tried to understand. The unexpected cadences of the ritual hummed in his ears. His discomfort vanished. He was no longer ashamed.
Old men, little children were kneeling. Ken wanted to kneel. He could not. ”

“ Ken's hand was extended. "Here's my hand on it, preacher; I'm yer man. If the boys ain't there you'll see my head in a sling in the morning."
At 7.30 Ken organized himself into an Invitation Committee. There were rumours that he even brushed his coat. At any rate, at 7.45 he stood at the door of the gambling den, and with an air of unusual importance he succeeded in getting silence long enough to tell "the boys" that there was "a religious show on in the dance-hall." "The procession will form in ten minutes," he continued, "and every —— man in this place has got to be in it." ”

“ He pushed Ken toward the dining-room. “In with you.”
Kendall obeyed apathetically, took his chair and began to eat automatically, without interest in his food. He had anticipated a sort of barbarous pleasure from his harshness toward Andree, but found it ashes in his mouth. He was ashamed of himself, and then ashamed of himself again for being ashamed. He had done right, exactly right, he insisted. She had deserved what he had given her, but nevertheless he was ashamed of himself. There are two identities in every man, the emotional, the sentimental, the natural—and the intellectual. ”

“ Ken said. "Not yet. I'm going back in a little while. I wanted to tell you how everybody is working, and all."
She ran to bring him something to eat, while he flung himself down before the hearth, dead tired.
"The fog's still down heavy," he said, when she came back. "The coast guard's been out all night. There are men on shore, too, and some other little boats."
"But the tide was running out," Phil said. "He's gone. Kirk's—gone, Ken!"
"No," Ken said, between his teeth. "No, Phil. Oh, no, no!" He got up and shook himself. "Go to bed, now, and sleep. ”

“ As he spoke came an earth-shaking thud, and Ken, who was next to Roy, grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down flat on the ground.
Just in time, too, for next instant the earth three yards away in front burst upwards in a fountain of stones and pieces of broken steel. Ken felt a blast of heat and stinging sand across the back of his neck, while the concussion made his head ring. ”

“ Then a line of others stretched all the way to College Hall.
With a grim certainty of his mastery of the situation Ken threw a huge potato at his leading pursuer. Fair and square on the bronze head it struck with a sharp crack. Like a tenpin the Soph went down. He plumped into the next two fellows, knocking them off their slippery footing. The three fell helplessly and piled up their comrades in a dense wedge half-way down the steps. ”

“ The practice of religion in that place seemed to him to be the sole occupations of their lives, and when he met one of them in the secular world of a week-day in the act of selling goods, or of handling money in a bank, or of anything else which savored of business and earning a living, Ken had the sort of feeling one has when he detects a person in something unusual and a bit discreditable. ”

“ We learn (from Ken's Prose Works, ed. Round, pp. 93, 94.) that the Bishop's sister, "my poor sister Ken," most probably then a widow, lost her only son, who died at Cyprus, in 1707. Was this Mrs. Ken the Rose Vernon, sister of Sir Thomas Vernon, of Coleman Street, London, and the wife of Jon Ken, the bishop's eldest brother, and treasurer of the East India Company? This Jon and Rose Ken are represented, in Mr. Markland's Pedigree of the Ken family, as still living in 1683. Is there no monumental memorial of this Treasurer Ken, or his family, in any of the London churches? ”

“ He was not tall, but a stocky, powerful man, and it was all Ken could do to hold his own. Vaguely he heard shouts and shots, and knew that Dave and Roy were hotly engaged with the three Turks. But he had no attention to spare for them. All his energies were needed to cope with his own opponent.
Ken's first object was to deprive the other of his pistol, and he forced the man's right arm back with all his strength. Stamping and panting, the two worked gradually back down the slope until they had passed the clump of scrub from behind which the German had appeared. ”

“ Only men, like his father, with special instruments and wisdom and knowledge, could ever hope to understand the world of the unknown, which the ordinary person did not even suspect.
Now, at sixteen, Ken was tall, with black hair that had an annoying curl to it. He was husky enough to be the main asset of the football squad of Mayfield High School in his senior year. ”

“ Ken got up noiselessly and dressed. Raymond snored in blissful ignorance of the conspiracy. Presently a gentle tapping upon the door told Ken that Reddy was in the hall. Ken let him in and they held a whispered consultation.
“Let's see,” said Reddy, picking up the sweater. “It's going to be an all-fired hard job. This sweater's tight. We'll wake him.”
“Not on your life!” exclaimed Ken. “Not if we're quick. Now you roll up the sweater so—and stretch it on your hands—so—and when I lift Kel up you slip it over his head. It'll be like pie.” ”

“ Ken thought the time propitious for a little lecture he had to give the boys, and he remembered how old Hiram Bent had talked to him and Hal that first night down under the great black rim-wall of the Grand Cañon.
"Well, fellows," began Ken, "we're started, we're here, and the trip looks great to me. Now, as I am responsible, I intend to be boss. I want you boys to do what I tell you. I may make mistakes, but if I do I'll take them on my shoulders. Let's try to make the trip a great success. Let's be careful. We're not game-hogs. ”

“ This would have been the natural step for youth to take—disregarding consequences and challenging the future. But Ken was not an ordinary young man. He was a young man who was afraid of the future, who had been brought up to know a lively fear of the opinion of the community among which he lived. ”

“ Ken chimed.
"You are divine," Ray said. "What a pity you were born on a Friday."
"What's Friday?"
"Bitch's day, dearie, in the calendar of sin. Anyone as beautiful as you are can come to no good end."
"Who wants to come to a good end?" Ken mocked and went toward the runway. ”

“ He watched the man walk to the middle of the block and then turn into the yard of a private house. Ken scratched his head and wondered.
The two boys were awaiting him. As Ken came up the walk to the porch, Paul asked, “Well?”
Ken nodded meaningfully and the two boys were re-assured of their suspicions. Joining his companions, he muttered, “This man hunt is getting me. I’m afraid that before it is all over I am going to go crazy.”
“Why? What’s the matter?” inquired Jack. ”

“ Kate showed us your drawing in the New Yorker.
LAURA. We liked it a lot.
KEN. That's your toehold. When you've sold them six you'll be back to pink socialism. And soon you'll be mailing things to the Saturday Evening Post--and signing them!
LAURA. Don't rub it in, dear.
KEN. I'm not rubbing it in. I was once as radical as Martin.
TIPPY. Ken, Ken--don't exaggerate. As an architect, you must keep your perspective.
KEN. I was ready to go to Russia, wasn't I?
MARTIN. Oh yeah!
KEN. I used to get sore as a pup when people said a man was radical only because he was unemployed. But it's true. ”

“ Having been trained from childhood to play all kinds of ken—and there are many—she generally loses only for politeness, when she loses at all. The signs of the most common ken are a Man, a Fox, and a Gun. If the geisha make the sign of the Gun, you must instantly, and in exact time to the music, make the sign of the Fox, who cannot use the Gun. For if you make the sign of the Man, then she will answer with the sign of the Fox, who can deceive the Man, and you lose. And if she make the sign of the Fox first, then you should make the sign of the Gun, by which the Fox can be killed. ”

“ If there had been four sets of oars, Ken and his comrades could not row the heavy boat back up that swift, sliding river.
They must go on.
X
LOST!
"Ken, old man, do you hear that?" questioned Hal, waking from his trance.
George likewise rose out of his lazy contentment. "Must be rapids," he muttered. "If we strike rapids in this gorge it's all day with us. What did I tell you!"
Pepe's dark, searching eyes rested on Ken.
But Ken had no word for any of them. He was fighting an icy numbness, and the weakness of muscle and the whirl of his mind. ”

“ I don't know whether, if he presses it strongly enough, Boyd will give way to him on grounds of affection or not. I believe he is very fond of Kenneth. Personally I think he will not. What do you think, Bert?"
"I agree with you," said Corbell.
"Gosh! It's kind of tough on Ken!" cried Bill Hunter.
"Tough on Ken!" repeated Frank Moore, disgustedly. "You fellows make me sick! I'm not worried about Ken; I'm thinking about the old Colonel. Ken's young. He's got a tough time coming out of this—sure! But he'll get over it. That's his business. Got to take that sort of thing as it comes. ”

“ No sooner had the automatic door of the vehicle been closed upon him than Ken realized that his easy acceptance of the invitation was a mistake. He too had labored under a strain. He now needed a drink; to be free, to dance, to mimic, to cast aside the ugly drabness of his emotions for the varicolored hues of "The Other World/' Almost as if an alchemic transmutation was occurring within him, he felt the desire rise. He looked about him. For the first time he became aware of another man, palely blond, slim, narrow shoulders, even blue eyes, nose pertinently direct ... typically an Englishman. ”

“ There was some mystery about those twenty-two dollars until Andy the bar-tender told how Old Ken had "got it out of the boss" on the solemn promise that for two weeks he would "work like a Texas steer" without touching a cent until the debt of thirty dollars, minus eight for board, was discharged. Then it was that one of the boys expressed himself thus about Ken: "By gosh, fellers, he's white clear through, that same old soak is, when there's any trouble on. He's a pile decenter than his thirsty old carcase 'll let him be." ”