Stan

“ Here, Stan, it’s a long time since I was at school; you’ve only just come away. What’s that French proverb about the man who tries to clear himself making matters worse?”
“He who excuses himself accuses himself,” said Stan promptly.
“Humph! Yes. But it sounds better in French. Here, I don’t like to think old Wing guilty; he has been such a true and faithful servant to the ‘foreign devils,’ as they call us. Besides, he is so much one of us, and has been so well paid and treated. You’ve had no quarrel with him, Blunt?” ”

“ Are not the fruit-trees and bee-hives full? Are not the fields fertile?" asked Stan. "You talk nonsense, if you complain of any thing."
"But, husband, we have no children."
Stan understood; and, when a man realizes such a thing, it isn't well. From this time, a sorrowful man and a sorrowful woman lived in the house on the edge of the village. And they were sorrowful because the Lord had given them no children. When the wife saw her husband sad, she grew still more melancholy; and the more melancholy she was, the greater his grief became. ”

“ In his excitement Stan had just one glimpse of the office interior, where towards the window a great bonfire-like heap was blazing away, licking the side about the opening, and forming a column of fire and smoke which went wreathing and darting out, many-tongued, to rise high in the night air, spreading out towards the wharf, and making the water of the river beyond gleam, while a busy hum of many voices greeted them from beyond the flame and smoke.
“We can do nothing, Jeff,” cried Stan’s father; “only escape for our lives. It is madness to try and do anything.” ”

“ Well, about the time Stan was through, the undertaker called by for the old man, and when his assets were boiled down and the water drawn off, there wasn’t enough left to furnish Stan with a really nourishing meal. I had a talk with Stan about what he was going to do, but some ways he didn’t strike me as having the making of a good private of industry, let alone a captain, so I started in to get him a job that would suit his talents. ”

“ Stan remarked.... “Twenty-five, twenty-six—leg it, Corin!—ah; twenty-eight!... Company—fall in!”
The young Tims and the young Tonys, Corin and Bonniebell and the terriers, stood (dogs and all, save for their tails) stiff as ramrods. Stan replaced his watch. He had been fishing, and still wore his tweed peaked cap, with a spare cast or two wound round it.
“Company—’Shun! Stand a-a-at—ease! ’S you were! Stand a-a-at—ease! Stand easy.... Tony, fall out and see to the bags. Tim, hold the horse. Corin—Corin!—What do you keep in the trenches?” ”

“ The poor dragon would have taken flight, if he hadn't been afraid that Stan might blow behind him, and bury him under the trees in the forest. So he stood still, like a person who doesn't know what else to do.
"Listen!" he said, after a while. "I see that you are a useful man. My mother has long been looking for a servant like you, but has not been able to find one. Enter our service. The year has three days, and each day's wages is seven sacks of ducats!"
Three times seven sacks of ducats! A fine business! That was just what Stan needed. ”

“ Stan told him.
“Of course. Velly much aflaid. Just like a Chinaman; but they’re brave enough when they’re fifty to one, as they were last night. He ought to have stood by us, Stan. We’ve behaved well to him.”
“He’s a very good servant, Jeff,” said Stan’s father, “and works well for us. Don’t bully the man for what he cannot help.”
“I’m not going to, Oliver. I know, and I’ll forgive him if he’ll only make haste back, bring that precious barber, and get us some breakfast. I’m starving.” ”

“ Stan reminded him.
The Irishman turned serious for one of the few times since Stan had known him. "Faith, an' I think of them poor devils sometimes," he muttered. "'Tis hard for them with nothing to believe in. Fighting because they're told to fight. Crashing to flaming death because one man orders them to. ”

“ Frank says angrily.
"You let us alone," commands Stan, the momentary advantage inflating him with courage and making him resolve to brook no feminine interference.
But Stan! He is five years old—he cannot be trusted yet with a knife at meals, and she, Ettie, has to cut up his meat for him; he cannot wash his face clean, he cannot fasten his own collar or tie the knot of his boots securely! What respect can Ettie have for his feelings as a man? She catches him about the shoulders and gives him a series of little shakes, just as her mother is seen at times to do. ”

“ They were capable looking men but not the grim, hard-eyed professionals that Stan was used to working with.
The woman walked over to Stan and slapped his face—hard—her nails digging bloody furrows in his skin.
"How does it feel to be a traitor? How does it feel to sell out your native planet for nothing at all?"
He didn't know what she was talking about and his face showed it.
"It was a clever scheme," she continued bitterly. "To win a planet, you first cut off its head—you eliminate the scientists!" She leveled her hand weapon at him. ”

“ Let me tell you, Stan, if your girl is worth her salt, she’ll be glad to know you’re out hustling, making some money to furnish the home-nest, instead of doing the lovey-dovey. The kind of fellow that kicks about working overtime, that wants to spend his evenings reading trashy novels or spooning and exchanging a lot of nonsense and foolishness with some girl, he ain’t the kind of upstanding, energetic young man, with a future—and with Vision!—that we want here. ”

“ You like your work, you’re enormously successful,” said Herf at the corner of Fourteenth Street, and caught her arm as they crossed.
“Dont say that.... You really dont believe it. I dont kid myself as much as you think I do.”
“No but it’s so.”
“It used to be before I met Stan, before I loved him.... You see I was a crazy little stagestruck kid who got launched out in a lot of things I didnt understand before I had time to learn anything about life.... Married at eighteen and divorced at twentytwo’s a pretty good record.... But Stan was so wonderful....” ”

“ And because he was my father and a physician, and because we were so much alone in our companionship, I believed him the wisest and best man in all the world, and felt that nothing he said or did could be wrong. And so, you see, dear, my ideal man, the man to whom I could give myself, came to be the kind of a man that my father placed in the highest rank among men—a man like you, Stan. And almost the last talk we had before he died father said to me—I remember his very words—'My daughter, it will not be long now until men will seek you, until someone will ask you to share his life. ”

“ In obedience to his companion’s orders, Stan had dropped on one knee, taken a long and careful aim, and then drew trigger.
For a few moments the soft grey smoke hung before the lad’s eyes and hid what was going on; but he did not waste time. Throwing out the empty cartridge, he began to fit in another, and as with trembling fingers he reclosed the breech he whispered sharply:
“Did I hit?”
“I fancy so; the man sprang up in the air and fell backwards. You’ve no time to look, so take it from me. They are carrying the man away.” ”

“ Stan's laugh was a derisive bray. "She talks just like a first timer, doesn't she?" The man in front of them nodded knowingly, again sharing with Stan the common bond of experience.
"The next thing you know," Stan jeered kiddingly, "she'll be preaching to us like one of those crackpot reformers."
The revulsion that Julie felt must have been clearly evident now. Stan smiled fondly and put his arm around her shoulder. "I'm only kidding, honey," he half-apologized.
"What's so wrong about the reformers?" Julie demanded, angrily shrugging away his arm. "Why shouldn't men be given another chance? ”

“ Wan Ho Din would bear watching, Stan decided.
“Boys like cookies?” asked Wan, offering them a dish of the tasty morsels. “Help self. Takum hand full!”
Stan took some and took a bite, then held the remainder in his hands to be eaten later. John, however, ate his at once, as was to be expected. Stan smiled to himself in amusement.
“And now to my laboratories and hobby rooms, boys,” said Mr. Nevens. “What are your hobbies, by the way?”
“We’re both keen on archery, Mr. Nevens,” Stan informed him. “We think sailing and camping is swell, and detective work is fun too. ”

“ She paused. "I suppose as long as there's a human race, there will be people who want power and who will be willing to sell their fellow man to get it."
Stan frowned. "That's why they sent you down to try and stop him, wasn't it?"
She nodded. "I was the most qualified." Pause. "A Thuscan eventually took his place, I know. But I wonder how he actually died. Did you ever hear about him on Thusca?"
"He died a hero," Stan lied.
She smiled in the dark. "Thanks anyways. But I knew him, too."
"They used him as a model," Stan said. "Like Mr. Ainsworth and Mr. Malcolm. ”

“ Why, you too sanguine young enthusiast, the chances would be five-and-twenty to one that the wind would not be right on the day the enemy came. Won’t do, Stan. Try again.”
“Oh, I can’t if you go on like that, uncle,” said the lad in an aggrieved tone. “You’re not half such a good listener as Mr Blunt. He thinks a good deal of my ideas.” ”

“ Milly was rolling her eyes and shaking her head as she wrung out Stan’s coat. In the washbasin she had piled the soppy remains of a pocketbook, a pad, pencils, a jacknife, two rolls of film, a flask.
“I wanted a bath anyway,” said Stan.
“Oh I could beat you. Well you’re sober at least.” ”

“ John considered the problem for a minute, for he knew Stan was in dead seriousness, and besides, he himself was creepy and scared.
“I’m inclined to think we can’t get out of here in the dark anyhow, Stan, so we’ll have to stay here——”
[27] “It’s a cinch we’d have trouble finding the channel, as I said a few minutes ago on deck, John.”
“—And maybe daybreak will show us up as a couple of scatterbrained kids. Sweet spirits of the briny deep—why should anyone hurt us? We’re only bent on pleasure!” ”

“ Might as well be hanged for a sheep.... Driver please go to Bank Street. The taxi started. They were jolting through the crisscross planes of red light, green light, yellow light beaded with lettering of Broadway. Suddenly Stan leaned over her and kissed her hard very quickly on the mouth.
“Stan you’ve got to stop drinking. It’s getting beyond a joke.”
“Why shouldn’t things get beyond a joke? You’re getting beyond a joke and I dont complain.”
“But darling you’ll kill yourself.”
“Well?”
“Oh I dont understand you Stan.”
“I dont understand you Ellie, but I love you very ... exordinately much.” ”

“ I've heard Mother say that good blood is sure to prove itself; that a gentleman can't look like a common man, even in rags. Stan disputes that theory with her, when he isn't too lazy, and wants to bet he could so disguise himself that she would take him for a green grocer or a fishmonger, who have the air of being commoner than other men, I think--at least in our village at Battlemead--because they wear fat tufts of curls frothing out over their foreheads from under their caps, which are always plaid and made of cloth. ”

“ The perfect wise virgin."
"Ah guess youse one o dem dere foolish virgins."
"Stan you're feeling your liquor, you're beginning to talk niggertalk."
"Baa baa." Stan put down his napkin and leaned back laughing in his throat.
The smell of absinthe sicklytingling grew up like the magician's rosebush out of Jimmy's glass. He sipped it wrinkling his nose. "As a moralist I protest," he said. "Whee it's amazing."
"What I need is a whiskey and soda to settle those cocktails."
"I'll watch you. I'm a working man. I must be able to tell between the news that's fit and the news that's not fit. . . . ”

“ Stan asked.
“Hollywood, California.” The girl then laughed and added, “I was in pictures. I played the part of a Siamese dancing girl.”
“Thailand to me,” Stan said.
“I went to America because I had work to do there,” the girl went on explaining, “I learned many things of interest.”
“How did you happen to go to America?”
“I am an educated girl. I am one of the new order. I was given a job by—” she hesitated, “the Japanese government.”
Stan’s smile faded. Another example of Jap thoroughness. The girl was in the intelligence service of the Japanese forces. He smiled at her again. ”

“ Wing looked troubled, and glanced first at Stan and then at the speaker.
“Well, sir, why don’t you answer?” continued the manager.
“Young Lynn. Come ’long flom Hai-Hai.”
“Oh!” said the manager gruffly. “Whose son is he—Mr Oliver’s or Mr Jeffrey’s? Oh, I remember; Mr Jeffrey isn’t married.” Then turning his eyes full upon Stan with a searching stare, he said shortly, “How do? Here! you’d better come ashore.”
Chapter Five. “He’s a Regular Brick.”
“This is pleasant!” thought Stan as he stepped on to the gangway. “If this man is our servant he oughtn’t to speak to me like that. Here! ”

“ If I find a man skulking and kick him, do you think the others side with him?”
“I should expect them to,” said Stan.
“Then you’re wrong. They roar with laughter, and enjoy seeing their fellow punished. They’re shrewd enough, and know that the idler is putting his share of work upon them. If there’s a quarrel amongst them they come to me to settle it. If a man’s sick he comes to me, and I try to set him right. Nurse him up sometimes. When they want a treat they come to me to draw out part of their earnings that I have banked for them. ”

“ Leave poo’ Wing leg lie all alone.”
“Well, well!” said Blunt gently; “never mind; be a man. If you come right in two we’ll fasten you up tightly again with sticking-plaster. You’ll soon grow together again.”
“Eh?” exclaimed Wing, looking sharply from one to the other, but looking in vain, for Stan took his cue from his companion and preserved a perfectly serious countenance. ”