The superintendent, gathering up his blue prints and memoranda, arose. "And will that be all, sir?" he asked, with a smile.
Nearly every one smiled when he finished an interview with Adam Ward's son; probably because John himself nearly always smiled when he ended a consultation or gave an order.
"That's all from my side, George," he said, leaning back in his chair and looking up at the superintendent in his open, straightforward way that so surely invited confidence and trust. "Have you anything else on your mind?"
"Nary a thing, John," returned the older man, and with a parting "so long" he started toward the door that opened into the Mill.
With that smile of genuine affection still lingering on his face, John watched the sturdy back of the old superintendent as if, for the moment, his thoughts had swung from George Parsons' work to George Parsons himself.
The superintendent opened the door and was about to step out when he stopped suddenly and with a quick, decided movement drew back into the room and closed the door again. To the young man in the other end of the big office it looked as though the superintendent had seen something that startled him. Another moment and George was again bending over John's desk.
"What! Father! Why I had no idea that he was coming down to-day." A look of anxiety came into the frank gray eyes. "He has not been so well lately, George. I wonder why he didn't come to the office first as usual."
"He sometimes slips in back that way, you know," returned the superintendent.
"He really ought not to be here," said the young man. "I wish--" He hesitated.
"He's generally in a state of mind when he comes in like that," said George. "You're not needing a goat, are you, boy?"
John smiled. "There's not a thing wrong in the plant so far as I know, George."
"I don't know of anything either," returned the other, "but we may not know all the way. There's one thing sure, the old man ought not to be wandering through the works alone. There's some of those rough-necks would--well it's too darned easy, sometimes, for accidents to happen, do you see? I'll rustle out there and stick around convenient like. You'd better stay where you are as if you didn't know he was on the job. And remember, son, if you _should_ need a goat, I'm qualified. If anything has happened--whether it has or he only thinks it has--just you blame it on to old George. I'll understand."