THE STEADFAST HEART
ahead with his task just as steadily, as stolidly, as he would have gone about sweeping out the office as he used to do. It was his task—to be done. There was no difference in degree. He had to do the thing, so he did it. There was no more than that to be said about it.
It had been no easy task, particularly the gathering of local news, but Angus mastered that—by a stroke of genius, Craig said…. But, queerly enough, such strokes came frequently from Angus, unexpectedly. When some expedient was necessary, he found that expedient, found it stolidly, quickly, effectively. It was not easy to tell if keen intelligence were at work, or only kind chance. This particular stroke consisted in promoting Nellie Ramsay, long in charge of the books of the concern, to a reportorial position. It was not necessary to send Nellie out to gather personals; Angus mined her. She washed out items of news as a rich placer washes out pay dirt. All that was necessary was to set her going, for she was the town’s chief repository of gossip and fact. Angus merely allowed her to talk to him, and then sorted out from the mass what it was safe to print in his column of “Notes and Personals.” Craig Browning had been unable to preserve a straight face when Angus told him the secret of it. As for Angus, it was impossible to say whether or
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