Impetuous always, his first thought was to go and
thank Constantine Jopp for having saved his life. As soon as he was able
he went forth to find his rescuer, and met him suddenly on turning a
corner of the street. Before he could stammer out the gratitude that was
in his heart, Jopp, eyeing him with a sneering smile, said drawlingly:
"If you'd had your hair cut like that I couldn't have got you out, could
I? Holy, what a sight! Next time I'll take you by the scruff, putty-
face--bah!"
That was enough for Terry. He had swallowed the insult, stuttered his
thanks to the jeering laugh of the lank bully, and had gone home and
cried in shame and rage.
It was the one real shadow in his life. Ill luck and good luck had been
taken with an equable mind; but the fact that he must, while he lived,
own the supreme debt of his life to a boy and afterwards to a man whom he
hated by instinct was a constant cloud on him. Jopp owned him. For some
years they did not meet, and then at last they again were thrown together
in the West, when Jopp settled at La Touche.
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