.. when the freight had passed, he rose and walked. He took a cab to
the Artwork Studios.
All in tatters, he hurried to his room and put on another suit. He
appeared at supper by the side of the Master. He narrated what had
happened, amid laughter and joking. When Spalton wanted to send for his
old, frail, white-headed father, the elder Spalton, who was the
community doctor, Jack waved the idea aside.
"Oh, no, Master!" (Master he called Spalton, and never the familiar,
more democratic John) "Oh, no, I'm all right."...
The next morning Jack did not show up for breakfast.
At ten o'clock Spalton, solicitous, went up to his room....
He shouted for help. He had found his disciple there, huge and dead,
like a stranded sea-thing.
* * * * *
In Gabby Jack's will ... for they found one, together with a last word
and testament for humanity,--it was asked of Spalton that he should
conduct the funeral from the Chapel ... and read the funeral oration,
written by the deceased himself ... and add, if the Master felt moved, a
few words thereto of his own ... if he considered that so mean a
disciple deserved it.
* * * * *
All work was suspended the day of Jack's funeral.
Spalton eloquently read the curious, crude composition of his disciple
... which had fine flashes, as of lightning in a dark sky, here and
there, in it.
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