Part of himself - he remembered the man without legs...
IV "What in the name of Fortune brings you here?" asked Borrow.
Indeed the east-end mission was an unfamiliar back- ground to Hamer.
"I've listened to a good many sermons," said the millionaire, "all saying what could be done if you people had funds.
I've just come to tell you this: you can have the funds."
"Very good of you," answered Borrow, with some surprise. "A big subscription, eh?"
Hamer smiled dryly.
"I should say so.
Just every penny I've got."
"What?"
Hamer rapped out details in a brisk, businesslike manner.
Borrow's head was whirling.
"You - you mean to say that you're making over your entire fortune to be devoted to the relief of the poor in the East End, with myself appointed as trustee?"
"That's it."
"But why - why?"
"I can't explain," said Hamer slowly. "Remember our talk about visions last February?
Well, a vision has got hold of me."
"It's splendid!" Borrow leaned forward, his eyes gleaming.
"There's nothing particularly splendid about it," said Hamer grimly. "I don't care a button about poverty in the East End.
All they want is grit!
I was poor enough - and I got out of it.
But I've got to get rid of the money, and these tom-fool societies shan't get hold of it.
You're a man I can trust.
Feed bodies or souls with it - preferably the former.
I've been hungry, but you can do as you like."
"There's never been such a thing known," stammered Borrow.
"The whole thing's done and finished with," continued Hamer. "The lawyers have fixed it up at last, and I've signed everything.
I can tell you I've been busy this last fortnight.
It's almost as difficult getting rid of a fortune as making one."
"But you - you've kept something?"
"Not a penny," said Hamer cheerfully. "At least - that's not quite true.
I've just twopence in my pocket." He laughed.
He said good-bye to his bewildered friend and walked out of the mission into the narrow evil-smelling streets.
The words he had said so gaily just now came back to him with an aching sense of loss.
"Not a penny!"
Of all his vast wealth he had kept nothing.
He was afraid now - afraid of poverty and hunger and cold.
Sacrifice had no sweetness for him.
Yet behind it all he was conscious that the weight and menace of things had lifted; he was no longer oppressed and bound down.
The severing of the chain had seared and torn him, but the vision of freedom was there to strengthen him.
His material needs might dim the Call, but they could not deaden it, for he knew it to be a thing of immortality that could not die.
There was a touch of autumn in the air, and the wind blew chill.
He felt the cold and shivered, and then, too, he was hungry - he had forgotten to have any lunch.
It brought the future very near to him.
It was incredible that he should have given it all up; the ease, the comfort, the warmth!
His body cried out impotently... And then once again there came to him a glad and uplifting sense of freedom.
Hamer hesitated. He was near a tube station.
He had twopence in his pocket. The idea came to him to journey by it to the park where he had watched the recumbent idlers a fortnight ago.
Beyond this whim he did not plan for the future. He believed honestly enough now that he was mad - sane people did not act as he had done.
Yet, if so, madness was a wonderful and amazing thing.