"I was expecting to go this morning," he said. "I had my plans all made. They write me that Buck is getting uneasy and they wish I'd come, but now"--he looked meaningly at Sam--"I think I ought to stay here for a little. Could you go in my place? There are things here I must attend to."
Sam looked, and his face grew dark with sympathy. He understood.
"I'll keep you informed about Lizzie," went on Michael with delicate intuition, "and anyway you couldn't see her for sometime, I think if you try you could help Buck as much as I. He needs to understand that breaking laws is all wrong. That it doesn't pay in the end, and that there has got to be a penalty--you know. You can make him see things in a new way if you try. Are you willing to go, Sam?"
"I'll go," said Sam briefly, and Michael knew he would do his best. It might be that Sam's change of viewpoint would have more effect upon Buck than anything Michael could say. For it was an open secret between Sam and Michael now that Sam stood for a new order of things and that the old life, so far as he was concerned, he had put away.
And so Sam was got safely away from the danger spot, and Michael stayed to face his sorrow, and the problem of how to save Starr.