Atlas Shrugged – Day 058 – pp. 569-578
Eddie continues with his description of the follies. (I’ll condense.)
Chick Morrison of Washington in on a national speaking tour to plug Directive 10-289. He demanded a special train (free) for the trip. The UB (Unification Board) gave him the OK to travel at 100 mph (notwithstanding what that stupidity would do to rail traffic that’s bound by the 60 mph limit, but. . . oh, the hell with it. . .)
Anyway, Chick needs a Diesel engine. They only have one spare in Colorado. Eddie tells Clifton that Dagny said they always had to have a spare in Colorado. Clifton tells Eddie he’s not Dagny and to give the engine to Chick. Chick gets the engine, the superintendent in Colorado quit, Clifton gives his job to a buddy, and Eddie seriously considers throwing in the towel.
But he soldiers on.
Ooooh. More stories.
Apparently Orren Boyle had started re-outfitting his furnaces to manufacture Rearden Metal some weeks before. As if he already knew the directive was coming with its Gift Certificate provision and that Hank Rearden would be forced to give over. Hmmmm.
But this story gets better.
Night before they’re going to light it all up, the men at the factory hear a voice. It says they all have ten minutes to get out of the factory. Then the voice introduced himself. Ragnar Danneskjold. (He’s been sadly absent from most of the story line) Half an hour later he supposedly razed the factory with his long range Naval guns.
And now he’s rambling on saying that he doesn’t think about things during the day but at night he worries all the time.
“Yes — if you want to know it — yes, it’s because I’m worried about her! I’m scared to death for her. Woodstock i just a miserable little hole of a place, miles away from everything and the Taggart lodge is twenty miles farther , twenty miles of a twisting trail in a godforsaken forest. How do I know that might happen to her there, alone and with the kind of gangs that are roving all through the county these nights — that through such desolate parts of the country as the Berkshires? . . .”
What the hell, Eddie! Ya just gave up the boss!
Oh, but it gets BETTER!!! Eddie looks for a little reassurance from his dinner-mate:
“You won’t vanish like the others, will you? . . . What? Next week? . . . On, on your vacation. For how long? . . . How do you rate a whole month’s vacation? . . . Really? I envy you . . . Now I envy you — if you’ve been able to take a month off every summer for twelve years.”
AHHHH HAAAAA!!! It is him!!! Remember that widows story who’s husband went on that monthly excursion every summer and his widow saw him that day with Hugh Ankston and the kid who she assumed invented the motor!!! HA! It is John-freaking-Galt!! I knew it!! (How’d he get the job at Taggart?)
OK back to the story.
Hank is walking to his new apartment in Philly. He moved out of the house. He’s ordered his attorney to get him a divorce no matter what the cost. (Brings to mind the question: why are divorces so expensive? Because they’re worth it. . . rimshot!)
Anyway, as he’s walking, he’s confronted by a stranger.
He’d like to speak to Hank.
Fine, as long as he doesn’t want money.
“No, Mr. Rearden. . . I don’t intend to ask you for money, but to return it to you.”
Huh? He extends his hand with a package wrapped in burlap. Hank takes it and looks inside. It’s a gold bar.
“When robbery is done in open daylight by sanction of the law, as it is done today, then any act of honor or restitution has to be hidden underground.”
And it’s not a gift. It’s his own money. Money that was stolen from him by the looters. He’s been keeping books on everybody. And taken back by this mystery man.
“Who are you?”
“Ragnar Danneskjold.”
Come on!!! How many mystery characters can we meet in 10 pages!!!
Yes it’s the pirate, Cap’n Ragnar. (Doesn’t sound as good as Cap’n Jack Sparrow, but what the hell.)
So Ragnar has a vault full of Hank’s gold he’s holding for him. Shouldn’t Hank be happy?
“Don’t expect me ever to approve of a criminal.”
Jeez Hank. Get over it, already.
He’s on a special mission. . .
“I’m after a man whom I want to destroy. he died many centuries ago, but until the last trace of him is wiped out of men’s minds, we will not have a decent world to live in.”
“What man?”
“Robin Hood.”
Whaaaaaat???
“It is said that he fought against the looting rulers and returned the lot to those who had been robbed. . . “
Yeah, so what?
“. . .but that is not the meaning of the legend which has survived. He is remembered, not a as champion of property, bit as a champion of need, not as a defender of the robbed, but as a provider of the poor.”
Ehhhhhhhhhh. Maybe. But I think Rand’s stretching a bit here. Wonder if she’s going anywhere with the Robin Hood analogy?
Ragnar goes on about his mission and explains what he’s doing and Hank is listening, rapt.
“But it was the voice of a pirate speaking about acts of violence, offering him this substitutes for hie world of reason and justice. He cole not accept it;; he could not lose whatever remnant of his vision he still retained. He listened, wishing he could escape, yet knowing that he would not miss a word of it.”
Kind of reminds me of that Seinfeld episode with “the Kramer”
“He is a loathsome, offensive brute. Yet I can’t look away.”