Atlas Shrugged [486]
Galt leaned back, his eyes narrowing. "So you weren't in any danger whatever, were you?"
Danneskjold laughed. "Oh, I took a slight risk. It was worth it. It was the most enjoyable encounter I've ever had. I've been waiting to tell you about it in person. It's a story you'll want to hear. Do you know who the man was? Hank Rearden. I-"
"No!"
It was Galt's voice; it was a command; the brief snap of sound had a tinge of violence neither of them had ever heard from him before.
"What?" asked Danneskjold softly, incredulously.
"Don't tell me about it now."
"But you've always said that Hank Rearden was the one man you wanted to see here most."
"I still do. But you'll tell me later."
She studied Galt's face intently, but she could find no clue, only a closed, impersonal look, either of determination or of control, that tightened the skin of his cheekbones and the line of his mouth. No matter what he knew about her, she thought, the only knowledge that could explain this, was a knowledge he had had no way of acquiring.
"You've met Hank Rearden?" she asked, turning to Danneskjold.
"And he saved your life?"
"Yes."
"I want to hear about it."
"I don't," said Galt.
"Why not?"
"You're not one of us, Miss Taggart."
"I see." She smiled, with a faint touch of defiance. "Were you thinking that I might prevent you from getting Hank Rearden?"
"No, that was not what I was thinking,"
She noticed that Danneskjold was studying Galt's face, as if he, too, found the incident inexplicable. Galt held his glance, deliberately and openly, as if challenging him to find the explanation and promising that he would fail. She knew that Danneskjold had failed, when she saw a faint crease of humor softening Galt's eyelids.
"What else," asked Galt, "have you accomplished this year?"
"I've defied the law of gravitation."
"You've always done that. In what particular form now?"
"In the form of a flight from mid-Atlantic to Colorado in a plane loaded with gold beyond the safety point of its capacity. Wait till Midas sees the amount I have to deposit. My customers, this year, will become richer by- Say, have you told Miss Taggart that she's one of my customers?"
"No, not yet You may tell her, if you wish."
"I'm-What did you say I am?" she asked.
"Don't be shocked, Miss Taggart," said Danneskjold. "And don't object. I'm used to objections. I'm a sort of freak here, anyway. None of them approve of my particular method of fighting our battle. John doesn't, Dr. Akston doesn't. They think that my life is too valuable for it. But, you see, my father was a bishop-and of all his teachings there was only one sentence that I accepted: 'All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.' "
"What do you mean?"
"That violence is not practical. If my fellow men believe that the force of the combined tonnage of their muscles is a practical means to rule me-let them learn the outcome of a contest in which there's nothing but brute force on one side, and force ruled by a mind, on the other. Even John grants me that in our age I had the moral right to choose the course I've chosen. I am doing just what he is doing-
only in my own way. He is withdrawing man's spirit from the looters, I'm withdrawing the products of man's spirit. He is depriving them of reason, I'm depriving them of wealth. He is draining the soul of the world, I'm draining its body. His is the lesson they have to learn, only I'm impatient and I'm hastening their scholastic progress. But, like John, I'm simply complying with their moral code and refusing to grant them a double standard at my expense. Or at Rearden's