Denise squeezed Chuck’s hand again, and he felt somehow proud, somehow more a man than he had a little while ago.
“Thank you, Drs. Dumar and Perry,” the newscaster was saying. “And now folks, the guide who brought the party back to civilization, the guide without whom the entire expedition would have failed — Chuck Spencer!”
There was applause. The crowd cheered. Slowly, his eyes filling with happy tears, Chuck stepped to the microphone.