artily, and walked slowly to the
house, leaving her bending over a rose-bush, and a shade more pensive
than the most pensive garden lady in any Victorian engraving.

... Next day, it happened that this same "Vendonah" or
"Rides-Down-Everything" became the subject of a chance conversation
between Eugene and his old friend Kinney, father of the fire-topped
Fred. The two gentlemen found themselves smoking in neighbouring leather
chairs beside a broad window at the club, after lunch.

Mr. Kinney had remarked that he expected to get his family established
at the seashore by the Fourth of July, and, following a train of
thought, he paused and chuckled. "Fourth of July reminds me," he said.
"Have you heard what that Georgie Minafer is doing?"

"No, I haven't," said Eugene, and his friend failed to notice the
crispness of the utterance.

"Well, sir," Kinney chuckled again, "it beats the devil! My boy Fred
told me about it yesterday. He's a friend of this young Henry Akers, son
of F. P. Akers of the Akers Chemical Company. It seems this young Akers
asked Fred if he knew a fellow named Minafer, because he knew Fred had
always lived here, and young Akers had heard some way that Minafer used
to be an old family name here, and was sort of curious about it. Well,
sir, you remember this young Georgie sort of disappeared, after his
grandfather's death, and nobody seemed to know much what had become
of him--though I did hear, once or twice, that he was still around
somewhere. Well, sir, he's working for the Akers Chemical Company, out
at their plant on the Thomasvile Road."

He paused, seeming to reserve something to be delivered only upon
inquiry, and Eugene offered him the expected question, but only after a
cold glance through the nose-glasses he had lately found it necessary to
adopt. "What does he do?"

Kinney laughed and slapped the arm of his chair.

"He's a nitroglycerin expert!"

He was gratified to see that Eugene was surprised, if not, indeed, a
little startled.

"He's what?"

"He's an expert on nitroglycerin. Doesn't that beat the devil! Yes,
sir! Young Akers told Fred that this George Minafer had worked like
a houn'-dog ever since he got started out at the works. They have
a special plant for nitroglycerin, way off from the main plant, o'
course--in the woods somewhere--and George Minafer's been working there,
and lately they put him in charge of it. He oversees shooting oil-wells,
too, and shoots 'em himself,