"It is! It's Still Jim! Is me collar entirely wilted?"

Pen laughed. "Uncle Denny, you're as fussed as a girl at meeting her
sweetheart! You look beautiful and you know it. There! He sees us!"

Uncle Denny lost a little of his color and stood still. Jim came
striding down the road. His eyes were black with feeling. Without a word
he threw his arms around Uncle Dennis and hugged that rotund person off
his feet.

"Still Jim, me boy!" cried Uncle Denny. "I've come out to lick the world
for ye!"

Jim loosened his bear hug and stepped back. His smile was brilliant.

"Uncle Denny, you look like a tailor's ad! Doesn't he, little Penelope?"

There was something in Jim's voice as he spoke Pen's name that Michael
Dennis understood as clearly as if Jim had shouted his feeling for Pen
in his ear.

"I'm starving to death," he said hastily. "Take me home, Still. Come
along, Pen."

Mrs. Flynn was surveying the trunk as it stood on end in the living
room. She was talking rapidly to herself and as the three came up on the
porch she cried:

"I said 'twas you, Mr. Dennis! I told myself fifty times 'twas your
trunk and still myself kept contradicting me. You are as handsome as a
Donegal dude. Leave me out to the kitchen till I get an early supper!"

After supper Jim and Dennis sat for a short time over their pipes before
Jim left for some office work.

"Tell me what to do first, Still," said Uncle Denny, "and I'll start a
campaign against Fleckenstein that'll turn the valley upside down.
That's what I came out for. I'll fix them, the jackals!"

"Uncle Denny, it won't do," answered Jim slowly. "The uncle of a Project
engineer can't carry on a political campaign in his behalf. You'd just
get me in deeper with the public."

Uncle Denny stared. "But I came out for that very thing."

"I thought you had just come out for one of your usual visits. It won't
do, dear Uncle Denny. I can't say anything against Fleckenstein nor must
you."

"Me boy," said Michael Dennis, "all the public sentiment on earth can't
keep me from fighting Fleckenstein. Pen sent for me and I'm here."

"Pen sent for you?" repeated Jim. "Why, Pen should not have done that."

"This is a poor welcome, Jim," said Uncle Denny, immeasurable reproach
in his voice.

Jim sprang to his feet and put a long brown hand on Uncle Denny's
shoulder. "You can't mean that, Uncle Denny. It's meat and drink to me
to have you here. You can't doubt it."

"I can't, indeed," ag