not to mix friendship with business."

"Yours is not a very common view," Fuller replied, smiling. "However, I'm
merely offering to buy your professional skill, and want to know if
you're satisfied with my terms."

"They're generous," said Dick with emotion, for he saw what the change in
his position might enable him to do. "There's only one thing: the
agreement is to stand until the completion of the dam. What will happen
afterwards?"

"Then if I have no more use for you here, I think I can promise to find
you as good or better job. Is that enough?"

Dick gave him a grateful look. "It's difficult to tell you how I feel
about it, but I'll do my best to make good and show that you have not
been mistaken."

"That's all right," said Fuller, getting up. "Sign the document when you
can get a witness and let me have it."

He went away and Dick sat down and studied the agreement with a beating
heart. He found his work engrossing, he liked the men he was associated
with, and saw his way to making his mark in his profession, but there was
another cause for the triumphant thrill he felt. Clare must be separated
from Kenwardine before she was entangled in his dangerous plots, and he
had brooded over his inability to come to her rescue. Now, however, one
obstacle was removed. He could offer her some degree of comfort if she
could be persuaded to marry him. It was obvious that she must be taken
out of her father's hands as soon as possible, and he determined to try
to gain her consent next morning, though he was very doubtful of his
success.

When he reached the house, Clare was sitting at a table in the patio with
some work in her hand. Close by, the purple creeper spread across the
wall, and the girl's blue eyes and thin lilac dress harmonized with its
deeper color. Her face and half-covered arms showed pure white against
the background, but the delicate pink that had once relieved the former
was now less distinct. The hot, humid climate had begun to set its mark
on her, and Dick thought she looked anxious and perplexed.

She glanced up when she heard his step, and moving quietly forward he
stopped on the opposite side of the table with his hand on a chair. He
knew there was much against him and feared a rebuff, but delay might be
dangerous and he could not wait. Standing quietly resolute, he fixed his
eyes on the girl's face.

"Is your father at home, Miss Kenwardine?" he asked.

"No," said Clare. "He went out some ti