then sprang to his feet. "And we
will!" he cried. "I've pondered and studied this scheme for a year,
but I've only to-day seen the right help. That is your tremendous,
driving thought," he said, turning to Carmen. "That thought is a
spiritual dynamite, that will blast its way through every material
obstacle! Ned," seizing Haynerd by the shoulder and shaking him out of
his chair, "rouse up! Your light has come! Now I'll 'phone Carlson
right away and make an appointment to talk business with him. You'll
stand with me, Carmen?"

"Yes," she said simply.

"And you, Ned?"

Haynerd blinked for a few moments, like an owl in the light. But then,
as a comprehension of Hitt's plan dawned upon his waking thought, he
straightened up.

"Buy the Express! Make a real paper of it! A--but Ames?"

"He can't touch us! The clientele of the Express will not be made up
of his puppets! Our paper will be for the people!"

"But--your University work, Hitt?"

"I give my last lecture next week."

"And you, Carmen?"

"I was only biding my time," she replied gently. "This is a real call.
And my answer is: Here am I."

Tears began to trickle slowly down Haynerd's cheeks, as the tension in
his nerves slackened. He rose and seized the hands of his two friends.
"Hitt," he said, in a choking voice, "I--I said I was a fool. But that
fellow's dead now. The real man has waked up, and--well, what are you
standing there for, you great idiot? Go and call up Carlson!"

* * * * *

Again that evening the little group sat about the table in the dining
room of the Beaubien cottage. But only the three most directly
concerned, and the Beaubien, knew that the owner of the Express had
received that afternoon an offer for the purchase of his newspaper,
and that he had been given twenty-four hours in which to accept it.
Doctor Morton was again present; and beside him sat his lifelong
friend and jousting-mate, the very Reverend Patterson Moore. Hitt
took the floor, and began speaking low and earnestly.

"We must remember," he said, "in conjunction with what we have deduced
regarding the infinite creative mind and its manifestations, that we
mortals in our daily mundane existence deal only and always with
phenomena, with appearances, with effects, and never with ultimate
causes. And so all our material knowledge is a knowledge of
appearances only. Of the ultimate essence of things, the human mind
knows nothing. A