k they know what is best for you.
The final decision has been put up to me as to whether or not they shall
be permitted to give it a trial.

"This good friend of yours has offered to try to put it through. He has
a plan outlined that he'll tell you of later, that will not only be the
best possible influence toward recalling your memory, but will also give
you a clean, new start in life. A chance for every success.

"So you needn't return to Walla Walla, Darby. I'm going to parole
you--under the charge of your benefactor. Melville, from now on it's up
to you."

The little, withered gray man looked very solemn as he rose. The others
were stricken instantly solemn too, surprised that the droll smile they
were so used to seeing had died on the homely, kindly face. Even his
twinkling eyes were sobered too.

Vaguely amused, yet without scorn, McNamara and Forest got up to shake
his hand. "I'll look after him," Melville assured them. "Never fear for
that."

Slight as he was, wasted by the years, his was a figure of unmistakable
dignity as he thanked them, gravely and earnestly, for their kindness in
Ben's behalf. Soon after he and his young charge went out together.

III

There was a great house-cleaning in the dome of the heavens one
memorable night that flashed like a jewel from the murky desolation of a
rainy spring. The little winds came in troops, some from the sea, some
with loads of balsam from the great forests of the Olympic Peninsula,
and some, quite tired out, from the stretching sage plains to the east,
and they swept the sky of clouds as a housekeeper sweeps the ceiling of
cobwebs. Not a wisp, not one trailing streamer remained.

The Seattle citizenry, for the first time in some weeks, recalled the
existence of the stars. These emerged in legions and armies, all the way
from the finest diamond dust to great, white spheres that seemed near
enough to reach up and touch. Little forgotten stars that had hidden
away since Heaven knows when in the deepest recesses of the skies came
out to join in the celebration. Aged men, half blind, beheld so many
that they thought their sight was returning to them, and youths saw
whole constellations that they had never beheld before. They continued
their high revels until a magnificent moon rose in the east, too big and
too bright to compete with.

It was not just a crescent moon, about to fade away, or even a rain
moon--one of those standing straight up in the sky