lies in the garden.

"Brian, go--" she choked.

With the truth of the ragged money burning itself into her mind--with
Brian so near and yet so far--the touch of his arms was torment.

Hungry for the peace of the pines and the lonely cabin, Joan fled
out-of-doors.

CHAPTER XL

THE KING OF YOUTH

Ten minutes later Kenny, coming into the dark, old-fashioned library
where Adam's books were once more arrayed upon the shelves, found Don
wandering turbulently around the room.

Was this boy ever anything but turbulent, he wondered with impatience.
Must he always brood about the boulder and atonement?

Don stopped dead in his tracks, his fingers clenched in his hair, his
white face staring queerly; and Kenny, irresistibly reminded of himself
in minutes of turmoil, stared back, knowing in a flash of inspiration
why the tale of the boulder had made him think of the crash of bouillon
cups. The desire of the moment that marked men for disaster! The
tongue-tied youngster there with his feet rooted to the ground and his
face pale with agitation, was indeed something like himself. Kenny had
a moment of pity.

"Mr. O'Neill," said Don with a hard, dry sob, "you know I've wanted to
make up to Brian somehow about that boulder. If I hadn't been crazy to
drive up the ledge once and if I hadn't lied to Grogan and bullied
Tony, Brian wouldn't have spent the rest of the winter in a plaster
cast. I--I want to do something for him, something big, and I--I've
got to do it in a queer way." He shuddered and wiped his face. Kenny
saw that his hands were shaking wildly, and pitied him again. "Mr.
O'Neill," he blurted, "Brian loves my sister and she loves him."

It seemed to Kenny that lightning struck with a sinister flare of fire
at his feet and hot blinding pieces of the floor were flying all about
him.

"How do you know?" he said fiercely. "How _do_ you know? How can you
know such a thing as that? You can't! You can't possibly."

"I do," said Don. "I heard them say it."

"Heard them!"

"I was on the porch," said Don, "and I came through the window there to
get a book. They were in the hall."

"You listened!"

Don flushed.

"I--I wanted to," he said sullenly. "And I did."

"Ah, yes," said Kenny, wiping his hair back and wondering vaguely why
it felt so wet, "you wanted to and you did."

"I wanted to," said Don fiercely, "because I knew Brian loved her. And
I knew my sister wasn't happy. She's looked s