ered.

"As what?" she queried.

He shrugged hopelessly, hesitated, and drew out the roll of bills
forced on him by Knowles. "Tell me, please, just how much of this is
mine, at your father's usual rate of wages, and deducting the real
value of that calf."

"Why, I can't just say, offhand," she replied. "But why should you--"

"I shall tell you as soon as--but first--" He drew out his watch.
"This cost me two hundred and fifty dollars. It is the only thing I
have worth trading. Would you take it in exchange for Rocket and the
balance of this hundred dollars over and above what is due me?"

"Why--no, of course, I wouldn't think of such a thing. It would be
absurd, cheating yourself that way. Anyhow, Rocket is your horse to
ride, as long as you wish to."

"But I would like him for my own. How about trading him for my pony
and the wages due me?"

"Well, that wouldn't be an unfair bargain. Your hawss is the best cow
pony of the two."

"It is very kind of you to agree, Miss Chuckie! Here is all the
money; and here is the watch. I wish you to accept it from me as
a--memento."

"Mr. Ashton!" she exclaimed, indignantly widening the space between
them as much as the seat would permit.

"Please!" he begged. "Don't you understand? I am going away."

"Going away?" she echoed.

"Yes."

"But--why?"

"Because he is coming."

"Mr. Blake?"

"Yes. I cannot stay after he--"

"But why not? Has he injured you? Are you afraid of him?"

"No. I'm afraid that you--" Ashton's voice sank to a whisper--"that
you will believe what he--what they will say against me."

"Oh!" she commented, her expression shifting swiftly from sympathetic
concern to doubt.

He caught the change in her look and tone, and flushed darkly.

"There are sometimes two sides to a story," he muttered.

"Tell me your side now," she suggested, with her usual directness.

His eyes fell before her clear honest gaze. His flush deepened. He
hung his head, biting his twisted lip. After several moments he began
to speak in a hesitating broken murmur:

"I've always been--wild. But I graduated from Tech.--not at the foot
of my class. My father--always busy piling up millions--never a word
or thought for me, except when I overspent my allowance. I was in
a--fast set. My father--threatened me. I had to make good. I took a
position in old Leslie's office--Genevieve's father. I--"

He paused, licked his lips, hesitated, and abruptly went on again,
this time