he company, urging him to
deflect the route a trifle, so that passengers might come out of the
tunnel to see a landscape worth a thousand miles of special travel, and
to be had by going less than as many feet. This is the very latest day
for changing the survey. To-morrow will be too late. That is why I'm
telegraphing so urgently."

Click, click, click. Mary went to the telegraphic instrument. She
delivered the message by word of mouth, instead of taking it down in the
usual manner with a pen.

"Gerald Heath, Overlook," she translated from the metallic language of
the instrument. "Your idea is foolish. We cannot entertain it. Henry
Deckerman, president."

Gerald looked like a man receiving a jury's verdict involving great
pecuniary loss, if not one of personal condemnation, as he listened to
the telegram.

"Zat ees what-a I theenk," remarked Ravelli, with insolent elation; "you
ar-r-e one-a fool, as ze president he say."

Gerald was already angered by the dispatch. The taunting epithet was
timed to excite him to fury, which he impulsively spent upon the more
immediate provoker. He seized Ravelli by the throat, but without choking
him, and almost instantly let him go, as though ashamed of having
assailed a man of not much more than half his own strength and nearly
twice his age. With Italian quickness Ravelli grabbed Gerald's knife
from the desk, against which he was flung. He would have used it too, if
self-defense had been necessary, but he saw that he was not to be
further molested, and so he concealed the weapon under his arm, while
Gerald strode away, unaware of his escape from a stab.

"He is-a one beeg bully," said Ravelli, with forced composure. "Eef a
lady had-a not been here----"

"You tormented him," the girl interrupted. "I once saw the best-natured
mastiff in the world lose his temper and turn on a----" She stopped
before saying "cur," and added instead: "If he was foolish, you were not
very wise to tease him."

"He is-a what to you, zat you take-a hees part?"

She bit her lip in resentment, but made no reply.

"Pare-haps he is one-a lover oof you?"

Still she would not reply to his impertinence. That angered him more
than the severest rejoinder would have done.

"Oh, I am sure-a zat he ees one suitor."

She gave way at length to his provocation, and yet without any violent
words, for she simply said: "You are insulting, while he is at least
reasonably polite--when he heeds me at all, which