e
judge was waiting in front of the gate. Harkless stepped out of the
barouche and took his hand.

"I was told young Fisbee was here."

"Young Fisbee is here," said the judge.

"Where, please, Briscoe?"

"Want to see him right off?"

"I do, very much."

"You'll withdraw his discharge, I expect, now?"

"Ah!" exclaimed the other. "I want to make him a present of the
'Herald,' if he'll take it." He fumed to Meredith, who had come to the
gate. "Tom, where is he?"

Meredith put his hand on his friend's shoulder, and answered: "I don't
know. God bless you, old fellow!"

"The truth is," said the judge, as they entered the gate, "that when you
drove up, young Fisbee ran into the house. Minnie--" He turned, but his
daughter had disappeared; however, she came to the door, a moment later,
and shook her head mysteriously at her father.

"Not in the house," she said.

Mr. Fisbee came around the corner of the porch and went toward Harkless.
"Fisbee," cried the latter, "where is your nephew?"

The old man took his hand in both his own, and looked him between the
eyes, and thus stood, while there was a long pause, the others watching
them.

"You must not say that I told you," he said at last. "Go into the
garden."

But when Harkless's step crunched the garden path there was no one
there. Asters were blooming in beds between the green rose-bushes,
and their many-fingered hands were flung open in wide surprise that he
should expect to find young Fisbee there. It was just before sunset.
Birds were gossiping in the sycamores on the bank. At the foot of
the garden, near the creek, there were some tall hydrangea bushes,
flower-laden, and, beyond them, one broad shaft of the sun smote the
creek bends for a mile in that flat land, and crossed the garden like a
bright, taut-drawn veil. Harkless passed the bushes and stepped out into
this gold brilliance. Then he uttered a cry and stopped.

Helen was standing beside the hydrangeas, with both hands against her
cheeks and her eyes fixed on the ground. She had run away as far as she
could run; there were high fences extending down to the creek on each
side, and the water was beyond.

"_You_!" he said. "_You--you_!"

She did not lift her eyes, but began to move away from him with little
backward steps. When she reached the bench on the bank, she spoke with
a quick intake of breath and in a voice he scarcely heard. It was the
merest whisper, and her words came so slowly that s