at him intently.

"Aw, come on now, Kate," he said. "Leave out the heroics and be human.
I'll do exactly as you say about everything if you will help me wheedle
Aunt Ollie into letting me have the money."

Kate stepped back and put out her hands defensively: "A rare bargain,"
she said, "and one eminently worthy of you. You'll do what I say, if
I'll do what you say, without the slightest reference as to whether it
impoverishes a woman who has always helped and befriended you. You
make me sick!"

"What's biting you now?" he demanded, sullenly.

Kate stood tall and straight before and above him

"If you have a good plan, if you can prove that it will work, what is
the necessity for 'wheedling' anybody? Why not state what you propose
in plain, unequivocal terms, and let the dear, old soul, who has done
so much for us already, decide what she will do?"

"That's what I meant! That's all I meant!" he cried.

"In that case, 'wheedle' is a queer word to use."

"I believe you'd throw up the whole thing; I believe you'd let the
chance to be a rich woman slip through your fingers, if it all depended
on your saying only one word you thought wasn't quite straight," he
cried, half in assertion, half in question.

"I honour you in that belief," said Kate. "I most certainly would."

"Then you turn the whole thing down? You won't have anything to do
with it?" he cried, plunging into stoop-shouldered, mouth-sagging
despair.

"Oh, I didn't SAY that!" said Kate. "Give me time! Let me think! I've
got to know that there isn't a snare in it, from the title of the land
to the grade of the creek bed. Have you investigated that? Is your
ravine long enough and wide enough to dam it high enough at our outlet
to get your power, and yet not back water on the road, and the farmers
above you? Won't it freeze in winter? and can you get strong enough
power from water to run a large saw? I doubt it!"

"Oh, gee! I never thought about that!" he cried.

"And if it would work, did you figure the cost of a dam into your
estimate of the building and machinery?"

He snapped his fingers in impatience.

"By heck!" he cried, "I forgot THAT, too! But that wouldn't cost much.
Look what we did in that ravine just for fun. Why, we could build that
dam ourselves!"

"Yes, strong enough for conditions in September, but what about the
January freshet?" she said.

"Croak! Croak! You blame old raven," cried George.

"And have you tho