witness; and when the thing was done, the young man appended his
notarial attestation and went back to his duties.

"Well?" said Dyckman, when they were once more alone together.

"That's all," said Gordon curtly. "As long as you are discreet, you
needn't lose any sleep over this. If you don't mind hurrying a little,
you can make the ten-forty back to town."

Dyckman restrapped his books and made a show of hastening. But before he
closed the office door behind him he had seen Gordon place the
type-written sheet, neatly folded, on top of the thick packet, snapping
an elastic band over the whole and returning it to its pigeonhole in the
small safe.

Later in the day, Tom crossed the pike to the oak-shingled office of the
Chiawassee Consolidated. His father was deep in the new wage scale
submitted by the miners' union, but he sat up and pushed the papers away
when his son entered.

"Have you seen this morning's _Tribune_?" asked Tom, taking the paper
from his pocket.

"No; I don't make out to find much time for it before I get home o'
nights," said Caleb. "Anything doin'?"

"Yes; they are having a hot time in Chicago and Pullman. The strike is
spreading all over the country on sympathy lines."

"Reckon it'll get down to us in any way?" queried the iron-master.

"You can't tell. I'd be a little easy with Ludlow and his outfit on that
wage scale, if I were you."

"I don't like to be scared into doin' a thing."

"No; but we don't want a row on our hands just now. Farley might make
capital out of it."

Caleb nodded. Then he said: "Didn't I see Dyckman comin' out of your
shanty 'long about eleven o'clock?"

"Yes; he came out to do me a little favor, and it went mighty near to
making him sweat blood. Shall you need me any more to-day?"

"No, I reckon not. Goin' away?"

"I'm going to town on the five-ten, and I may not be back till late."

Tom's business in South Tredegar was unimportant. There was a word or
two to be said personally in the ear of Hanchett, the senior member of
the firm of attorneys intrusted with the legal concernments of Gordon
and Gordon, and afterward a solitary dinner at the Marlboro. But the
real object of the town trip disclosed itself when he took an electric
car for the foot of Lebanon on the line connecting with the inclined
railway running up the mountain to Crestcliffe Inn. He had not seen
Ardea since the midwinter night of soul-awakenings; and Alecto's finger
was still pressing on