the wound inflicted by the closed doors of
Mountain View Avenue and his father's misdirected sympathy.

He found Major Dabney smoking on the hotel veranda, and his welcome was
not scanted here, at least. There was a vacant chair beside the Major's
and the Major's pocket case of long cheroots was instantly forthcoming.
Would not the returned Bachelor of Science sit and smoke and tell an old
man what was going on in the young and lusty world beyond the
mountain-girt horizons?

Tom did all three. His boyish awe for the old autocrat of Paradise had
mellowed into an affection that was almost filial, and there was plenty
to talk about: the final dash in the technical school; the outlook in
the broader world; the great strike which was filling all mouths; the
business prospects for Chiawassee Consolidated.

The moment being auspicious, Tom sounded the master of the Deer Trace
coal lands on the reorganization scheme, and found nothing but
complaisance. Whatever rearrangement commended itself to Tom and his
father, and to Colonel Duxbury Farley, would be acceptable to the Major.

"I reckon I can trust you, Tom, and my ve'y good friend, youh fatheh, to
watch out for Ardea's little fo'tune," was the way he put it. "I haven't
so ve'y much longeh to stay in Paradise," he went on, with a silent
little chuckle for the grim pun, "and what I've got goes to her, as a
matteh of cou'se." Then he added a word that set Tom to thinking hard.
"I had planned to give her a little suhprise on her wedding-day: suppose
you have the lawyehs make out that block of new stock to Mistress
Vincent Farley instead of to me?"

Tom's hard thinking crystallized into a guarded query.

"Of course, Major Dabney, if you say so. But wouldn't it be more
prudent to make it over in trust for her and her children before she
becomes Mrs. Farley?"

The piercing Dabney eyes were on him, and the fierce white mustaches
took the militant angle.

"Tell me, Tom, have you had _youh_ suspicions in that qua'teh, too? I'm
speaking in confidence to a family friend, suh."

"It is just as well to be on the safe side," said Tom evasively. There
was enough of the uplift left to make him reluctant to strike his enemy
in the dark.

"No, suh, that isn't what I mean. You've had youh suspicions aroused.
Tell me, suh, what they are."

"Suppose you tell me yours, Major," smiled the younger man.

Major Dabney became reflectively reminiscent. "I don't know, Tom, and
that's the