ive you when
you are too sick to hold the reins, it is my own affair."

He shook his head impatiently.

"I wasn't thinking of that; but you must first know just what you're
doing. My father stands to lose all he has got to--to the Farley's.
That's what the meeting is for. Do you understand?"

She bit her lip and a far-away look came into her eyes. Then she turned
on him with a little frown of determination gathering between her
straight eyebrows--a frown that reminded him of the Major in his
militant moods.

"I must take your word for it," she said, and the words seemed to cut
the air like edged things. "Tell me the truth: is your cause entirely
just? Your motive is not revenge?"

"As God is my witness," he said solemnly. "It is my father's cause, and
none of mine; more than that, it is your grandfather's cause--and
yours."

She pushed the buggy hood back with a quick arm sweep and gave him her
free hand. "Step carefully," she cautioned; and a minute later they were
speeding swiftly down the pike in a white dust cloud of their own
making.

* * * * *

There was a sharp crisis to the fore in the old log-house office at the
furnace. Caleb Gordon, haggard and tremulous, sat at one end of the
trestle-board which served as a table, with Norman at his elbow; and
flanking him on either side were the two Farleys, Dyckman, Trewhitt,
acting general counsel for the company in the Farley interest, and
Hanchett, representing the Gordons.

Having arranged the preliminaries to his entire satisfaction, Colonel
Duxbury had struck true and hard. The pipe foundry might be taken into
the parent company at a certain nominal figure payable in a new issue of
Chiawassee Limited stock, or three several things were due to happen
simultaneously: the furnace would be shut down indefinitely "for
repairs," thus cutting off the iron supply and making a ruinous
forfeiture of pipe contracts inevitable; suit would be brought to
recover damages for the alleged mismanagement of Chiawassee Consolidated
during the absence of the majority stock-holders; and the validity of
the pipe-pit patents would be contested in the courts. This was the
ultimatum.

The one-sided battle had been fought to a finish. Hanchett, hewing away
in the dark, had made every double and turn that keen legal acumen and a
sharp wit could suggest to gain time. But Mr. Farley was inexorable. The
business must be concluded at the present sitting;