plight, at the chairs where his guests sat. It was as if
he called back to their old environment for a moment the two familiar
figures which had belonged here, which had gone out of his life. "We sat
in this room, the three of us," he repeated, "and the butler came in.

"'If you please, sir, there's a young man here who wants to register,'
he said.

"'Wants to register!' my father threw at him. 'What do you mean?'

"We all went outside, and there we found not one, but five boys,
Russians. There was a munitions plant a mile back of us and the lads
worked there, and had wakened to the necessity of registering at the
last moment, being new in the country and with little English. They had
directions to go to the same polling place as mint, Hiawatha, but had
gotten lost, and, seeing our lights, brought up here. Hiawatha, as I
said, is three miles away. It was eight-thirty and the polls closed at
nine. We brought the youngsters inside, and I dashed to the garage for
the car and piled the delighted lads into it and drove them across.

"At least I tried to. But when we came to the bad half mile the car
rebelled at going the bit twice in a day, and the motor stalled. There
we were--eight-forty-five P.M.--polls due to close at nine--a year's
imprisonment for five well-meaning boys for neglecting to register. I
was in despair. Then suddenly one of the boys saw a small red light
ahead, the tail light of an automobile. We ran along and found a big car
standing in front of a house. As we got there, out from the car stepped
a woman with a lantern, and as the light swung upward I saw that she was
tall and fair and young and very lovely. She stopped as the six of us
loomed out of the darkness. I knew that a professor from the University
in town had taken this house for the summer, but I don't know the people
or their name. It was no time to be shy. I gave my name and stated the
case.

"The girl looked at me. 'I've seen you,' she said. 'I know you are Mr.
McLane. I'll drive you across. One moment, till I tell my mother.'

"She was in the house and out again without wasting a second, and as she
flashed into the car I heard a gasp, and I turned and saw in the glare
of the headlights as they sprang on one of my Russians, a gigantic
youngster of six feet four or so, standing with his cap off and his head
bent, as he might have stood before a shrine, staring at the spot where
the girl had disappeared into the car. Then the engine purred