on
helping.

"Cold cramp yo', son?" Martin gazed at his boy.

"For a minute--yes, Dad."

From that day Sandy knew that Treadwell must go away. Just how to
bring it about he did not know, for his shadowy doubt could not be
voiced; there was not the least reason why it should be--but Cynthia
must be kept from the intangible something that could never touch her
but to bring dishonour. And after Lans departed, Sandy thought, he
would try to know more of the hideous uncertainty; seek to find out
what ground there was for the doubt. In rebuilding Stoneledge, he must
do more--he must try to take the blight from the old name. "But
suppose"--and at that Sandy raised his head--"more glory in the end and
more need to win Cynthia to him!"

While Sandy was struggling to work his way out of the snare, struggling
to discover some social plank down which Treadwell could be courteously
slid from Lost Mountain to Boston without damage to his dignity or the
Morley sense of hospitality, Smith Crothers got his inspiration.

Filled with hate and envy, appreciating the fact that Sandy's business
enterprises were menaces to his future prosperity, the man silently and
morosely plotted and planned some kind, any kind of revenge. Cynthia,
he dared not approach personally; even his evil thoughts dared not rest
upon her directly. He had nothing with which to lure her; not even a
decent approach could be made. The girl was always on guard; he could
make no apology; he could hope from no self-abasement to win her faith.
To harm her brutishly would be to secure his own death, for well he
knew that the subtle force that was coming into life in The Hollow was
making the men remember they were men and the women to realize it also.
Then, too, the factory back of The Hollow would be running in a year's
time. It would put on the market a different line of merchandise than
his, but it would draw its labour from the same sources from which he
drew.

"That damned yellow cur," Crothers thought, "will put up prices; shut
down on the brats, and backed by the money of a fool who thinks to get
a big name this-er-way, will get me by the throat if I don't get him
first."

Vaguely, stupidly, Crothers desired to get Sandy away from The Hollow.
If only he could cause him to lose interest, give up the job and turn
the Company up North sick of the venture, all might be well. Crothers
had even fancied the good effect of a plague in The Hollow that would