f
the water with the brown treetrunks on one side and the green images
floating beyond. Peace lay over Eden valley and the bright river that
ran through it, but Ben Connor had no mind to dwell on unessentials.

He had found in the girl an ally of unexpected strength. He expected
only a difficult tool filled with scruples, drawing back, imperiling his
plans with her hesitation. Instead, she was on fire with the plan. He
thought well to fan that fire and keep it steadily blazing.

"It's better for David; better for him than it is for us. Look at the
poor fool! He's in prison here and doesn't know it. He thinks he's
happy, but he's simply kidding himself. In six months I'll have him
chatting with millionaires."

"Let a barber do a day's work on him first."

"No. It's just the long-haired nuts like that who get by with the
high-steppers. He has a lingo about flowers and trees that'll knock
their eye out. I know the gang. Always on edge for something
different--music that sounds like a riot in a junk shop and poetry that
reads like a drunken printing-press. Well, David ought to be different
enough to suit 'em. I'll boost him, though: 'The Man that Brought Out
the Eden Grays!' He'll be headline stuff!"

He laughed so heartily that he did not notice the quick glance of
criticism which the girl cast at him.

"I'm not taking anything from him, really," went on Connor. "I'm simply
sneaking around behind him so's I can pour his pockets full of the coin.
That's all there is to it. Outside of the looks, tell me if there's
anything crooked you can see?"

"I don't think there is," she murmured. "I almost hope that there
isn't!"

She was so dubious about it that Connor was alarmed. He was fond of Ruth
Manning, but she was just "different" enough to baffle him. Usually he
divided mankind into three or four categories for the sake of fast
thinking. There were the "boobs," the "regular guys," the "high
steppers," and the "nuts." Sometimes he came perilously close to
including Ruth in the last class--with David Eden. And if he did not do
so, it was mainly because she had given such an exhibition of cool
courage only a few moments before. He had finished his peroration, now,
with a feeling of actual virtue, but the shadow on her face made him
change his tactics and his talk.

He confined himself, thereafter, strictly to the future. First he
outlined his plans for raising the cash for the big "killing." He told
of the men to whom