back to his wagon,
raised his tattered hat, and mounted upon his load of wood.

CHAPTER XV

The details of the business were all settled. John was ready to leave
for New York. He was to take the midnight train and was finishing his
packing in his room at about nine o'clock when Cavanaugh came in.

"I have something to tell you that you may or may not like," the old man
faltered. "I don't know how you'll feel about it, but Joel Eperson is at
the gate and says he wants to speak to you."

"Eperson!" John exclaimed, with a start.

"Yes, and the poor fellow looks awful, John. He could barely speak. He
leaned on the gate like he could hardly stand up. I hope you will be
kind and gentle with him. I have never seen such a pitiful sight. It's
his pride, I reckon, and it has been cut to the quick."

John said nothing. It was an encounter he had hoped to avoid. He put
some things into his bag and pressed them down. How could he confer on
any terms with that man of all men? And yet he plainly saw that the
meeting was inevitable.

"It wouldn't do to turn him away," Cavanaugh advised, gingerly. "You
see, it would upset all the other plans, for I know him well enough to
know that if you treat him roughly to-night he will not live on that
farm. He would kill himself first."

"He and I will make out all right," John said, turning resolutely to the
door. "Will he not come in?"

"I don't think he wants to," Cavanaugh said. "He kept in the shadow
while I was talking to him and had his hat pulled down over his eyes."

As John went outside he saw Eperson at the fence. A thing that touched
him sharply was the fact that Eperson unlatched the gate and swung it
open, as a servant might have done for his master, while he still kept
his eyes hidden under the broad brim of his slouch-hat.

"I came to see you-- I _had_ to see you, Mr. Trott," Eperson muttered,
jerkingly. "I heard you were going away to-night and I couldn't--well, I
had to see you."

"I understand, Eperson," John said, wondering over his own stilted tone
to a man whom he so profoundly pitied. "Will you come in--or shall
we--?"

"Yes, we can walk, if you don't mind," Eperson answered, quickly. "I
really think it would be better. Curious people pass along and look in
windows sometimes, but back here in the wood there is no light and it is
quiet."

"Yes, that is better," John agreed. And side by side the two men walked
along Cavanaugh's lot fence till they wer