r
the boys talk--they'd lie down and let you walk on 'em, if you wanted
to."

Max's eyes were bright, and his face red with exercise and excitement.
He came to the gate and stood wiping his feet and looking from one to
the other for several moments before he felt the awkwardness that had
come over him. His long rubber coat was thrown back, and little streams
of water ran down his back and formed a pool on the floor behind him.

"You'd better come out," he said. "It's the prettiest thing I ever
saw--a clean straight span from the main house to the tower."

Bannon stood watching him quizzically; then he turned to Hilda. She,
too, had been looking at Max, but she turned at the same moment, and
their eyes met.

"Do you want to go?" he said.

She nodded eagerly. "I'd like to ever so much."

Then Bannon thought of the rain, but she saw his thought as he glanced
toward the window, and spoke quickly.

"I don't mind--really. Max will let me take his coat."

"Sure," said Max, and he grinned. She slipped into it, and it enveloped
her, hanging in folds and falling on the floor.

"I'll have to hold it up," she said. "Do we have much climbing?"

"No," said Max, "it ain't high. And the stairs are done, you know."

Hilda lifted the coat a little way with both hands, and put out one
small toe. Bannon looked at it, and shook his head. "You'll get your
feet wet," he said.

She looked up and met Bannon's eyes again, with an expression that
puzzled Max.

"I don't care. It's almost time to go home, anyway."

So they went out, and closed the door; and Max, who had been told to
"stay behind and keep house," looked after them, and then at the door,
and an odd expression of slow understanding came into his face. It was
not in what they had said, but there was plainly a new feeling between
them. For the first time in his life, Max felt that another knew Hilda
better than he did. The way Bannon had looked at her, and she at him;
the mutual understanding that left everything unsaid; the something--Max
did not know what it was, but he saw it and felt it, and it disturbed
him.

He sat on the table, and swung his feet, while one expression chased
another over his face. When he finally got himself together, he went to
the door, and opening it, looked out at the black, dim shape of the
elevator that stood big and square, only a little way before him,
shutting out whatever he might else have seen of rushing sky or
dim-lighted river, o