! How are you?" came rolling on the wire.

"Dad! Dad! Is it--you?" cried Lenore, wildly.

"Sure is. Just got here. Are you an' the girls O.K.?"

"We're well--fine. Oh, dad ..."

"You needn't send the car. I'll hire one."

"Yes--yes--but, dad--Oh, tell me ..."

"Wait! I'll be there in five minutes."

She heard him slam up the receiver, and she leaned there, palpitating,
with the queer, vacant sounds of the telephone filling her ear.

"Five minutes!" Lenore whispered. In five more minutes she would know.
They seemed an eternity. Suddenly a flood of emotion and thought
threatened to overwhelm her. Leaving the office, she hurried forth to
find her sisters, and not until she had looked everywhere did she
remember that they were visiting a girl friend. After this her motions
seemed ceaseless; she could not stand or sit still, and she was
continually going to the porch to look down the shady lane. At last a
car appeared, coming fast. Then she ran indoors quite aimlessly and out
again. But when she recognized her father all her outward fears and
tremblings vanished. The broad, brown flash of his face was reality. He
got out of the car lightly for so heavy a man, and, taking his valise,
he dismissed the chauffeur. His smile was one of gladness, and his
greeting a hearty roar.

Lenore met him at the porch steps, seeing in him, feeling as she
embraced him, that he radiated a strange triumph and finality.

"Say, girl, you look somethin' like your old self," he said, holding her
by the shoulders. "Fine! But you're a woman now.... Where are the kids?"

"They're away," replied Lenore.

"How you stare!" laughed Anderson, as with arm round her he led her in.
"Anythin' queer about your dad's handsome mug?"

His jocular tone did not hide his deep earnestness. Never had Lenore
felt him so forceful. His ruggedness seemed to steady her nerves that
again began to fly. Anderson took her into his office, closed the door,
threw down his valise.

"Great to be home!" he exploded, with heavy breath.

Lenore felt her face blanch; and that intense quiver within her suddenly
stilled.

"Tell me--quick!" she whispered.

He faced her with flashing eyes, and all about him changed. "You're an
Anderson! You can stand shock?"

"Any--any shock but suspense."

"I lied about the wheat deal--about my trip to New York. I got news of
Dorn. I was afraid to tell you."

"Yes?"

"Dorn is alive," went on Anderson.

Lenore's hands went out i