210

XVIII. JIM MAKES A SPEECH 224

XIX. THE MASK BALL 235

XX. THE DAY'S WORK 249

XXI. JIM GETS A BLOW 267

XXII. JIM PLANS A LAST FIGHT 277

XXIII. THE SILENT CAMPAIGN 294

XXIV. UNCLE DENNY GETS BUSY 308

XXV. SARA GOES ON A JOURNEY 326

XXVI. THE END OF A SILENT CAMPAIGN 338

XXVII. THE THUMB PRINT 353

* * * * *

STILL JIM

CHAPTER I

THE QUARRY

"An Elephant of Rock, I have lain here in the desert for
countless ages, watching, waiting. I wonder for what!"

MUSINGS OF THE ELEPHANT.

Little Jim sat at the quarry edge and dangled his legs over the derrick
pit. The derrick was out of commission because once more the lift cable
had parted. Big Jim Manning, Little Jim's father, was down in the pit
with Tomasso, his Italian helper, disentangling the cables, working
silently, efficiently, as was his custom.

Little Jim bit his fingers and watched and scowled in a worried way. He
and his mother hated to have Big Jim work in the quarry. It seemed to
them that Big Jim was too good for such work. Little Jim wanted to leave
school and be a water boy and his father's helper. Big Jim never seemed
to hear the boy's request and Little Jim kept on at school.

The noon whistle blew just as the cable was once more in running order.
Little Jim slid down into the pit with his father's dinner bucket and
sat by while his father ate.

Big Jim Manning was big only in height. He was six feet tall, but lean.
He was sallow and given to long silences that he broke with a slow,
sarcastic drawl that Little Jim had inherited. Big Jim was forty-five
years old. Little Jim was fourteen; tall and lean, like his father, his
face a composite of father and mother. His eyes were large and a clear
gray. Even at fourteen he had the half sweet, half gay, wholly wistful
smile that people watched for, when he grew up. His hair was a warm leaf
brown, peculiarly soft and thick. Little Jim's forehead was the forehead
of a dreamer. His mouth and chin were dogged, persistent, energetic.

When he was not in school, Jim never missed