the Eastern Shore to look me up. Listen!--that's his step now! Turn
that door knob and hold out your hands to him, and after you've got your
arms around him get down on your knees and thank your God that you've
got such a son! I do, every hour I live!"

The door swung wide and Harry strode in: his eyes glistening, his cheeks
aglow.

"Up, are you, and in your clothes!" he cried joyfully, all the freshness
of the morning in his voice. "Well, that's something like! How do you
like me now?--smooth as a marlinspike and my hair trimmed in the latest
fashion, so old Bones says. He didn't know me either till he got clear
down below my mouth and when my chin began to show he gave a--"

He stopped and stared at his father, who had been hidden from sight by
the swinging door. The surprise was so great that his voice clogged in
his throat. Rutter stood like one who had seen an apparition.

St. George broke the silence:

"It's all right, Harry--give your father your hand."

The colonel made a step forward, threw out one arm as if to regain his
equilibrium and swayed toward a chair, his frame shaking convulsively,
wholly unstrung, sobbing like a child. Harry sprang to catch him and
the two sank down together--no word of comfort--only the mute appeal of
touch--the brown hand wet with his father's tears.

For some seconds neither spoke, then Rutter raised his head and looked
into his son's face.

"I didn't know it was you, Harry. I have been hunting you all day to ask
your pardon." It was the memory of the last indignity he had heaped upon
him that tortured him.

"I knew you didn't, father."

"Don't go away again, Harry, please don't, my son!" he pleaded,
strangling the tears, trying to regain his self-control--tears had often
of late moistened Rutter's lids. "Your mother can't stand it another
year, and I'm breaking up--half blind. You won't go, will you?"

"No--not right away, father--we'll talk of that later." He was still in
the dark as to how it had come about. All he knew was that for the first
time in all his life his father had asked his pardon, and for the first
time in his life the barrier which held them apart had been broken down.

The colonel braced himself in his seat in one supreme effort to get
himself in hand. One of his boasts was that he had never lost his
self-control. Harry rose to his feet and stood beside him. St. George,
trembling from his own weakness, a great throb of thankfulness in his
heart, h