doesn't it? But I will tell you why I make that
suggestion, because if you don't tell him he won't tell you. You see, my
dear, you are a very rich young woman, a very well-educated young woman,
you have a social position and a large number of friends. Tam is a
self-educated man, with no money and very few prospects and no social
position, and, as you say, he is straight and honest--"

"He is the straightest and most honest man in the world," said Vera
warmly.

"Well, in those circumstances can't you see, he would no more think of
asking for you than he would of calling at Buckingham Palace and
demanding the Kohinoor!"

"In America," said Vera, "we haven't those absurd ideas."

"Oh, shucks!" said Elizabeth contemptuously. "You seem to forget I was
born in Pennsylvania."

And there the conversation ended, and for the rest of the day Vera was
silent and thoughtful, excusing her taciturnity by the fact that she had
a lot of packing to do and needed to concentrate her mind upon its
performance.

The mortal foe to instinct is reason. They are the negative and positive
of mental volition. The man who retains the animal gift of unreasoning
divination, preserving that clear power against the handicaps which mind
training and education impose, is necessarily psychic, or, as they say
in certain Celtic countries, "fey."

Tam went up on patrol flying a new "pup"--a tiny machine powerfully
engined, which climbed at an angle of fifty degrees and at a surprising
speed. He pushed up through a fog bank at three thousand feet and
reached blue skies. His engine was running sweetly, there was just the
"give" in his little chaser, the indefinable resilience which a good
machine should possess, his guns were in excellent order, his controls
worked smoothly, but--

Tam was at a loss how to proceed from that "but."

He turned the nose of the "pup" to earth and planed down to the
aerodrome.

Blackie left the machine he was about to take and walked across to Tam.

"Anything wrong?" he asked.

"Weel," replied Tam cautiously, "I'd no' go so far as to say that
there's verra much wrong wi' the young fellow."

Blackie looked at him keenly.

"Engines--?"

Tam shook his head.

"No, they were wairking bonnily--there's nothing to complain aboot only
I just felt that 'pup' an' Tam was no thinkin' the same way."

"Oh!" said Blackie.

He examined the machine, a new one, with the greatest care, tested the
controls, examined and sound