. Conniston? If I _am_ meddlesome?"

"If we are going to be friends, you and I--and you promised that you
would let me make you my friend--hadn't we better drop that word?"

"Then I am going to tell you something. You are to go to work in the
Valley. Brayley told you that? Do you guess why--have you an
idea--why father is sending you over there?"

"I supposed because he is pushing the work--because he needs all the
men there he can get, can spare from the Half Moon."

"I am going to tell you. And I am afraid that father would not like
it, did he know. But I know that I am right. I may not see you again
before you go--I am going into Crawfordsville in the morning for a
few days. What I tell you, you will remember, is in strict
confidence--between friends?"

"In strict confidence," he repeated, seriously. "Between friends."

She leaned slightly forward, speaking swiftly, emphatically,
earnestly:

"You have heard of Bat Truxton? He is in charge there of all the men,
general superintendent of all the work. You will be put to work under
him. You will be in a position to learn a great deal about the project
in its every detail. Bat Truxton is an engineer, a practical man who
knows what he has learned by doing it. And he is a strong man and very
capable. Then there is Garton--Tommy Garton they call him. You will
work with him. He, too, is an engineer, and he, too, knows all there
is to know about the work."

She paused a moment, as though in hesitation. Conniston waited in
silence for her to go on.

"Father is sending you to the Valley because he has begun to take an
interest in you. Before the year is over there is going to be an
opportunity for every man there to show what there is in him. He is
giving you your chance, your chance to make good!"

Argyl got to her feet and stood looking away from him, out across the
duck pond. Presently she turned to him again, smiling, her voice gone
from grave to gay.

"The race is on, isn't it? The great handicap! And, anyway, I have
given you a tip, haven't I? Now you are coming up to the house with
me, and I'm going to make you a bandage for your broken hand."

She didn't stop to heed his protest, but ran ahead of him to the
house. And Conniston, pondering on many things, saw nothing for it but
to allow her to play nurse to him.

Saturday morning Greek Conniston pocketed the first money he had ever
earned by good, hard work. Brayley handed him three ten-dollar gold
piece