came to
help the first, and in a minute or two the traffic was in motion again.
The crowd became pliant, dispersing--there was no figure upon the
ground, and no ambulance came. But one of the policemen was detained by
the clinging and beseeching of a gloved hand.

"What IS the matter, lady?"

"Where are they?" Mary cried.

"Who? Ole man Sheridan? I reckon HE wasn't much hurt!"

"His SON--"

"Was that who the other one was? I seen him knock him--oh, he's not bad
off, I guess, lady. The ole man got him out of the way all right. The
fender shoved the ole man around some, but I reckon he only got shook
up. They both went on in the Sheridan Building without any help. Excuse
me, lady."

Sheridan and Bibbs, in fact, were at that moment in the elevator,
ascending. "Whisk-broom up in the office," Sheridan was saying. "You got
to look out on those corners nowadays, I tell you. I don't know I got
any call to blow, though--because I tried to cross after you did. That's
how I happened to run into you. Well, you want to remember to look out
after this. We were talkin' about Murtrie's askin' sixty-eight thousand
flat for that ninety-nine-year lease. It's his lookout if he'd rather
take it that way, and I don't know but--"

"No," said Bibbs, emphatically, as the elevator stopped; "he won't get
it. Not from us, he won't, and I'll show you why. I can convince you
in five minutes." He followed his father into the office anteroom--and
convinced him. Then, having been diligently brushed by a youth of color,
Bibbs went into his own room and closed the door.

He was more shaken than he had allowed his father to perceive, and his
side was sore where Sheridan had struck him. He desired to be alone; he
wanted to rub himself and, for once, to do some useless thinking again.
He knew that his father had not "happened" to run into him; he knew that
Sheridan had instantly--and instinctively--proved that he held his own
life of no account whatever compared to that of his son and heir. Bibbs
had been unable to speak of that, or to seem to know it; for Sheridan,
just as instinctively, had swept the matter aside--as of no importance,
since all was well--reverting immediately to business.

Bibbs began to think intently of his father. He perceived, as he
had never perceived before, the shadowing of something enormous and
indomitable--and lawless; not to be daunted by the will of nature's
very self; laughing at the lightning and at wounds and mu