'a' looked so kind and gentle and sweet. I just knew you
couldn't turn me down----"

There was no mistaking the genuineness of the apology for his
presumption. She smiled a gracious answer, and threw the last ugly
suspicion to the winds.

He broke into a laugh and lifted his hand in the sudden gesture of a
traffic policeman commanding a halt.

"What is it?" she asked.

"You know I was so excited I clean forgot to introduce myself! What do
you think o' that? You'll excuse me, won't you? My name's Jim Anthony.
I'm sorry I can't give you any references to my folks. I haven't
any--I'm a lost sheep in New York--no father or mother. That's why I'm
so excited about this trip I'm plannin' down South. I hear I've got some
people down there."

He stopped suddenly as if absorbed in the thought. Her heart went out to
him in sympathy for this confession of his orphaned life.

"I'm Mary Adams," she smiled in answer. "I'm a teacher in the public
schools."

"Gee--that accounts for it! I thought you looked like you knew
everything in those books. And you've been to Asheville, too?"

"Yes."

"Suppose it's not as big a burg as New York?"

"Hardly--it's just a hustling mountain town of about twenty-five
thousand people."

"Lot o' swells from around New York live down there, they tell me."

"Yes, the Vanderbilts have a beautiful castle just outside."

"Some mountains near Asheville?"

"Hundreds of square miles."

"Mountains in every direction?"

"As far as the eye can reach, one blue range piled above another until
they're lost in the dim skies on the horizon."

"Gee, it may be pretty hard to find your folks if they just live in the
mountains near Asheville?"

"Unless your directions are more explicit--I should think so."

"You know, I thought the mountains near Asheville was a bunch o' hills
off one side like the Palisades, that you couldn't miss if you tried.
I've never been outside of New York--since I can remember. I'd love to
see real mountains."

The last sentence was spoken in a wistful pathos that touched Mary with
its irresistible appeal. Her mother instincts responded to it in quick
sympathy.

"You've missed a lot," she answered gravely.

"I'll bet I have. It's a rotten old town, this New York----"

He paused, and a queer light flashed from his steel eyes.

"Until you get your hand on its throat," he added, bringing his square
jaws together.

Mary lifted her face with keen interest.

"And you'v