Honorable Milton Waring as he
mounted the stairs slowly, a heavy hand upon the banister rail. The
gray head was bowed. There was an air of dejection in the whole figure
as of one who tastes the bitterness of defeat.

CHAPTER IV

THE LISTENING STENOGRAPHER

When Phil opened his eyes on the morning sunshine--both eyes--he was
gratified to note a slight improvement in the blackened orb. Before
retiring he had sent the newly returned Stinson around to the front of
the house to bring in the suitcase left by the verandah and had
instructed the valet to bring a piece of raw beefsteak to his room.
Nevertheless, as he studied his appearance in the mirror with some
anxiety he was glad that he was going to Sparrow Lake and thence to
North Bay as fast as he could get there. Thorpe would soon tire of
making witty remarks, and the fish would not care whether he had a
black eye or not.

As he dressed leisurely Kendrick's mind reverted soberly to the events
of the past twenty-four hours. Reviewing in detail the interview with
his uncle, there grew out of his confusion of thought an odd sense of
disquiet. Close questioning of Stinson had yielded the information
which his uncle had not seen fit to volunteer in regard to last night's
clandestine visitors at the Island residence--Nickleby, President of
the Interprovincial Loan & Savings Company; Alderson, of the Alderson
Construction Company; Blatchford Ferguson, the lawyer. If, as the
Honorable Milton had intimated, it had been a business meeting merely,
they must be planning a raid on the stock market to account for all the
secrecy with which the meeting had been shrouded. His uncle, Phil
knew, had invested heavily in mining stocks, and J. Cuthbert Nickleby
was the man who had been most closely associated with him in these
private investments, while for some time now Ferguson had been favored
with Waring's legal patronage in such deals as had come to Kendrick's
notice. As for Alderson, he was a comparative stranger to Phil--a
contractor who had risen rapidly during the real-estate boom, and who
very reasonably might be taking a flyer on the market.

It must be something of this sort, and in the face of his uncle's
evident desire for him to mind his own business Phil was inclined to
let it go at that. It was scarcely to be expected that his uncle would
break the custom of years in a sudden burst of confidence just because
his nephew happened to surprise him in one o