hades, added a log to the great, open fireplace and glanced
humorously at his companion who was industriously playing Canfield.

"Well, Dick," said he, "on with your overcoat. Now that supper's done,
we've a tramp ahead of us."

Wherry rebelled.

"Oh, Lord, Carl!" he exclaimed. "Hear the wind!" He rose and drew
aside the shade. "The lane's thick with snow. Heavens, man, it's no
night for a tramp. Allan's coming in with the mail and he looks like a
snow man."

"You promised," reminded Carl inexorably. "How long since you've had a
drink, Dick?"

"Nine weeks!" said Wherry, his boyish face kindling suddenly with pride.

"And your eyes and skin are clear and you're lean and hard as a race
horse. But what a fight! What a fight!" Carl slipped his arm
suddenly about the other's broad shoulders. "Come on, Dick," he urged
gently. "It's discipline and endurance to-night. I want you to fight
this icy wind and grit your teeth against it. Every battle won makes a
force furrow in your will."

He met Wherry's eyes and smiled with a flash of the irresistible
magnetism which somehow awoke unconscious response in those who beheld
it. It flamed now in Wherry's clear young eyes, a look of dumb
fidelity such as one sees now and then in the eyes of a faithful
animal. Such a look had flashed at times in the bloated face of Hunch
Dorrigan, in the eyes of young Allan Carmody here at the farm, and--in
early manhood when Carl had lazily set a college by the ears--in the
eyes of Philip Poynter. It was the nameless force which the faculty
had dreaded, for it sent men flocking at the heels of one whose daring
whims were as incomprehensible as they were unexpected and original.

Young Allan brought the mail in and Carl smilingly tossed a letter to
Wherry, who colored and slipped it in his pocket with an air of studied
indifference.

Carl slit the two directed to himself and rapidly scanned their
contents. One was from Ann Sherrill jogging his memory about a promise
to come to Palm Beach in January, the other from Aunt Agatha, whose
trip to her cousin's in Indiana Carl had encouraged with a great flood
of relief, for it had made possible this nine weeks with Wherry at the
Glade Farm.

Two steps at a time, Wherry bounded up to his room. When he returned
he was in better spirits than he had been for months.

"Come on, Carl," he exclaimed boyishly. "I'll walk down any gale
to-night. And Allan says we're in for a blizzard