man in it with a soul above horse-flesh."

The doctor's shafts to-day, however, glanced off the major's buckler of
geniality like the Lilliputian arrows from Gulliver's eye-glass. "I hope
you ride, Mr. Valiant?" the latter asked genially.

"I'm fond of it," said Valiant, "but I have no horse as yet."

"I was thinking," pursued the major, "of the coming tournament."

"Tournament?"

The doctor cut in. "A ridiculous cock-a-doodle-do which gives the young
bucks a chance to rig out in silly toggery and prance their colts before
a lot of petticoats!"

"It's an annual affair," explained the major; "a kind of spectacle.
For many years, by the way, it has been held on a part of this
estate--perhaps you will have no objection to its use this season?--and
at night there is a dance at the Country Club. By the way, you must let
me introduce you there to-morrow. I've taken the liberty already of
putting your name up."

"Good lord!" growled the doctor, aside. "He counts himself _young_! If
I'd reached your age, Bristow--"

"You have," said the major, nettled. "Four years ago!--As I was saying,
Mr. Valiant, they ride for a prize. It's a very ancient thing--I've
seen references to it in a colonial manuscript in the Byrd Library at
Westover. No doubt it's come down directly from the old jousts."

"You don't mean to say," cried his hearer in genuine astonishment, "that
Virginia has a lineal descendant of the tourney?"

The major nodded. "Yes. Certain sections of Kentucky used to have it,
too, but it has died out there. It exists now only in this state. It's a
curious thing that the old knightly meetings of the middle ages should
survive to-day only on American soil and in a corner of Virginia."

Doctor Southall, meanwhile, had set his gaze on the litter of pamphlets.
He turned with an appreciative eye. "You're beginning in earnest. The
Agricultural Department. And the Congressional frank."

"I've gone to the fountainhead," said Valiant. "I'm trying to find out
possibilities. I've sent samples of the soil. It's lain fallow so long
it has occurred to me it may need special treatment."

The major pulled his mustache meditatively. "Not a bad idea," he said.
"He's starting right--eh, Southall? You're bringing the view-point of
practical science to bear on the problem, Mr. Valiant."

"I'm afraid I'm a sad sketch as a scientist," laughed the other.
"My point of view has to be a somewhat practical one. I must be
self-supporting.