she corrected. "I ain't used to being called much
else."

"Mother, then--although I 'm not very accustomed to using the title.
My own mother died--shortly after my father came back from out here."

She walked to his side then and put a hand on his shoulders. For a
moment it seemed that her lips were struggling to repress something
which strove to pass them, something locked behind them for years.
Then the old face, dim in the half light, calmed.

"What do you want to know, Son?"

"Everything!"

"But there is n't much I can tell."

He caught her hand.

"There is! I know there is. I--"

"Son--all I can do is to make matters worse. If I knew anything that
would help you--if I could give you any light on anything, Old Mother
Howard would do it! Lord, did n't I help out your father when he
needed it the worst way? Did n't I--"

"But tell me what you know!" There was pleading in Fairchild's voice.
"Can't you understand what it all means to me? Anything--I 'm at sea,
Mother Howard! I 'm lost--you 've hinted to me about enemies, my
father hinted to me about them--but that's all. Is n't it fair that I
should know as much as possible if they still exist, and I 'm to make
any kind of a fight against them?"

"You 're right, Son. But I 'm as much in the dark as you. In those
days, if you were a friend to a person, you didn't ask questions. All
that I ever knew was that your father came to this boarding house when
he was a young man, the very first day that he ever struck Ohadi. He
did n't have much money, but he was enthusiastic--and it was n't long
before he 'd told me about his wife and baby back in Indianapolis and
how he 'd like to win out for their sake. As for me--well, they always
called me Mother Howard, even when I was a young thing, sort of setting
my cap for every good-looking young man that came along. I guess
that's why I never caught one of 'em--I always insisted on darning
their socks and looking after all their troubles for 'em instead of
going out buggy-riding with some other fellow and making 'em jealous."
She sighed ever so slightly, then chuckled. "But that ain't getting to
the point, though, is it?"

"If you could tell me about my father--"

"I 'm going to--all I know. Things were a lot different out here then
from what they were later. Silver was wealth to anybody that could
find it; every month, the Secretary of the Treasury was required by law
to buy three or four million o