tainly," he looked up. "But why do you want to know?"

"Perhaps you don't want to know why I want to know," Brent laughed.

"But I do, sir!"

"That isn't a sufficient reason, Colonel, for it may not be ethical for
me to tell you. However, I've two plans. One is to give Dale a
twenty-four-hour start, and in that event I'll go along to see him
settled."

"I shall forget what you say," the old gentleman, immeasurably pleased,
frowned sternly to ease his conscience. "But you can be of no service to
him! He knows his country like a book!"

"It isn't to his country I'd advise him to go. No one would think, for
instance, of looking for him in our house at home. He could keep on
studying, too; and after awhile this thing would blow over."

The light in Colonel May's face was eloquent of a greater affection than
he had at any time felt for Brent, but he simply said:

"Then I should lose you both! What is your other plan?"

"The other plan is something I am not at liberty to tell even you,"
Brent soberly answered.

After several minutes, during which the older man seemed to be thinking
deeply, he struck his fist on the arm of his chair, exclaiming:

"I don't see why it's so damned important to tell Jess, anyhow! Why,
sir, the fellow may not be dead, at all! And you mustn't lose sight of
the fact, sir, that Dale is my guest, entitled by a higher law to my
protection!"

"Now that you mention it, I believe you are right," Brent cried, as
though this were sparklingly original. "Let's act on the suggestion!"

Sometime later, after they had gone, Zack came out to gather up the
goblets. For several minutes he stood with one of these in his hand,
staring with a perplexed and troubled frown at a julep which had not
been tasted.

"Dar ain' no fly in it, dat's suah," he mumbled, "but I cyarn' see what
de trubble is! An' it ain' Marse John's, 'caze he drinked his'n whilst I
wuz heah! De onlies' answer is dat Marse Brent done lef it fer de ole
nigger!"

With a stealthy look toward Miss Liz's windows he backed into the
shrubbery and transferred the julep to a place where it might receive
more consideration; then, after doing a few steps of a double-shuffle,
he emerged and walked airily to the house.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE SECOND PLAN

Brent's room was across the hall from Dale's. These two, engineer and
mountaineer, were the only occupants of the third floor, known since
their arrival as Bachelors' Belfry. This floor