and which,
if he does, may pay handsomely. He wants me to go with him. It means
a shanty and a negro cook, as near as I can figure it, but I shall get
used to that, I suppose. What do you think about it?"

"Well," chuckled Peter--it was not news; MacFarlane had told him all
about it the week before at the Century--"if you can keep the shanty
tight and the cook sober you may weather it. It must be great fun living
in a shanty. I never tried it, but I would like to."

"Yes, perhaps it is,--but it has its drawbacks. I can't come to see you
for one thing, and then the home will be broken up. Miss Ruth will go
back to her grandmother's for a while, she says, and later on she
will visit the Fosters at Newport and perhaps spend a month with Aunt
Felicia." He called her so now.

Jack paused for some further expression of opinion from his always ready
adviser, but Peter's eyes were still fixed on the slow, dying fire.

"It will be rather a rough job from what I saw of it," Jack went on. "We
are to run a horizontal shaft into some ore deposits. Mr. MacFarlane and
I have been studying the plans for some time; we went over the ground
together last month. That's why I didn't come to you last week."

Peter twisted his head: "What's the name of the nearest town?"
MacFarlane had told him but he had forgotten.

"Morfordsburg. I was there once with my father when I was a boy. He had
some ore lands near where these are;--those he left me. The Cumberland
property we always called it. I told you about it once. It will never
amount to anything,--except by expensive boring. That is also what hurts
the value of this new property the Maryland Mining Company owns. That's
what they want Mr. MacFarlane for. Now, what would you do if you were
me?"

"What sort of a town is Morfordsburg?" inquired Peter, ignoring Jack's
question, his head still buried between his shoulders.

"Oh, like all other country villages, away from railroad connection."

"Any good houses,--any to rent?"

"Yes,--I saw two."

"And you want my advice, do you, Jack?" he burst out, rising erect in
his seat.

"Yes."

"Well, I'd stick to MacFarlane and take Ruth with me."

Jack broke out into a forced laugh. Peter had arrived by a short cut!
Now he knew, he was a mind reader.

"She won't go," he answered in a voice that showed he was open to
conviction. Peter, perhaps, had something up his sleeve.

"Have you asked her?" The old fellow's eyes were upon him now.