d ample time
to admit the fact utterly and completely; now there was a ringing note
in his voice, the effect of which, falling upon his grandfather's ears,
might be likened with no great stretch of imagination to that of a
spark in a keg of gunpowder.

The old man's brakes, applied emphatically, brought his car to a
standstill.

"Look at that clock!" was his first remark, at once apprising Steve of
his relative's presence and hinting, by means of its no uncertain tone,
at an unpleasant situation on hand or about to burst upon them. "Made
it in fifty-three minutes, did you? Well, I done it in less'n
forty-nine! What have you got to say about that?"

But Terry ignored him and jumped down, her hand impulsively laid on
Steve's arm. Thus she, in her turn, may be said to have added another
spark to young Packard's in the powder keg.

"How's dad?" she asked quickly.

Steve patted the hand on his arm and either Terry did not notice the
act or did not mind. Old man Packard both noted and minded. His grunt
was to be heard above Doctor Bridges's devout "Thank God, we're here!"
as the physician stepped stiffly to the sidewalk.

"Better," said Steve. "I think he's going to be all right after all.
I hope so. He----"

"Blenham?" she asked insistently. "He didn't put one over on you? The
mortgage----"

Steve tapped his breast pocket.

"The papers have been signed; we got a notary; everything is shipshape.
Go in; I'll tell you all about it later."

He turned toward the car and the stiffened figure of the man gripping
the wheel with tense, hard hands.

"Grandy----"

"Grandy, your foot!" boomed old Packard suddenly, one hand jerked away
to be clenched into a lifted fist. "An' _Terry_! My God!"

"What do you mean?" asked Steve. "I don't understand."

"I mean," shouted Packard senior, his voice shaking with emotion, "that
no mouth in the world is big enough to hold them two words the same
night! If you want to chum with any Temple livin', he-Temple or
she-Temple, if, sir, you intend to go 'round slobberin' over the
low-down enemies of your own father an' father's father, why, sir, then
I'm Mr. Packard to you and the likes of you!"

Still was Steve mystified.

"I thought," he muttered, "that since you two came together, since you
yourself have driven her in----"

"If I, sir," thundered his grandfather, "have chosen to bring that
petticoated wildcat there an' that ol' pill-slinger from my place to
Red Cre