ek in a shake less'n forty-nine minutes--jus' to show her that
anything on God's earth done by a Temple can be better done by a
Packard--you got to go to thinkin' things, have you? Why, sir, so help
me, sir, I've a notion to jump down right now an' give you the
horsewhippin' of your life!"

Steve, in spite of himself, chuckled. Terry, reassured about her
father, giggled. Both sounds were audible; the two, mingled, were
entirely too much to be borne.

"You--you disgrace to an honorable name," the old man called bitterly
and wrathfully. "You----"

He broke off, hesitated, glared from Steve at the car's side to Terry
already on the steps of the store, and concluded something more quietly
though not a whit less furiously for all that: "You speak of papers
signed. You don't mean you're actually havin' any kind of business
dealin's, frien'ly dealin's, with the Temples?"

"Blenham brought word you were foreclosing on Temple; he had some sort
of a crooked scheme to cheat Temple out of his land. I have just
framed a deal whereby I put up the money to pay you your mortgage
and----"

"You? _You_, Stephen Packard?"

"Yes," said Steve, wondering whether the old man were the more moved
because of the shock of finding his nephew able to pay off so large a
sum or because of the "frien'ly dealin's with the Temples."

There was a brief silence. Doctor Bridges mounted the steps; he and
Terry were going in. Then again Hell-Fire Packard's voice burst out
violently and Terry stopped short, her hands going suddenly to her
breast. Her face, could they have noted in the pale light, was flaming
scarlet.

"That hussy, that jade, that Jezebel!" came the ringing denunciation.
"The tricky, shameless, penurious, graspin' unprincipled little
she-devil! She's after you, my boy, after you hard. An', you poor
miserable blind worm of a fool, you ain't got the sense to see it!
Everybody knows it; the whole country's talkin' about it; how Temple's
baitin' his trap with her an' she's baitin' her trap with herself
an'----"

"Grandfather!" cried Steve, his own face flushing under the scathing
torrent. "You don't know what you are saying!"

"I know what he's saying."

Terry, her hands still tight pressed to her breast, came slowly down
the steps. Though but a moment had passed her face was now dead white
in the moonlight.

"You are saying," and her eyes shone straight up into the old man's,
"that I am setting a trap for your grand