degrees, as men who are feeling
their way to conversation, they began talking of local politics. They
were going at a high rate when the talk turned to Henry Fenn. "Doing
pretty well, Doctor," put in the younger man. "Only broke over once in
eighteen months--that's the record for Henry. Shows what a woman can do
for a man." He looked up sympathetically, and caught the Doctor's
curious eyes.

The Doctor puffed, cleaned out his pipe, absently put it away, then rose
and deliberately pulled his chair over to the hammock: "Tom--I'm a
generation older than you--nearly. I want to tell you something--" He
smiled. "Boy--you've got the devil's own fight ahead of you--did you
know it--I mean," he paused, "the--well, the woman proposition."

Van Dorn fingered his mustache, and looked serious.

"Tom," the elder man chirped, "you're a handsome pup--a damn handsome,
lovable pup. Sometimes." He let his voice run whimsically into its
mocking falsetto, "I almost catch myself getting fooled too."

They laughed.

"Boy, the thing's in your blood. Did you realize that you've got just as
hard a fight as poor Henry Fenn? It's all right now--for a while; but
the time will come--we might just as well look this thing squarely in
the face now, Tom--the time will come in a few years when the devil will
build the same kind of a fire under you he is building under Henry
Fenn--only it won't be whisky; it will be the woman proposition. Damn
it, boy," cried the elder man squeakily, "it's in your blood; you've let
it grow in your very blood. I've known you ten years now, and I've seen
it grow. Tom--when the time comes, can you stand up and fight like Henry
Fenn--can you, Tom? And will you?" he cried with a piteous fierceness
that stirred all the sympathy in the young man's heart.

He rose to the height of the Doctor's passion. Tears came into Van
Dorn's bright eyes. His breast expanded emotionally and he exclaimed: "I
know what I am, oh, I know it. But for her--you and I together--you'll
help and we'll stand together and fight it out for her." The father
looked at the mobile features of his companion, and sensed the thin
plating of emotion under the vain voice. Whereupon the Doctor heaved a
deep, troubled sigh.

"Heigh-ho, heigh-ho." He put his arm upon the broad, handsome, young
shoulder. "But you'll try to be a good boy, won't you--" he repeated.
"Just try hard to be a good boy, Tom--that's all any of us can do," and
turning away he whistled i