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 put the double question, which all amounted to the same thing.

"You're too generous in taking up a stray chap this way, Mrs. Ellison, Miss Eudora."

Tom rose formally as he spoke, laying his pipe aside, his face as serious as if millions were hanging on the deal. And in relation to his financial status at that hour, it was a very important piece of business for Tom Simpson, indeed. A dollar looked as big to him that night as the hind wheel of a wagon.

"Then it's yours for bones," Eudora said, reaching her hand across the table to seal the compact as man to man.

"And for the bones," said Tom, squeezing her hand a little more ardently than a plain business transaction justified, beyond a doubt.