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 sure he had acted prudently. Many courses occurred to him as he looked at the photograph with his host and hostess on either side of him.

"Have you ever seen him, Mr. Touchtone, down to New York, do you think?" asked Obed, certainly little expecting an affirmative reply.

Philip laid down the picture and turned to the couple, resolved.

"Yes, I have. I began to think so when you were finishing your story, and that's why I wanted it broken off and this picture kept back. I am sorry to say it, but that man there is an enemy of mine and of Gerald Saxton, or, perhaps, of Gerald's father. He has given us, unexpectedly, a great deal of trouble since Gerald and I left the Ossokosee. He would be glad, I am sure, to do more if he possibly gets the chance. We met him first as a Mr. Hilliard; and last, he told me to call him Mr. John A. Belmont, of New York. I—I—am a good deal afraid of him."

Obed and Loreta Probasco stared at Touchtone, and then at each other, in astonishment too deep for more than the shortest of their favorite exclamations.

"I can tell you the whole story presently.