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324 friendship too much not to wish to retain it. On the other hand we are old-timers here, you know. Won't you think of us as friends anxious to find a way out of a very difficult situation? Come back in half an hour and we'll talk our plan over."

Kenneth made no sign, except that his gaze rested on one after the other.

"Come on, kid," rumbled Big Bill again.

The young man apparently found what he wanted in the eyes of the other men, for he turned and, without a word, went out.

"The boy is square," said Carlson decidedly, the moment he disappeared.

"You bet you!" chimed in Bill Hunter.

"I'm not so absolutely certain," doubted Frank Moore.

"I am," reasserted Carlson. "I watched him closely. He's just trying to be loyal to his father. I am convinced he knows no more about this than we do, and that he's nearly as much surprised."

"I agree with you," put in Ravenscroft.

"How about the old man, then?" asked Frank, abandoning the other point for the moment.

"He!" cried Carlson. "He's a wolf! I saw something of his methods in the boom; and I know his type in the East. He is what they're calling a captain of industry. He thinks he is perfectly honest and fair, and that makes him more dangerous. His honesty is keeping inside a hair line of legality. His fairness is an idea that the other fellow ought to be able to take care of himself. I'll believe anything of him—except perhaps that he'd ever go back on his word once it was clearly given."

"You talk like you'd burnt your fingers at that fire," drawled Frank Moore.

"I know what I'm talking about," shot back Carlson.

"Ken thinks it will be all right once he gets a chance to explain the situation," suggested Corbell.

Carlson hesitated. "I have no faith in it," he said at last. "That's just as I read human nature, though, and the type. Once any of these so-called big men get their course laid you can talk a thousand years and not swerve them a hair's breadth. He won't pay any attention to Ken's argument: he will simply look