Page:Stewart Edward White--The Rose Dawn.djvu/347

Rh all know that your father is honestly acting according to his lights. But there isn't time to convince him. It's a matter of education. We have to adopt measures to fit an immediate need. You must keep in mind all the time through this that we know you are doing what is right against all your natural instincts and affections, and that we honour and admire you for it from the bottom of our hearts."

"Hear! hear!" applauded Ravenscroft.

"And that we understand how your father looks at it, and we understand that it is not himself nor his business we disapprove of, but only the fact that those methods cannot fit this case. And we realize that this case is so different from your father's experience that he simply cannot understand it as we do, who have been brought up here. We esteem your father as much as you do, really."

"The hell we do!" growled Frank Moore, but he said it under his breath; and he received a kick in the shin from Corbell for his pains.

Kenneth looked measurably relieved at this speech. He was in the frame of mind when a little comfort goes a long way.

"Now perhaps you'd better get down town to the telegraph office," Corbell suggested to Ken. "Nothing like the present!"

The moment the young man had departed, Corbell drew the group closer together.

"Now to get hold of Boyd," said he. "We can't precisely storm his house, and we can't precisely abduct him off the streets in broad daylight."

"Ask him to go somewhere with us, and then nail him," suggested Moore, carelessly.

Corbell thought for some moments.

"I've got it. Get some letter paper, someone. I'll tell him we want his opinion as a banker on the value of that old hog wallow Frank bought in the boom, and ask him to drive out there in the morning."

But Frank, who had gone out for the paper, came hurrying back.

"He's out there in the office now!" he cried. "Barney says he comes over every evening about this time after his mail."