"Be careful, Rad!" laughed Mr. Damon, for he it was who was
trying to act as peacemaker. "Remember that Koku is very strong."

"Yas, sah! He may be strong, but he's clumsy!" chuckled
Eradicate. "You watch me beat him!"

"Ho! Black man get stuck in mud!" challenged Koku. "I show
him!"

Then there was silence, and Tom and his father, looking out,
saw the two disputants beginning to spade the soil while Mr.
Damon, satisfied that he had, for the time being, stopped a
quarrel, turned toward the house.

"I was just coming to look for you," said Tom. "Sorry I had to
go off in such a hurry and leave you, but I had promised to take
Mary for a ride, and as it was her first one, for a distance, I
didn't want her to back out."

"That's all right, Tom, that's all right!" said Mr. Damon
genially. "Ladies first every time. But I do want to see you, and
it's about something important."

"No trouble, I hope?" queried Tom, for the manner of the
eccentric man was rather grave.

"Trouble? Oh, no! Bless my frying pan, no trouble, Tom! In
fact, it may be the other way about. Tom, I have an idea, and
there may be millions in it! That's it--millions!"