Claiborne smiled in spite of himself.

"But, my dear sir, this is most extraordinary! I don't know that I care
to hear any more; by listening I seem to be encouraging you to follow
us--it's altogether too unusual. It's almost preposterous!"

And Dick Claiborne frowned severely; but Armitage still met his eyes
gravely.

"It's only decent for a man to give his references when it's natural for
them to be required. I was educated at Trinity College, Toronto. I spent
a year at the Harvard Law School. And I am not a beggar utterly. I own a
ranch in Montana that actually pays and a thousand acres of the best
wheat land in Nebraska. At the Bronx Loan and Trust Company in New York I
have securities to a considerable amount,--I am perfectly willing that
any one who is at all interested should inquire of the Trust Company
officers as to my standing with them. If I were asked to state my
occupation I should have to say that I am a cattle herder--what you call
a cowboy. I can make my living in the practice of the business almost
anywhere from New Mexico north to the Canadian line. I flatter myself
that I am pretty good at it," and John Armitage smiled and took a
cigarette from a box on the table and lighted it.

Dick Claiborne was greatly interested in what Armitage had said, and he
struggled between an inclination to encourage further confidence and a
feeling that he should, for Shirley's sake, make it clear to this
young-stranger that it was of no consequence to any member of the
Claiborne family who he was or what might be the extent of his lands or
the unimpeachable character of his investments. But it was not so easy to