"Ah!" Frank cried. "I remember, a beautiful girl in green. It was found
among my father's papers only last year. It was a relic of his life
abroad."
"Yes," Dermott answered, with a curious smile, "that's just what it was.
A relic of his life abroad. Well, good-bye and good luck to you," he
said, rising, and Francis noted anew the grace of movement, the
distinctive pallor, the humor of the great gray eyes as McDermott turned
suddenly to come back to him. "Forgive me, Ravenel," he said, taking his
hat and stick from a self-abasing waiter, "for dragging you into my
private affairs in the way I have done, but somehow I thought it might
interest you to know of my love for Katrine," and, humming an old song,
he went his devious Celtic way.
"Three seventeen! Three seventeen! Mr. Ravenel! Three seventeen!"
Dreaming over McDermott's story, Frank realized that a call-boy was
charging around the dining-room screaming his name and room number. "Mr.
Philip de Peyster."
"Hello, old man!" Frank cried, with genuine pleasure, as Mr. de Peyster
came forward. "I found so many messages from you, I fear the worst.
You're wanting me to stand up with you, I take it."
De Peyster shook his head. "Nothing so bad as that. I _have_ rather
overwhelmed you with messages and things, haven't I? It's only business,
however, not matrimony. I'm sorry, Frank," he added, laughing, "to let
you in for a business talk this way. I know how you hate it. Therefore,
I hurry. Ravenel Plantation lies between two large railroads. To get
from one to another it is necessary to make triangles. There were a
half-dozen of us here last spring who conceived the idea of building a
direct road along the south bank of the Silver Fork, joining the two
roads, like the middle line of the letter H. We believed that the growth
in that region of cotton mills, tanneries, and wood manufacture
warranted it. You know Dermott McDermott?" he asked, abruptly.
"Know him!" Frank answered. "The Almighty alone does that, I fancy. I am
acquainted with him."
"Whether he got word of the scheme, or whether by pure accident he went
South about the time the plans were maturing, no one knows; but he
bought a mica-mine, started a tannery, and secured, on the south side of
the Silver Fork, a tract of land which lies almost in the centre of our
proposed line. It's but ten or fifteen acres, but it goes from the
river's edge to Owl Mountain, and we are forced to buy from him, at his
own price, tunnel the mountain or go around it, a distance of twenty-two
miles, with two streams to bridge. A cheerful prospect! He is holding
the piece of land for which he paid ten or twelve hundred dollars,
probably, at forty-five thousand! About a week ago I discovered, through
O'Grady, that the title was in your name until quite recently."
"It was," Francis answered, with a queer smile, "it was; but, with
unusual business foresight, I sold it to Mr. McDermott myself for eleven
hundred dollars. He said he was going to raise eagles on it," he
explained, with a laugh.
The flowers, the lights, and the music of the night he had dined at the
lodge came back to him. He recalled a touch on his arm, an upturned face
with wistful gray eyes, and remembered Katrine's warning. As he did so a
great anger came to him at the way he had been used, and his newly
awakened manhood called to him for action. There should be another side
to the matter, he determined. McDermott's overheard misprisement of the
South! His statement of his intentions toward Katrine! The cut of the
words, "_She is but eighteen, and one protects that age_," came back to
him. There had never come a time in his life before when he would have
been in the mood to do the thing he now offered.
"Phil," he said, "there is another bank to the Silver Fork River."
"But it is in your own plantation, and we knew the hopelessness of any
proposition to you, Southerner that you are!"
"It would be at least nine miles from Ravenel House," Frank answered,
determinedly. "I find I have changed a great deal in my views of things
lately," and here he leaned forward on the table toward his friend. "De
Peyster," he said, "let us build the railroad together!"