honor. It was a mighty longsome trip for an old nigger man to make--
ten thousand miles, it must be, back to old Vi'ginia, suh. You've

growed mightily, young marster. I wouldn't have reconnized you but
for yo' powerful resemblance to old marster."

With admirablediplomacy the old man kept his eyes roaming in the
space between the two men. His words might have been addressed to

either. Though neither wicked nor perverse, he was seeking for a
sign.

Blandford and John exchanged winks.
"I reckon you done got you ma's letter," went on Uncle Jake. "She

said she was gwine to write to you 'bout my comin' along up this er-
way.

"Yes, yes, Uncle Jake," said John briskly. "My cousin and I have just
been notified to expect you. We are both Carterets, you know."

"Although one of us," said Blandford, "was born and raised in the
North."

"So if you will hand over the watch--" said John.
"My cousin and I-" said Blandford.

'Will then see to it--" said John.
"That comfortable quarters are found for you," said Blandford.

With creditable ingenuity, old Jake set up a cackling, high-pitched,
protracted laugh. He beat his knee, picked up his hat and bent the

brim in an apparent paroxysm of humorousappreciation. The seizure
afforded him a mask behind which he could roll his eyes impartially

between, above, and beyond his two tormentors.
"I sees what!" he chuckled, after a while. "You gen'lemen is tryin'

to have fun with the po' old nigger. But you can't fool old Jake. I
knowed you, Marse Blandford, the minute I sot eyes on you. You was a

po' skimpy little boy no mo' than about fo'teen when you lef' home to
come No'th; but I knowed you the minute I sot eyes on you. You is the

mawtal image of old marster. The other gen'leman resembles you
mightily, suh; but you can't fool old Jake on a member of the old

Vi'ginia family. No suh."
At exactly the same time both Carterets smiled and extended a hand for

the watch.
Uncle Jake's wrinkled, black face lost the expression of amusement to

which he had vainly twisted it. He knew that he was being teased, and
that it made little real difference, as far as its safety went, into

which of those outstretched hands he placed the family treasure. But
it seemed to him that not only his own pride and loyalty but much of

the Virginia Carterets' was at stake. He had heard down South during
the war about that other branch of the family that lived in the North

and fought on "the yuther side," and it had always grieved him. He
had followed his "old marster's" fortunes from statelyluxury through

war to almost poverty. And now, with the last relic and reminder of
him, blessed by "old missus," and intrusted implicitly to his care, he

had come ten thousand miles (as it seemed) to deliver it into the
hands of the one who was to wear it and wind it and cherish it and

listen to it tick off the unsullied hours that marked the lives of the
Carterets--of Virginia.

His experience and conception of the Yankees had been an impression of
tyrants--"low-down, common trash"--in blue, laying waste with fire and

sword. He had seen the smoke of many burning homesteads almost as
grand as Carteret Hall ascending to the drowsy Southern skies. And

now he was face to face with one of them--and he could not distinguish
him from his "young marster" whom he had come to find and bestow upon

him the emblem of his kingship--even as the arm "clothed in white
samite, mystic, wonderful" laid Excalibur in the right hand of Arthur.

He saw before him two young men, easy, kind, courteous, welcoming,
either of whom might have been the one he sought. Troubled,

bewildered, sorely grieved at his weakness of judgment, old Jake
abandoned his loyal subterfuges. His right hand sweated against the

buckskin cover of the watch. He was deeply humiliated and chastened.
Seriously, now, his prominent, yellow-white eyes closely scanned the

two young men. At the end of his scrutiny he was conscious of but one
difference between them. One wore a narrow black tie with a white

pearl stickpin. The other's "four-in-hand " was a narrow blue one
pinned with a black pearl.

And then, to old Jake's relief, there came a sudden distraction.
Drama knocked at the door with imperious knuckles, and forced Comedy

to the wings, and Drama peeped with a smiling but set face over the
footlights.

Percival, the hater of mill supplies, brought in a card, which he
handed, with the manner of one bearing a cartel, to Blue-Tie.

"'Olivia De Ormond,'" read Blue-Tie from the card. He looked
inquiringly at his cousin.

"Why not have her in," said Black-Tie, "and bring matters to a
conclusion?"

"Uncle Jake," said one of the young men, "would you mind taking that
chair over there in the corner for a while? A lady is coming in--on

some business. We'll take up your case afterward."
The lady whom Percival ushered in was young and petulantly, decidedly,

freshly, consciously, and intentionally pretty. She was dressed with
such expensive plainness that she made you consider lace and ruffles

as mere tatters and rags. But one great ostrich plume that she wore
would have marked her anywhere in the army of beauty as the wearer of

the merry helmet of Navarre.
Miss De Ormond accepted the swivel chair at Blue-Tie's desk. Then the

gentlemen drew leather-upholstered seats conveniently near, and spoke
of the weather.

"Yes," said she, "I noticed it was warmer. But I mustn't take up too
much of your time during business hours. That is," she continued,

"unless we talk business."
She addressed her words to Blue-Tie, with a charming smile.

"Very well," said he. "You don't mind my cousin being present, do
you? We are generally rather confidential with each other-especially

in business matters."
"Oh no," caroled Miss De Ormond. "I'd rather he did hear. He knows

all about it, anyhow. In fact, he's quite a material witness because
he was present when you--when it happened. I thought you might want

to talk things over before--well, before any action is taken, as I
believe the lawyers say."

"Have you anything in the way of a proposition to make?" asked Black-
Tie.

Miss De Ormond looked reflectively at the neat toe of one of her dull
kid-pumps.

"I had a proposal made to me," she said. "If the proposal sticks it
cuts out the proposition. Let's have that settled first."

"Well, as far as--" began Blue-Tie.
"Excuse me, cousin," interrupted Black-Tie, "if you don't mind my

cutting in." And then he turned, with a good-natured air, toward the
lady.

"Now, let's recapitulate a bit," he said cheerfully. "All three of
us, besides other mutual acquaintances, have been out on a good many

larks together."
"I'm afraid I'll have to call the birds by another name," said Miss De

Ormond.
"All right," responded Black-Tie, with unimpaired cheerfulness;

"suppose we say 'squabs' when we talk about the 'proposal' and 'larks'
when we discuss the 'proposition.' You have a quick mind, Miss De

Ormond. Two months ago some half-dozen of us went in a motor-car for
day's run into the country. We stopped at a road-house for dinner.

My cousin proposed marriage to you then and there. He was influenced
to do so, of course, by the beauty and charm which no one can deny

that you possess."
"I wish I had you for a press agent, Mr. Carteret," said the beauty,