The answer to Dorothy’s note despatched, Brant began to cast about for ways and means to the end she besought. As he had intimated in the letter which was not sent, there were difficulties. Harding had doubtless sown the seed of prejudice and ill will, harrowing it well in; in which case young Langford, when found, would have nothing to do with the man against whom he had been warned. Brant gave the difficulty a thoughtful half hour, at the end of which he sought Antrim. The chief clerk was just closing his office to go to supper, and he was glad enough to have company. “What are you going to do with yourself to-night, Harry?” Brant asked, when they were free of the downtown six-o’clock sidewalk throngs. “I am just in from the inspection trip, and I meant to go back to the office and work a while. Why?” “I want you to do something for me, if you will.” “After what you did for me last night, you have only to ask,” was the grateful rejoinder. “State your case.” Brant stated it at some length, omitting none of the details save those which might have defined his own motive in playing the knight-errant. “I think I know where to look for the boy,” he said in conclusion; “but I am more than afraid that any argument that I could bring to bear on him would be so much wasted eloquence. I want you to go along, and when we find him it will be your part of the job to persuade him to go home.” “He hasn’t much use for me, as I have told you,” Antrim objected. “But I’ll go along and do what I can. It’s a great pity the judge doesn’t set him to work at something.” “What is his bent? or has he any?” asked Brant. “I don’t know that he has any now. At school he was the best mathematician in his class; and there was a time when he wanted to learn your trade. Mrs. Langford was quite willing until it came to field work, and then she put her foot down. Her Willie was not to go careering around all over the world with a lot of rough engineers, she said.” “Oh, no; of course not,” assented Brant, not without scorn. “She was quite right; we are a hard lot.” The emphasis was so bitter that Antrim glanced up in surprise. “Has she been giving you a lecture on the subject?” he asked quizzically. “Who--Mrs. Langford? Certainly not,” denied Brant, hedging promptly. “She has never mentioned my present occupation to me.” “She will, some day; especially if--” But Antrim was not sure of his ground in the matter of Brant’s leanings, and he broke off abruptly to go back to the former question. “I suppose you will want to start out right after supper?” “Yes,” said Brant, and they went into the house and entered Mrs. Seeley’s dining room together.