He sprang to his feet and towered like a Hercules over Stover who sat at the table rubbing his hands nervously. "Stover," he said, "if you think for a minute that you can bribe me with a fifteen thousand dollar job to betray the best interests of my country and community and violate my sacred obligation as a Klansman you have another think coming. I tell you and you can repeat it to your henchmen that you can take the job with which you have attempted to bribe me and go straight to hell with it." King turned on his heels and left the room. When he had finished this speech Ruth clasped her hands together in joyful admiration and exclaimed, "Good, good!" Chapter XI Ruth was proud that her friend, Harold King, had courageously turned his back on the proposition that would have meant the prostitution of his manhood. She was not altogether happy--it is always a great shock to discover a lack of principle in one in whom you have had great confidence. Ruth had regarded Stover not only as a friend but as a man of exceptional honor. To say that the discovery that he would try to bribe a man to do a dishonorable thing shocked her, is to put it mildly. When she next saw Harold she said, "I tried not to hear your conversation with Mr. Stover, but you both got to talking so loudly that I could not help it. Harold, I am certainly proud of you." "I would have liked to have had the job but not at the price they asked. I will get along some way. If I can't make a living as an architect I can go to work on the railroad section." "I have faith that you will succeed as an architect, but I would much prefer to have a friend of mine an honorable section hand than a dishonorable architect, no matter how successful he might be in his profession." "Ruth," he said, "it is good to have a friend like you. You are different from so many girls who think so much of display and veneer. You think more of the things that are really worth while." "I feel that I do not deserve all that, Harold. My father deserves a great deal of credit for whatever views of life I have that enable me to appraise people by a better standard than bank accounts, automobiles, clothes, painted faces, and dance steps. He has always laid great stress on the value of character. Often I have heard him say, 'The real gold of life is not to be found in mines or at the end of the rainbow but in hearts that are true to friends and loyal to the best interests of life.'" "That is certainly a noble sentiment. How is your father?" "I don't see much change in him. He worries so much because he can't remember the man who stole his money. Ever since he had that dream he really believes that some man in whom he had confidence and to whom he had shown the combination of the safe really robbed him. (Of course it is only a delusion.) His bank stock, the only property he had except the home, was turned over to satisfy his debts." "Ruth, in whom did your father have a great deal of confidence?"