This letter went to the heart of the young man. She had deftly set before him the gross unfairness of delay. He felt it. Ever since the parting he had been eager to go, but his father was not a rich man and the family was large. His own salary had been little more than was needed for clothing and books. That autumn it had been doubled and the editor had assured him that higher pay would be forthcoming. He hesitated to tell the girl how little he earned and how small, when measured in money, his progress had seemed to be. He was in despair when his friend Solomon Binkus arrived from Virginia. For two years the latter had been looking after the interests of Major Washington out in the Ohio River country. They dined together that evening at The Crooked Billet and Solomon told him of his adventures in the West, and frontier stories of the notorious, one-legged robber, Micah Harpe, and his den on the shore of the Ohio and of the cunning of the outlaw in evading capture. "I got his partner, Mike Fink, and Major Washington give me fifty pounds for the job," said Solomon. "They say Harpe's son disappeared long time ago an' I wouldn't wonder if you an' me had seen him do it." "The white man that hung back in the bushes so long? I'll never forget him," said Jack. "Them wimmen couldn't 'a' been in wuss hands." "It was a lucky day for them and for me," Jack answered. "I have here a letter from Margaret. I wish you would read it." Solomon read the girl's letter and said: "If I was you I'd swim the big pond if nec'sary. This 'ere is a real simon pure, four-masted womern an' she wants you fer Captain. As the feller said when he seen a black fox, 'Come on, boys, it's time fer to wear out yer boots.'" "I'm tied to my job." "Then break yer halter," said Solomon. "I haven't money enough to get married and keep a wife." "What an ignorant cuss you be!" Solomon exclaimed. "You don't 'pear to know when ye're well off." "What do you mean?" "I mean that ye're wuth at least a thousan' pounds cash money." "I would not ask my father for help and I have only forty pounds in the bank," Jack answered. Solomon took out his wallet and removed from it a worn and soiled piece of paper and studied the memoranda it contained. Then he did some ciphering with a piece of lead. In a moment he said: You have got a thousan' an' fifteen pounds an' six shillin' fer to do with as ye please an' no questions asked--nary one." "You mean you've got it." "Which means that Jack Irons owns it hide, horns an' taller." Tears came to the boy's eyes. He looked down for a moment without speaking. "Thank you, Solomon," he said presently. "I can't use your money. It wouldn't be right." Solomon shut one eye an' squinted with the other as if he were taking aim along the top of a gun barrel. Then he shook his head and drawled: