"And yet," he said, "you are a man of parts, with an education, very likely, of the best. But our schools and Universities now teach a man everything except the meaning and purpose of life. When I was in school we read our Plato and Xenophon as you now read your German and French; but what we learned, above the language itself, was the thought of that ancient time. You learn to earn money and to fight your way through life, but Socrates taught that friendship is above everything and that Truth is the Ultimate Good. But, ah well; I weary you, for each age lives unto itself, and who cares for the thoughts of an old man?" "No! Go on!" protested Wiley, but the Colonel sighed wearily and shook his head gloomily in thought. "I had a friend once," he said at last, "who had the same rugged honesty of Socrates. He was a man of few words but I truly believe that he never told a lie. And yet," went on the Colonel with a rueful smile, "they tell me that my friend recanted and deceived me at the last!" "_Who_ told you?" put in Wiley, suddenly rousing from his silence and the Colonel glanced at him sharply. "Ah, yes; well said, my friend! Who told me? Why, all of them--except my friend himself. I could not go to him with so much as a suggestion that he had betrayed the friendship of a lifetime; and he, no doubt, felt equally reluctant to explain what had never been charged. Yet I dared not approach him, for it was better to endure doubt than to suffer the certainty of his guilt. And so we drifted apart, and he moved away; and I have never seen my good friend since." Wiley sat in stunned silence, but his heart leapt up at this word of vindication for Honest John. To be sure his father had refused him help, and rebuked him for heckling the Widow, but loyalty ran strong in the Holman blood and he looked up at the Colonel and smiled. "Next time you go inside," he said at last, "take a chance and ask your friend." "I'll do that," agreed the Colonel, "but it won't be for some time because--well, I'm hiding out." "Here, too," returned Wiley, "and I'm _never_ going back. But say, listen; I'll tell _you_ one now. You trusted your friend, and the bunch told you that he'd betrayed you; I trusted my girl, and she told me to my face that she'd sold me out for fifty thousand dollars. Fifty thousand, at the most; and I lost about a million and killed a man over it, to boot. You take a chance with your friends, but when you trust a woman--you don't take any chance at all." "Ah, in self defense?" inquired the Colonel politely. "I thought I noticed a hole in your shirt. Yes, pretty close work--between your arm and your ribs. I've had a few close calls, myself." "Yes, but what do you think," demanded Wiley impatiently, "of a girl that will throw you down like that? I gave her the stock and to make it worth the money she turned around and ditched me. And then she looked me in the face and laughed!"