"I don't know," said the major. "But I do know that the man who goes ahead as if he were sure we shall will be doing the thing he should do. You, for instance, might think aeroplanes, plan aeroplanes, dream aeroplanes--fighting-'planes.... Shall we play around now?" They played around, for the most part in silence, for Potter was following the major's direction to think. In the locker-room and in the shower-baths they did not allude to the matter of their conversation, and when they came out on the piazza of the club they found themselves in the midst of a party of younger members talking the sort of talk that is generally to be heard on country-club piazzas and drinking as if that were the business of their lives. "Hey, Potter," called Jack Eldredge, "come over here and meet a pilgrim and a stranger--also state your preference." The major touched Potter's shoulder. "Think it all over," he said, and turned away. Potter walked to Eldredge's table, and Jack presented him to a young man in his early thirties who stood up and shook Potter's hand warmly. "Mr. Cantor, Mr. Waite," said Jack. "Mr. Cantor came this morning from New York. Friend of the Mallards and the Keenes. Goin' to be around Detroit quite some time--so I put him up here, of course." "Mr. Eldredge was very kind indeed," said Cantor. "I have hoped to meet you, Mr. Waite. I have letters to you from Mr. Welliver and Mr. Brevoort." They sat down and Potter observed the stranger. He was dark, smooth of face save for a carefully shaped, slender mustache. His features were rather thin, but quick with intelligence. There was a hint of military training in his shoulders. It appeared he had recently come from abroad, and soon was talking fluently and entertainingly about his experiences on the fringe of the zone of war. Potter wondered what his nationality might be. At first he fancied the accent was of Cambridge, but there was another hint of accent underlaying the careful enunciation of the Cambridge man. Potter made the guess that Cantor had been born to some tongue other than English, but had, probably, been educated in one of the English universities. This supposition was proved later to be correct. "I represent an investment syndicate," said Cantor to Potter, presently. "They have sent me over to study the situation here, particularly the automobile industry. I seem to have come to the place to do that thoroughly," he added, with an attractive smile. "Detroit suffers with the automobile-manufacturing habit. There's no cure," said Eldredge. "What a fascinating location your city has, Mr. Waite!" said Cantor. "I call to mind no other great city situated directly upon an international boundary-line. You sit in your offices and look into foreign territory--but I presume you are so accustomed to it that you seldom give it a thought." "Somehow," said Potter, "we don't think of Canada as foreign."