"Thank you, Mrs. Shields," earnestly responded Blake, turning on the threshold. "It is awful good of you to put yourself out that way, and you can bet that the boys will be your devoted slaves ever after. If you must go to that trouble, why, Sunday or any day you may name will do for us. Gosh, but won't they be tickled!" he exulted as he pictured them feasting on goodies. "It'll be better than a circus, it shore will!" "Why, it's no trouble at all, Tom," she replied, smiling at being able to bring cheer to a crowd of men, lonely, as she thought. "And you will arrange to have The Orphan with them, won't you?" "I most certainly will," he heartily replied. "It'll do wonders for him." He glanced quickly at Helen, but she was busily engaged in threading a needle under the lamp shade. "Good night, all," he said as he closed the door. CHAPTER XV AN UNDERSTANDING Blake settled himself in the easy chair which his host pushed over to him and crossed his feet on the seat of another, and became the personification of contentment. One of the black Perfectos which a friend in the East kept Shields supplied with, was tenderly nursed by his lips, its fragrant smoke slowly issuing from his nose and mouth, yielding its delights to a man who knew a good cigar when he smoked it, and who knew how to smoke it. At his elbow stood a coffee pot, flanked on one side by a plate piled high with gingerbread; on the other by an apricot pie. His eyes half-closed and his arms were folded, and a great peace stole over him. He had the philosopher's mind which so readily yields to the magic touch of a perfect cigar. In that short space of time he was recompensed for a life of hardships, perils and but few pleasures. They sat each lost in his own thoughts, in a silence broken only by the very low and indistinct hum of women's voices and the loud ticking of the clock, which soon struck ten. The foreman sighed, stirred to knock the ashes from his cigar, and then slowly reached his hand toward the pie. Shields came to himself and very gravely relighted his cigar, watching the blue smoke stream up over the lamp. He looked at his contented friend for a few seconds and then broke the silence. "Tom," he said, "what I'm going to tell you now is all meat. I couldn't say anything about it while the women were around, for they shore worry a lot and there wasn't no good in scaring them.