In her agitation she turned to Allison for contradiction. But Allison, after placing a chair for her, drew one up for himself and, with an expansive smile of anticipation upon his face, propped his feet upon the rail. "I think," he assured her, with no comfort in the assurance, "that this will be well worth watching through to the finish!" They sat and waited and in due course of time the boy returned. As he appeared at the gate Sarah, with a strange choking sound in her throat, half rose and then dropped weakly back into her chair. And even to Allison, who had fondly looked forward to the worst, the little suit with the pretty ruffed cuffs was an unbelievable wreck. The coat had been ripped from hem to collar and dangled loose upon either side as the boy advanced toward them; the knees of the trousers were split till the bare skin showed through beneath, and those portions of the fabric which were not encrusted with dirt were liberally o'er-spread with egg. After one stricken glance at the spectacle Sarah tottered to her feet and retreated none too steadily into the house. But it wasn't the condition of the boy's clothes which held Caleb's gaze. He was watching his face. For as Steve marched across the lawn the dangerous whiteness of the boy's countenance half frightened the man. His lips were a thin streak across a jaw tight clamped and flecked with blood in one corner. And his eyes had the wide-open fixity of a sleep-walker. Steve had reached the top of the steps in his mechanical approach before Caleb spoke. And even then, when he turned, he seemed only half to see the two men who were waiting his coming. "Well?" faltered Caleb. The boy stopped short and slowly turned his head. Both men heard that breath, short and harsh, in the moment of silence. "Just what does this mean?" Caleb attempted again. "Where have you been?" He hardly recognized the boy's voice. "I been daown to the city," Steve slurred the words. "I been daown to git Miss Sarah a dozen eggs--and I run into trouble--daown there--a-gittin' 'em!" "I--I should assume that you had," murmured Caleb. "But you've brought the eggs back with you, or most of them, I see, even though they aren't in particularly edible condition." That was as long as Allison could endure it; he burst into a fit of laughter which lasted until he was moaning for breath. And Steve, teeth set, waited without moving until the noisy outburst was over. "You'd better go upstairs and get into your old clothes," Caleb advised him then. "And I'll get you something less--less dangerous to wear before night." But the boy stood rigid still. "Will you," he asked, "will you give me another quarter now?" Allison looked up quickly from wiping his eyes. "A quarter," echoed Caleb slowly, even while he reached into his pocket and handed the coin to the boy. "Now what do you----Here, where are you going now?"