"The introductions seem to have outstripped me," he remarked, "but--er--any objection to shaking hands with me, too, Mr. O'Mara?" Stephen laughed aloud. Allison's attempted lugubrity was really funny. From the door Barbara echoed his laughter in bubbling, throaty amusement at it all. "Poor, blind papa!" she chanted mockingly, and disappeared on swift feet. Allison scowled after her. "Not so blind as some--the unprincipled jade!" he retorted. "But that's another thing I've heard about you, Mr. O'Mara, if you will pardon a garrulous old gossip's personalities. They tell me that you aren't particularly--susceptible?" And then the bantering tone was dropped entirely. In the rest of Allison's greeting was all that Caleb found most lovable in the man's whole make-up--his proneness to accept men as men, for what they had done or might do, in a man's world. "I've heard much of you, Mr. O'Mara; I've looked forward to this meeting," he said, as he shook hands. "Now I want to tell you that I am proud to know you. And so you didn't get my message, after all?" The handclasp left Allison staring ruefully at his reddened fingers. Steve shook his head. "I had to come down river, yesterday," he explained. "Your telegram found me here, and I waited over until this morning, as you suggested." "Surely . . . surely! I see . . . I see!" Allison emphasized his comprehension. "Not that it was anything of vital importance. I just wanted a short conference with you, yourself, that was all. Elliott's own reports on the work are so tinged with his eternal optimism, so colored by what you aptly termed his romantic zest for the game, that I wanted your own opinion concerning the possibility of the East Coast Company finishing that railroad in time to fulfil their contracts. No hurry about it; but that's my house over yonder. You were just one place too far north to find me." He turned to face Caleb. There was a flood of questions upon the latter's lips. Caleb wanted to seize the boy by the shoulder, and spin him around toward the light and stare and stare into his face; but he waited because he found much that was hugely diverting in Dexter's bland ignorance, which had even accepted Steve's presence there as a case of misdirection. "I suppose you know what this early morning call presages, Cal?" Allison challenged. Before Caleb could reply Steve knew what the answer was to be. The request found him already at the door, grinning broadly. "Would you--would you mind finding Miss Sarah, Steve?" Caleb asked. "Will you tell her, please, that we are to be subjected to another--neighborly imposition!" Steve's going left Allison frowning a little. "We've played this farce through a hundred times, Cal," he murmured, "and it wasn't according to formula--that last remark of yours. But, do you know, just for a minute it sort of reminded me of something--something that seems to have happened before, and I can't recall just what."