"Since I believe you mean what you say--since I think I understand what you mean--I am not offended! I am proud! Yes, proud if I can be like Brayley in some things, some things which count! If you do nothing beyond making a friend of that man your exile in this Western country of ours will have been worth while. But you will do something more. I did not ask you to come to me just to hear what you had to say about your trouble with Brayley. He told me before you came--told me that you had licked him, as you both put it, and that it served him right! That is your business and Brayley's, and I should keep out of it. But there was something else--I wonder if you think me meddlesome, Mr. Conniston? If I _am_ meddlesome?" "If we are going to be friends, you and I--and you promised that you would let me make you my friend--hadn't we better drop that word?" "Then I am going to tell you something. You are to go to work in the Valley. Brayley told you that? Do you guess why--have you an idea--why father is sending you over there?" "I supposed because he is pushing the work--because he needs all the men there he can get, can spare from the Half Moon." "I am going to tell you. And I am afraid that father would not like it, did he know. But I know that I am right. I may not see you again before you go--I am going into Crawfordsville in the morning for a few days. What I tell you, you will remember, is in strict confidence--between friends?" "In strict confidence," he repeated, seriously. "Between friends." She leaned slightly forward, speaking swiftly, emphatically, earnestly: "You have heard of Bat Truxton? He is in charge there of all the men, general superintendent of all the work. You will be put to work under him. You will be in a position to learn a great deal about the project in its every detail. Bat Truxton is an engineer, a practical man who knows what he has learned by doing it. And he is a strong man and very capable. Then there is Garton--Tommy Garton they call him. You will work with him. He, too, is an engineer, and he, too, knows all there is to know about the work." She paused a moment, as though in hesitation. Conniston waited in silence for her to go on. "Father is sending you to the Valley because he has begun to take an interest in you. Before the year is over there is going to be an opportunity for every man there to show what there is in him. He is giving you your chance, your chance to make good!" Argyl got to her feet and stood looking away from him, out across the duck pond. Presently she turned to him again, smiling, her voice gone from grave to gay. "The race is on, isn't it? The great handicap! And, anyway, I have given you a tip, haven't I? Now you are coming up to the house with me, and I'm going to make you a bandage for your broken hand." She didn't stop to heed his protest, but ran ahead of him to the house. And Conniston, pondering on many things, saw nothing for it but to allow her to play nurse to him.