Ten minutes later Kenny, coming into the dark, old-fashioned library where Adam’s books were once more arrayed upon the shelves, found Don wandering turbulently around the room.

Was this boy ever anything but turbulent, he wondered with impatience.  Must he always brood about the boulder and atonement?

Don stopped dead in his tracks, his fingers clenched in his hair, his white face staring queerly; and Kenny, irresistibly reminded of himself in minutes of turmoil, stared back, knowing in a flash of inspiration why the tale of the boulder had made him think of the crash of bouillon cups.  The desire of the moment that marked men for disaster!  The tongue-tied youngster there with his feet rooted to the ground and his face pale with agitation, was indeed something like himself.  Kenny had a moment of pity.

“Mr. O’Neill,” said Don with a hard, dry sob, “you know I’ve wanted to make up to Brian somehow about that boulder.  If I hadn’t been crazy to drive up the ledge once and if I hadn’t lied to Grogan and bullied Tony, Brian wouldn’t have spent the rest of the winter in a plaster cast.  I—­I want to do something for him, something big, and I—­I’ve got to do it in a queer way.”  He shuddered and wiped his face.  Kenny saw that his hands were shaking wildly, and pitied him again.  “Mr. O’Neill,” he blurted, “Brian loves my sister and she loves him.”

It seemed to Kenny that lightning struck with a sinister flare of fire at his feet and hot blinding pieces of the floor were flying all about him.

“How do you know?” he said fiercely.  “How do you know?  How can you know such a thing as that?  You can’t!  You can’t possibly.”

“I do,” said Don.  “I heard them say it.”

“Heard them!”

“I was on the porch,” said Don, “and I came through the window there to get a book.  They were in the hall.”

“You listened!”

Don flushed.

“I—­I wanted to,” he said sullenly.  “And I did.”

“Ah, yes,” said Kenny, wiping his hair back and wondering vaguely why it felt so wet, “you wanted to and you did.”

“I wanted to,” said Don fiercely, “because I knew Brian loved her.  And I knew my sister wasn’t happy.  She’s looked sad and tired and frightened a lot of times, Joan has, and she’s cried a lot—­”

“Yes,” said Kenny, “she has.”

Don’s challenging eyes swept with stormy suspicion over Kenny’s face.

“Mr. O’Neill,” he flung out, “don’t you blame her.  Don’t you do it.  She was a kid, an awful kid when you came here first, and lonesome.  She wanted to be flattered and loved.  All girls do.  She wasn’t happy.  She wanted to play and you gave her a chance.  You’re famous and you’ve been everywhere and you’re a good looker,” he gulped courageously, “and maybe you turned her head.  I—­don’t know.  I think she loves you an awful lot anyway.  But not—­not that way.  You could have been her father—­”