“Then take it, take it,” said Jethro, pushing the bill into the man’s palm; “but don’t you come back to-night—­don’t you come back to-night.”

The amazed leader stared at Jethro—­and words failed him.  There was something about this man that compelled him to obey, and he gathered up his followers and led the way silently out of the hotel.  Roars of laughter and applause arose on all sides; but Jethro was as one who heard them not as he made his way back to his seat again.

“You did a good job, my friend,” said Mr. Beard, approvingly.  “I’m going to take Eph Prescott down the street to see some of the boys.  Won’t you come, too?”

Mr. Beard doubtless accepted it as one of the man’s eccentricities that Jethro did not respond to him, for without more ado he departed arm in arm with Ephraim.  Jethro was looking at Cynthia, who was staring toward the desk at the other end of the corridor, her face flushed, and her fingers closed over the arms of her chair.  It never occurred to Jethro that she might have been embarrassed.

“W-what’s the matter, Cynthy?” he asked, sinking into the chair beside her.

Her breath caught sharply, but she tried to smile at him.  He did not discover what was the matter until long afterward, when he recalled that evening to mind.  Jethro was a man used to hotel corridors, used to sitting in an attitude that led the unsuspecting to believe he was half asleep; but no person of note could come or go whom he did not remember.  He had seen the distinguished party arrive at the desk, preceded by a host of bell-boys with shawls and luggage.  On the other hand, some of the distinguished party had watched the proceeding of paying off the band with no little amusement.  Miss Janet Duncan had giggled audibly, her mother had smiled, while her father and Mr. Worthington had pretended to be deeply occupied with the hotel register.  Somers was not there.  Bob Worthington laughed heartily with the rest until his eye, travelling down the line of Jethro’s progress, fell on Cynthia, and now he was striding across the floor toward them.  And even in the horrible confusion of that moment Cynthia had a vagrant thought that his clothes had an enviable cut and became him remarkably.

“Well, of all things, to find you here!” he cried; “this is the best luck that ever happened.  I am glad to see you.  I was going to steal away to Brampton for a couple of days before the term opened, and I meant to look you up there.  And Mr. Bass,” said Bob, turning to Jethro, “I’m glad to see you too.”

Jethro looked at the young man and smiled and held out his hand.  It was evident that Bob was blissfully unaware that hostilities between powers of no mean magnitude were about to begin; that the generals themselves were on the ground, and that he was holding treasonable parley with the enemy.  The situation appealed to Jethro, especially as he glanced at the backs of the two gentlemen facing the desk.  These backs seemed to him full of expression.  “Th-thank you, Bob, th-thank you,” he answered.