“I can understand your aversion,” laughed O’Neil.  “I wonder if you would let me order dinner for both of us, provided I taboo fruit.  Perhaps I’ll think of something more to tell you about Dan.  I’m sure he wouldn’t object—­”

“Oh, my card is all the chaperon I need; it takes me everywhere and renders me superior to the smaller conventionalities.”  She handed him one, and he read: 

ELIZA V. APPLETON

THE REVIEW

“May I ask what the ‘V’ stands for?” He held up the card between his thumb and finger.

Miss Appleton blushed, for all the world like a boy, then answered, stiffly: 

“It stands for Violet.  But that isn’t my fault, and I’m doing my best to live it down.”

VIII

IN WHICH WE COME TO OMAR

“Miss Appleton,” said the editor of The Review, “would you like to take a vacation?”

“Is that your delicate way of telling me I’m discharged?” inquired Eliza.

“You know very well we wouldn’t fire you.  But you haven’t had a vacation for three years, and you need a rest.”

“I thought I was looking extremely well, for me.”

“We’re going to send you on an assignment—­to Alaska—­if you’ll go.”

“I’m thinking of quitting newspaper-work for good.  The magazines pay better, and I’m writing a book.”

“I know.  Perhaps this will just fit in with your plans, for it has to do with your pet topic of conservation.  Those forestry stories of yours and the article on the Water Power Combination made a hit, didn’t they?”

“I judge so.  Anyhow the magazine people want more.”

“Good!  Here’s your chance to do something big for yourself and for us.  Those Alaskan coal claimants have been making a great effort in Washington to rush their patents through, and there seems to be some possibility of their succeeding unless the public wakes up.  We want to show up the whole fraudulent affair, show how the entries were illegal, and how the agents of the Trust are trying to put over the greatest steal of the century.  It’s the Heidlemanns that are back of it—­and a few fellows like Murray O’Neil.”

“O’Neil!”

“You know him, don’t you?”

“Yes.  I interviewed him a year ago last spring, when he started his railroad.”

“He’s fighting for one of the biggest and richest groups of claims.  He’s backed by some Eastern people.  It’s the psychological moment to expose both the railroad and the coal situation, for the thieves are fighting among themselves—­Gordon, O’Neil, and the Heidlemanns.”

“Mr. O’Neil is no thief,” said the girl, shortly.