The Tempering

eader caught up the ch

uch a man as Dinwiddie had proven himself to be under a score of reliable tests, the thing was a sheer impossibility. It was a cont

ervation, "even Arthur's table had i

om the ranks to pre-eminence. He did it, too, in an army where caste and birth defend their messes against invasion, and, as he came from the ranks to a commission, so he went on to the head. There must have been

ment of any sort, the Kentuckian continued. It was

ide de Camp to the Queen, promising Britain another glorious name-but as God in heaven

ellver saw Victor McCalloway pass an uncertain hand across his eyes, and mov

the British Army. Surely you do

et by a direct question, raised his head a

d of Dinwiddie. I myself have been a soldier and am a civilian. You may guess that a man whose career has been active would not be living the petty life of a hermit if fo

ason why I should not

ith shoulders that drooped from their military erectness, went with an i

hat after the world heard of his suicide-and after my own misfortunes forced me into retirem

nd wondered what it all meant as the carefully sch

the sword. In the leap and flicker of the firelight Boone could catch the glint of a hilt that sent out the sparkle of jewelry and inlaid enamel. Slowly General Prince slid the sabre from the scabbard,

dulously, "this is Dinwid

y, but he held up a hand

means anything to you-he knew the facts of my own life, both the open an

"If you had needed it, this would be sufficient. You had the confidenc

ells, reluctantly as one who has glimpsed magi

eathed his, when his name was tarnished, stood together in the crystal-clear air of the hei

d themselves in colour tones that touched them into purple and blue. They wore atmospheric veils, mist-woven, and sun-dyed into evanescent and delicate effects of col

on-. These hills alone stand unamended. Here at the very heart of our civilization is the last frontier, and the last home of the trail-blaz

estors, the stranded wagon voyagers who have changed

dded gravely, and hi

the Appalachians, the Himalayas and the Alps are young things, new to life. On either side of where we stand a youthful

t his hands in a co

o its present big-boyhood. Pardon me, if that term seems disrespectful," he hastened to add. "But it is so that I always think of your

e life of court and camp, in the elder hemisphere, puffed at his blackened pipe: "Adult or adolescent, we are altering fast, casting aside today the garments of yesterday," admitted Prince. "In my own youth a gentleman felt the call of honour

ng far backward and perhaps also of adventuring as

fect, stepped aside from the march of their o

ents of life, as he had known them in their enactment, stood forth at once in

and, my God, sir, that was all only yesterday, and this mid-Victorian thought was revolutionary in its newness and its advancement! I

He sent out a cloud of tobacco s

al poet said one true thi

ugh the ages, one inc

ional. It lies toward the broadest federation of ideals that can exist in harmony." He paused there, and in the voic

ests on the pillars of non-interference with other

n light of argument. "Yet I predict that when the whole story

e's lips flicker

ependence?" he inquired, and the a

able to your word and making it interdependence. Inexorably you must follow the human cycle and some day, sir, your country

ompanion's words, his manner. It was a phase of this interesting man

s wine-like air has gone to our heads. We are s

odded ener

or want of action." He broke off and when he spoke again it was with a tra

t as did that of these hardy settlers and pass, in a single generation, along the stages that the country, itself, has marched to this day

ries ago," Prince reminded him, "and

lf stubbornly, McCal

ential respect he is a lad of two hundred years ago. He is a pioneer boy, crude as pig-iron, unlettered and half barbaric. Yet his st

s companion's eyes an

o make the complete American out of that lad i

"I've never had a son of my own. I think it would be a pretty e

ue eyes. His natural taciturnity would have sealed his lips had he given the "furriner" no pledge of confidence, and even McCalloway never guessed how strict was the censorship of that promise as Boone construed its meaning. Inasmuch as he could not be sure just what details, out

alry, heroism and those thoughts which are not groundling but winged and splendid. Sometimes through the hills where the dis

and placed himself, feet wide apart and left hand elevated in the attitude of the fencer's salute. Facing him was a solemn, burning-eyed pupil and adversary of fifteen in a linsey-woolsey shirt and jeans overalls. The lad with his freckled face and his red-brown shock of hair made an absurd contrast with the gentleman whose sword play possessed the exquisite grace and deft elegance of a