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put his foot down and stand on it where he planted it.

"You'll have your way, Tom Simpson," she said, shaking her head more in proud approval than distant censure of his determination.

Fear seemed to be a weak and unfounded thing in the force of this young stranger's masterful way, and if Mrs. Ellison's heart was quickened by the hope that her fortune might, indeed, rise again from its bones, it was not the only heart that was going fast, and leaping hurdles of time and trouble, beside the big table in the Block E ranch-house that October night.