GIFT OF 
 Glass of 1907 
 
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" 
 SHE CRIF.I), TKRHOR-STHICKKX. 
 
ON TIPTOE 
 
 A ROMANCE OF THE REDWOODS 
 
 BY 
 
 STEWART EDWARD WHITE 
 
 WITH A FRONTISPIECE BY 
 THOMAS FOGARTY 
 
 NEW S YORK 
 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
Copyright, 192%, 
 "By George H. Dor an Company 
 
 W 
 
 / f 
 
 Copyright, 1922, by P. F. Collier and Son Company 
 
 ON TIPTOE. II 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
ON TIPTOE 
 
 1 4 7 G 
 
ON TIPTOE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE great Intelligences who work back of 
 our ordered universe are obscure to us. 
 They move without haste and in their own good 
 time. Never are their faces revealed to us. We 
 are aware of them by their deeds, by their shad 
 owed reflections in men, by the interactions of 
 their laws which never change. Nothing do we 
 know and few things have we guessed of their 
 intentions or the aim of their mighty progressions. 
 At one extreme of our vision the primal ooze; 
 at the other, men as we know them ; beyond that 
 the veil. 
 
 Nor clearly can we evaluate the means through 
 which evolution advances. The moment ripens 
 to transformation. What has been static, as per 
 manent as the eternal hills, becomes at a pin 
 point of time fluid. All life changes. Some 
 times we perceive that moment appropriately 
 and magnificently as the pomp of kings and 
 wars. More often it never comes within our ken. 
 Through a channel of the trivial, in the passing 
 
 7 
 
8 .-M ;.;::;/:;;/:; ON/ TIPTOE 
 
 moments of obscure lives, unappreciated, uncon- 
 sidered, unnoticed it steals by. The great Intel 
 ligences have little care for relative values in 
 men s eyes. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THIS is a swashbuckling story of pirate days. 
 It has as leading characters the Buccaneer 
 and his sinister Second in Command; the Fair 
 Damsel in Distress; the Bright- Shining Hero; 
 and those great Intelligences by whose caprice 
 or by whose ordered Law our tiny world car 
 ries on among its millions of sister worlds. Fol 
 low and you shall see brave adventuring, and 
 dastardly plots; and a fool exalted and cast 
 down as his little affairs were swept into the 
 mighty onward-flowing currents of Fate. So up- 
 anchor and away! 
 
 At the moment our story opens the Pirate, 
 who was appropriately named Grimstead, was 
 leaning back in the stern-sheets of his craft smok 
 ing a cheroot and listening to the low-voiced con 
 versation of his Second in Command. He was 
 a large, square built, almost elderly man, with 
 thick bushy eyebrows jutting over his eyes 
 sternly like a pair of particularly heavy mous 
 taches. Gardiner, the Second, was much 
 younger and slenderer, dark in complexion, with 
 clean shaven face and an inscrutable eye. 
 
 9 
 
10 ON TIPTOE 
 
 Neither of these men were paying the slightest 
 attention to anything but each other. They left 
 that to the man at the wheel. Indeed, the man 
 at the wheel alone seemed to be at all aware of 
 his surroundings; for the only other human be 
 ing visible on the bobbing, careening craft was 
 the Damsel in Distress, and she was completely 
 occupied with her own thoughts, which seemed 
 to be resentful and unpleasant. As beseemed 
 her position in the story she was young and beau 
 teous; indeed, most fair to look upon; and as 
 beseemed the fortuity that she filled also the 
 role of daughter to the Pirate Chief she was 
 caparisoned in the most costly garments. The 
 Bright- Shining Hero had not yet appeared. 
 
 Suddenly and most unexpectedly a loud bang 
 sounded under the port quarter. The craft stag 
 gered, and a crash astern announced the fact that 
 she was hit. 
 
 "What is it, Simmins?" cried the Pirate Chief, 
 suddenly aroused. "Are we damaged?" 
 
 "Blowout, sir," replied Simmins sadly, open 
 ing the door and descending to the road. 
 
 He walked around to the rear of the car, and 
 uttered an exclamation of dismay that had all 
 the flavour of an oath. 
 
 "When she blew she slid into the rut and let 
 us down pretty hard on one of these little 
 stumps in the middle of the road," he answered 
 
ON TIPTOE 11 
 
 Grimstead s enquiry. "The gasoline s leaking." 
 
 Gardiner joined the chauffeur. 
 
 "It s buckled-in the tank," he announced 
 briefly. "We re stuck." 
 
 "It s these damned foreign cars," cried Grim- 
 stead, "they don t give em enough clearance. 
 Why in blazes any sane man buys one of these 
 expensive fool things and then deliberately goes 
 off on a trip into timber gets me. And I m the 
 man! I m crazy! First one thing, then another, 
 one after the other !" 
 
 The Damsel continued to look straight before 
 her with uninterested lack-lustre eyes, but she 
 opened her ruby lips in a filial but modern at 
 tempt to calm her parent. 
 
 "Now, dad," said she, "you re behaving like 
 a spoiled child. You re the only one who wanted 
 to come." 
 
 "Get something and save the gasoline!" com 
 manded Grimstead. 
 
 "There isn t anything; and the gasoline is all 
 run out," replied Gardiner calmly. 
 
 "For heaven s sake! Are we stuck in this 
 Godforsaken place?" howled Grimstead. 
 
 "I m afraid we are, chief." 
 
 Grimstead upheaved from the tonneau and 
 descended to see for himself. He examined the 
 damage carefully for a moment; then straight 
 ened up. His surface irritation had evaporated 
 
12 ON TIPTOE 
 
 in the face of a real situation; and the executive 
 ability that had made him chief of the pirates 
 came to the top. 
 
 "We re stuck, all right," he agreed, "and as 
 far as I can remember we haven t passed an 
 other car on this road all day. That right, Sim- 
 mins?" 
 
 "That s right, sir: except the stage. * 
 
 "Is there a stage?" 
 
 "Yes, sir; runs to Tecolote: up one day, back 
 the next." 
 
 "How far is it to help?" 
 
 "Nearest garage is about twenty miles. They 
 might have something at Dennison s Mills. 
 That s about fifteen miles; but it s off the main 
 road." 
 
 "And it s now four o clock," said Grimstead, 
 looking at his watch. He considered a moment. 
 "Well, there s only one thing for it. We re 
 stuck for the night. There s probably enough- 
 grub in the lunch basket to keep us from starv 
 ing. We ll just get organised and eat: and 
 then Simmins can start out and hike for help. 
 You can do it in seven or eight hours." 
 
 "It ll be dark, sir," suggested Simmins. 
 
 "You can take the flashlight." 
 
 "I don t rightly know the road, sir." 
 
 "According to the map it s the only road." 
 
 "Yes, sir," said the chauffeur doubtfully, 
 
ON TIPTOE 13 
 
 "I d like a better place to camp in. Just like 
 that damn foreign car to quit us in a place like 
 this!" 
 
 "There s enough gas in the vacuum tank to 
 take us a little way," suggested the chauffeur. 
 
 "By Jove, that s right!" cried Grimstead, 
 whose spirits seemed to be rising to the adven 
 ture. "You change that tire, and we ll scout 
 ahead a little. Come on, Gardiner!" 
 
 "Perhaps Simmins may want a little help," 
 suggested Gardiner. 
 
 "All right. Want to go, Burton?" 
 
 The Damsel had also descended from the car 
 and was seated on a stump by the roadside, star 
 ing straight ahead of her. "No, thanks," she 
 replied indifferently, "it s dusty." 
 
 Grimstead threw his coat into the tonneau and 
 tramped off up the grade between the scattered 
 trees, a square, sturdy, vigorous figure that soon 
 disappeared. 
 
 Next to be considered is the Damsel in Dis 
 tress. Her distress was heartfelt but, from one 
 point of view, not too serious. It consisted in 
 the fact that she had been ravished away against 
 her will: which is the usual and proper reason 
 for the distress of females aboard pirate craft. 
 Her will was not accustomed to be gone 
 against. At this moment it would have de 
 creed that she be listening to the dulcet strains 
 
14 ON TIPTOE 
 
 of Art Hickman s jazz orchestra at the St. 
 Francis; or teaing or teeing at Pebble Beach; 
 or mayhap bossing about one or more infatuated 
 youths in any old haunt where sport clothes 
 are correct and numerous. Instead of which 
 she was here ! Atop a stump ! On a barren Cali 
 fornia hillside of high brush and an occasional 
 tree! Stranded! Hot!! Uncomfortable!!! No 
 wonder the lines of her figure were unbend 
 ing: no marvel that her eyebrows were level 
 and that the regard below them was sullen? 
 Out upon you! This damsel is young and 
 beauteous. Smouldering is the word. And 
 why not, prithee? Must we repeat that her will 
 was not accustomed to be gone against? Are 
 your public appearances so few that you have 
 not encountered these princesses taking their toll 
 of the world s courtesies; passing the policeman 
 across the traffic, with a ravishing smile ; slipping 
 in at the head of the wearily waiting queue, with 
 so gracious a bend of the head ; usurping the club 
 tennis court on men s day with so charming an 
 ignorance or ignoring of rules; taking as the 
 divine right of sex when young and well- 
 dressed? Surely! And getting away with it. 
 And perhaps you are one person in ten thou 
 sand and a philosopher, so that you are sorry for 
 these poor little ornamental, charming prin 
 cesses; seeing what mankind is doing to them 
 
ON TIPTOE 15 
 
 toward making them women first and human 
 beings afterward, instead of the reverse 
 
 Such a philosopher would have seen in the fig 
 ure of Burton Grimstead, sulking on a stump, 
 a sacrifice to men s ideas of caste and sex and 
 all the rest of it. Of the remainder of the ten 
 thousand, the younger half would have sympa 
 thised heartily with Burton, by gad ! dragged off 
 into the sticks right in the middle of the Del 
 Monte Tournament: and the other half us 
 would have muttered things about spoiled brats 
 first thing an indulgent father had ever asked 
 her to do can t give up a single one of her 
 selfish pleasures, etc., etc. and would have re 
 gretted that she was too old to be spanked. 
 
 And none of this would have affected Miss 
 Burton in the least. She knew perfectly several 
 things that neither the philosopher, nor her fel 
 lows, nor we could guess. When her father 
 insisted, in face of her first careless refusal, that 
 she join him on this trip into the backwoods, 
 she was vastly surprised, but not greatly put out. 
 Burton was fundamentally a sweet natured per 
 son. Only she couldn t make it out. He was 
 always going off on these trips into the back 
 of beyond; and he generally asked if she didn t 
 want to go along. But she was by nature a 
 civilised creature. Small country hotels did not 
 appeal to her. After one experience she invari- 
 
16 ON TIPTOE 
 
 ably declined, and the refusal was accepted. 
 But this time Grimstead said he particularly 
 wanted her to go: indeed, he was going to ask 
 her to go. There was not much to be said after 
 that! not to the Pirate Chief! And then when 
 at the last minute she found that this Gardiner 
 person was to be in the party, she saw and re 
 sented it all. The Pirate Chief s diplomacy 
 was Teutonic in its subtlety. Burton had met 
 Gardiner before. She did not like him; and she 
 did not care whether he was the Second in Com 
 mand of the piratical craft, part keeper of the 
 loot, principal deviser of stratagem, or not. 
 From the moment Gardiner hove in sight, she 
 resented the whole transparent affair bitterly. 
 So you see there is something to be said for her 
 after all. 
 
 Of course that depends a good deal on how 
 well you like the Second in Command. There 
 would seem to be no reason why you should not 
 like him. He is tall, slender, very dark, with 
 regular movie-queen dark eyelashes, a sleepy 
 well-bred supercilious expression on his thin long 
 face. All his movements are languidly graceful. 
 He is exceedingly well-dressed. His ability is 
 enormous. He knows all about electricity, and 
 water power, and oil wells, and Diesel engines, 
 and railroads, both theoretically and practically, 
 for these things are some of the loot the Pirate 
 
ON TIPTOE 17 
 
 Chief has captured. In addition he is exceed 
 ingly well-informed on all the latest discoveries 
 and inventions and theories of what makes our 
 little world act as it does. Nor is he either a 
 prig or a highbrow: but quite able to hold his 
 own gracefully in any society. Burton said she 
 didn t like him because he played no bridge nor 
 golf : but that was not it. She had other reasons : 
 no, not reasons, instincts. Personally I think 
 she was right; for I do not like him myself, al 
 though I am both old and a philosopher. But 
 I am willing to extend him my sympathy as far 
 as this particular expedition is concerned. He 
 was not having a hilarious time; unless a worm 
 is hilarious. 
 
 At the present moment he did not attempt to 
 approach the aloof young goddess on the pedes 
 tal. Instead he gave needed assistance to the 
 chauffeur. It was necessary to jack the car up 
 very high in order to lift the wheel from the rut 
 into which it had crashed: and then, after the 
 tire had been changed, the rut had to be filled 
 up. This took some time and a lot of hard 
 sweating work. In spite of his elegant, almost 
 foppish air, Gardiner took off his coat and 
 worked as hard as Simmins; and when the job 
 was finished, he was just as hot and dirty. 
 There were qualities to the man, besides those 
 necessary to boarding and scuttling. 
 
18 ON TIPTOE 
 
 By the time the job was finished the square 
 heavy figure of Grimstead reappeared at the top 
 of the hill and approached them down the dusty 
 road. As soon as he was near enough he began 
 heartily to shout encouraging remarks. 
 
 "Found a great place!" was the burden of his 
 lay. Wouldn t be better! Wouldn t have 
 missed it for a thousand dollars ! Wait until you 
 see!" and so on. Burton, with secret contempt, 
 recognised a false note in the heartiness and 
 joviality. He was trying to jolly her along: he 
 was propitiating; he felt guilty; he was afraid 
 of her; her consistent loftiness was beginning to 
 get under his skin! With which reprehensible 
 and unfilial thoughts hidden behind her cool, 
 scornful, aloof demeanour, she descended from 
 the stump and resumed her place in the car, be 
 stowing no glance at either the silent, handsome 
 Worm, or the guilty, voluble, fat Worm. 
 
 Simmins took the wheel, and the car started 
 slowly up the grade. At the rounded summit 
 Grimstead said : 
 
 "Shut her off, Simmins. It s all down hill 
 from here." 
 
 The hum of the motor ceased. Silent as a 
 shadow they glided around the corner of the 
 mountain. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 AS often happens at skylines in California, the 
 nature of the country there changed. They 
 had toiled up an open hillside of scattered trees 
 and dense hrush. They slid into an immense, 
 cool, high forest, with dripping waters. The 
 scale of things had been changed. This should 
 have heen the abode of giants. The trees were 
 twenty feet thick and incredibly tall. The 
 shafts were straight as columns, and through the 
 Gothic windows, that here and there penetrated 
 the dim high arches of their tops, struck slanting 
 bands of milky light around which was trans 
 parent green shadow. In the upper region was 
 a great simplicity, an absolute nirvanic stillness, 
 and an incredible dim height. 
 
 Burton had seen redwood trees before, at 
 Santa Cruz, and on the Russian River; and had 
 been struck small by them, as is always the 
 most careless visitor. But never had she seen 
 one of the redwood forests of the north. The 
 sullenness in her eyes was replaced by a startled, 
 somewhat awed look. For here the columnar 
 cathedral effect of the trees themselves was fur 
 ther supplemented by the growth beneath them. 
 
 19 
 
20 ON TIPTOE 
 
 The summit of the mountain they had crossed 
 marked the dividing line between the damp sea- 
 climate and the more arid interior. Here was 
 abundance of moisture, and a deep rich humus. 
 As a consequence the tiny road twisted through 
 a soft padded chamber of green mosses, of high 
 ferns. There were no harsh angles, no raw 
 patches of earth : a thick velvet covering had been 
 laid over every rock, over every fallen tree, 
 and everywhere grew the gigantic feathery ferns 
 in clumps, in patches ; from the crevices in rocks ; 
 from tiny splits in the living trees; from the 
 trunks and the upturned roots of the fallen 
 giants. They were exactly like the bracken we 
 see on the hillsides : only here they were eight or 
 ten feet tall. With them too the scale had been 
 increased. But especially wonderful were the 
 upturned roots of fallen trees. Here the ferns 
 had grown in wide-flung graceful masses; and 
 the bright green moss had spread; so that the 
 arched roots were like huge florists baskets 
 twenty feet high, ready to be lifted and carried 
 away by their arching handles. It was incred 
 ible, unparalleled. 
 
 The earth of the road was damp, as though 
 recently sprinkled: and the car glided along 
 without a sound. To Burton s eyes it, and its 
 contents, and the track on which it ran had 
 suddenly been reduced to the dimensions and 
 
ON TIPTOE 21 
 
 importance of children s toys. It was of the 
 class of details ; and in this tremendous simplic 
 ity was no space for detail as yet. She hardly 
 noticed the brilliant rhododendrons, the fringes 
 of fragrant pink and white azaleas ; nor did even 
 the presence of tall foxgloves astound her as 
 yet. There were only the high, solemn trees; 
 and the shafts of light slanting across them ; and 
 the huge gracious florists baskets of ferns set 
 among them; and the great reproving hush that 
 seemed to dwell austerely as in a temple. And 
 too there was a smell of sweet dampness, and a 
 tinkle of innumerable small running waters. 
 
 The motor car coasted slowly for a half mile 
 and came to where a little stream crossed be 
 neath a bridge. Here a tiny patch of green had 
 won for itself a tiny patch of unobscured sky. 
 It was not over a hundred yards across ; but it was 
 bordered by pink azaleas in full bloom. The 
 brook hurried along quietly, only muttering 
 under its breath. 
 
 "Stop here, Simmins," Grimstead commanded. 
 Somehow the fact that his voice sounded nor 
 mally loud and audible surprised Burton. It 
 seemed to her that it too should have been struck 
 small. "How s that for a camp!" he cried tri 
 umphantly. 
 
 The car was brought to a standstill in the mid 
 dle of the grass plot, and all debarked. Grim- 
 
22 ON TIPTOE 
 
 stead was loudly and bustlingly efficient. Gard 
 iner, as usual, glided about like a languid and 
 uninterested spectator, but he did a great deal. 
 Simmins, quite cheered at doing something ac 
 customed, hustled out the lunch basket and the 
 thermos cases and proceeded to lay things out in 
 seemly and proper style. Simmins was an en 
 gaging person, a creature of the moment. His 
 light-hearted, gay and expansive disposition was 
 warred upon sternly by his sense of correctness 
 and good form. The natural self within him 
 would have carried him through life skiptiously, 
 like the giddy goat ; but it wasn t done, you know. 
 He loved, simply adored playing up to his part, 
 which was solemn, eminently correct, terrifically 
 imposing, and he could do it in such a manner 
 as to dash or make self-conscious all but the 
 drunkest or most conventional. All the while 
 his reprehensible, natural self was watching him 
 delightedly, hardly able to hold itself down in 
 its enthusiasm over the complete success of the 
 performance. When at home Simmins became 
 a house man. In this capacity the one fatal mis 
 fortune of his professional career overtook him. 
 Burton, unseen herself, had witnessed his an 
 swering of the door bell. He came down the 
 hall cakewalking, a wonderful double shuffle, 
 snapping his fingers, his head thrown back, his 
 eyes closed; but all quite noiseless. Before 
 
ON TIPTOE 23 
 
 opening the door he made it a wonderful baller 
 ina curtsey, spreading the tails of his coat wide. 
 Then he turned the door knob and instan 
 taneously a wonderful transition took place. 
 Wooden as a nutmeg he looked ten million miles 
 into space, his elbows snapped out at an angle, 
 and his inflexible sing-song voice declaimed im 
 personally that he could not say, madame, but 
 that he would ascertain. O fatal day! Next 
 time he tried to come it over Burton, as usual, 
 he ran against a snag. 
 
 "Look here, Simmins," she said decidedly. "I 
 wish you d come off the perch and be human. 
 I like friendly looking people about me." 
 
 61 Sorry, Miss," said he non-committally in his 
 best manner. "I was not aware of giving of 
 fence. It is pawsibly the results of my train 
 ing, miss." 
 
 Simmins was enjoying himself thoroughly. 
 He knew just when to put the accents and yet 
 avoid impertinence. It was his last shot. The 
 next instant he exploded with a loud report, due 
 to a bomb cast accurately into his midst. Miss 
 Burton had seen! He gathered up his pieces 
 and retreated in disorder. For a long time his 
 world was in chaos. He never did quite recover 
 the integrity of his attitude toward Miss Burton. 
 It wasn t done, you know; but he rather liked it. 
 
 So now he solemnly spread the cloth and laid 
 
24, ON TIPTOE 
 
 out the utensils and the food. Simmins would 
 not at all relish the general situation stranded 
 in a wilderness but he did not stop to think of 
 the general situation. All he bothered with was 
 the fact that the lunch basket was very correct, 
 the appointments were very correct; and the 
 hushed and reverential atmosphere of these huge 
 overarching trees was worthy of any butler, 
 superlatively correct. 
 
 After the food had been properly arranged 
 he drew away to survey his handiwork. He 
 paused to pluck a handful of azaleas with which 
 he garnished the corners of the cloth. Then he 
 drew himself erect. 
 
 "Supper is served, sir," he announced. 
 
 It was absurd : but it was sublime. All three 
 of the travellers recognised the fact as they 
 came to take their places. Gardiner looked with 
 awe upon the wooden figure standing at atten 
 tion ; Grimstead stared ; Burton cast a fleetingly 
 mocking glance that missed by a thousand miles. 
 
 "Now this is a real adventure!" cried Grim- 
 stead heartily. He was still uncertain as to the 
 mood with which his offspring was meeting said 
 adventure; whether she considered it a lark, or 
 all his fault; and like most fatuous old Pirates 
 who think nothing of cutting a throat or two, 
 he was abject toward the essentially unimpor 
 tant attitude of his own womenfolk. "We might 
 
ON TIPTOE 25 
 
 be a lot worse off! Plenty of food; and hot 
 drink; and a warm night! We ve made out 
 worse than this; haven t we, Gardiner, my 
 boy?" 
 
 The young man smiled faintly but did not 
 answer. He saw that a reply would have no 
 effect on Burton: and to his employer it was 
 superfluous. 
 
 By now the afternoon was drawing to its close. 
 The shafts of milky light had lifted, like wands, 
 and had disappeared. Only the occasional top 
 of a tree was still warmly gilded, as indication 
 that the sun had not yet set. From the earth 
 had arisen together a twilight and a coolness 
 that flowed between the bases of the mighty tree 
 trunks. Already the details of the gigantic fern 
 growths, and the florists baskets, and the deep 
 dark vistas, and all the tracery of shrubs and 
 flowers were quietly blending into a monotone 
 of indistinctness. It rose inch by inch, like a 
 mist; while still the clear sunlight shone hun 
 dreds of feet above. And from this dimness 
 came the clear, spaced, mellow, cathedral-like 
 bell-tones of the Hermit Thrush s song: delib 
 erate as an immemorial ritual. 
 
 "I think myself it is chilly," Burton suddenly 
 interrupted the men s low-voiced conversation. 
 
 They sprang to their feet and began to search 
 out dry wood for a fire. 
 
26 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "No, no, Simmins," commanded Grimstead, 
 "you eat your supper and clear up as promptly 
 as you can. We ll attend to this." 
 
 They built a fire; and they brought cushions 
 and robes from the car, and settled Burton com 
 fortably. It did not occur to either of them to 
 wonder why they should be going to these ex 
 traordinary exertions, physical and moral, to 
 please an able bodied human being so much 
 younger than themselves. When this was ar 
 ranged, Grimstead looked around for Simmins. 
 The latter had finished his meal, and was bestow 
 ing the remainder of the food and the utensils. 
 In this he was consuming just as much time as 
 he possibly could. Grimstead watched him for 
 a few moments in silence. 
 
 "Simmins," he said at last, "I think we can 
 stagger through to-morrow if the nickel plate 
 on that thermos is not polished like new. Drop 
 all that and come here." 
 
 "Yes, sir," replied Simmins. He managed to 
 impart an air of verisimilitude to several minor 
 operations that consumed several minutes; but 
 at length approached and stood with his elbows 
 cocked out. 
 
 "It is now six o clock," stated Grimstead. "I 
 find by the road map that Tecolote is twenty 
 and three-tenths miles distant on a straight road. 
 
ON TIPTOE 27 
 
 By walking three miles an hour you should get 
 there by one o clock, or thereabouts. The map 
 says there is a garage. Have a car come at 
 once for us. It should be here by two-thirty 
 at latest. You will come back with it and be 
 prepared to stay here until we can send out a 
 new tank or a tow car." 
 
 "Yes, sir," hesitated Simmins. 
 
 "Well, start along." 
 
 "Beg your pardon, sir; but I am not certain 
 of keeping the road, sir. It seems to me prob 
 able that I might go astray. That would be 
 annoying, most annoying; to you, sir, of course, 
 for in that event I would be unable to meet our 
 engagement, sir. If I might suggest waiting 
 for daylight" 
 
 "Any born fool can stay on a plain road," 
 growled Grimstead. "That s nonsense. Just 
 follow the ruts with your flashlight." 
 
 "With the flashlight, oh, indeed, sir; quite so, 
 sir. But on examination I find that the flash 
 light is not working, sir." 
 
 "Not working! Let s see it!" 
 
 Simmins handed it over and stepped back. 
 Grimstead tried it, then took it apart and peered 
 into it. 
 
 "Here, Gardiner, take a look. I can t see 
 by this cussed firelight," he said after a moment. 
 
28 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "The inside connection is gone," was Gardi 
 ner s diagnosis, "broken square off; fresh break 
 too. That s strange! How could that get 
 broken?" 
 
 "Couldn t say, sir," replied Simmins, meeting 
 the combined shock of both men s stares. He 
 meant he wouldn t say. 
 
 "Well," said Grimstead reluctantly. "It will 
 take all night to get anywhere at all in these dark 
 woods if he didn t get lost or break a leg." 
 
 The faintest gleam crossed Simmins eyes. 
 Burton, leaning back idly, apparently as remote 
 as the pyramids, saw it. 
 
 "I have a flash of my own in my bag," she 
 announced. 
 
 Simmins flickered a reproachful eye at her. 
 Since the debacle of the front door episode a 
 certain human relationship had existed between 
 these two. But he was to suffer for his sex. 
 
 "I shall do my best, sir," said he meekly, for 
 Simmins, "but it is only fair to say, sir, that the 
 boots I am wearing, being purchased afar from 
 my customary tradesman, and being of inferior 
 fit as well as inferior workmanship and material, 
 have had for some days the effect, sir " 
 
 "God bless my soul, what are you driving at!" 
 cried Grimstead. 
 
 "Simmins is funking it," interposed Burton 
 coolly. "He s afraid a bear or a panther or a 
 
ON TIPTOE 29 
 
 wolf will jump out from a dark corner just as 
 he rounds a bend in the road, and with one spring 
 will fasten its fangs in the back of his neck." 
 
 "Nonsense!" exploded Grimstead. 
 
 "Quite so, sir," supplemented Simmins, but 
 without conviction. 
 
 "Or that it will drop out of the branches of a 
 tree over his head, swoosh!" 
 
 "Wolves do not climb trees, miss," put in Sim 
 mins respectfully, hoping to change the discus 
 sion. This was exactly what he was afraid of, 
 however. 
 
 "There s not one earthly thing in these woods 
 that would hurt anybody," stated Grimstead de 
 cidedly, "and we ve wasted time enough. If 
 you ll get Simmins your flash, my dear, he ll be 
 getting along." 
 
 Ignoring Simmins question as to which bag 
 she wanted, Burton arose and went to the 
 car. 
 
 "Here it is, Simmins," she said, after a mo 
 ment s fumbling. "They say wild animals are 
 afraid of light, so I fancy you ll be perfectly 
 safe; unless of course the battery gives out. I 
 hardly know what to advise then. They say if 
 you can lie perfectly still, so the beast thinks 
 you are dead, he won t touch you. You might 
 try that." 
 
 Simmins made no reply as he took the torch: 
 
30 ON TIPTOE 
 
 but he did not attempt to veil the hurt reproach 
 in his eyes. Slowly he walked to the damp soft 
 road, down which he slowly disappeared ; a Lilli 
 putian figure in the dusk of the gigantic trees. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 BEFORE we follow Miss Burton back to her 
 fireside let us accompany for a short dis 
 tance the excellent but reluctant Simmins. His 
 way almost immediately took him out of sight of 
 the firelight. The various and vague night influ 
 ences that firelight always holds at bay immedi 
 ately gathered close about and jeered him. 
 They informed Simmins inaudibly but most 
 plainly that he was nothing but an insignificant 
 little flunkey; that he was a frivolous unworthy 
 character; that his general all around uselessness 
 was but poorly compensated by a light-minded 
 ness which he had mistakenly labelled cheer-o. 
 Having impressed these, and various other sim 
 ilarly depressing truths on him ; and having filled 
 his soul to overflowing with the awe, the portent, 
 the whelming aloofness of twilight forest, they 
 sprung a screech owl on him. 
 
 The screech owl is one of the smallest of the 
 rapt ores, or birds of prey. It lives on little 
 mice and buggums of convivial night-prowling ^ 
 habits; and its capacity for harming anything 
 larger than a canary bird is extremely doubtful. 
 But it does not sound that way. Perched aloft 
 
 31 
 
32 ON TIPTOE 
 
 in comfortable seclusion it utters the shrieks, 
 screams, whoops and obscene chucklings of a 
 thousand devils, and that in a voice so powerful 
 that naturalists have never determined why the 
 recoil does not knock it off its perch. There 
 ought to be an Indian legend to the following 
 effect: In the Beginning of Creation the God 
 of Four-footed Creatures and the God of Feath 
 ered Creatures had a contest to see which could 
 make the worst sounding product. The legend 
 should then run four pages full of words like 
 matchagewiss in italics ; the gist of which would 
 be that the God of Four-footed Creatures made 
 the coyote and set him on a hill ; and as every one 
 knows one coyote is some diabolical singer ! But 
 the God of Feathered Creatures spit on his hands 
 and made a screech owl and stuck him in a tree; 
 and he had the other God skinned a mile. 
 
 Simmins had never heard a screech owl. 
 Neither had he ever heard a bear, a wolf, a pan 
 ther, a hippogriff, a pterodactyl or a bander- 
 snatch. His worst fears were realised. Panic- 
 stricken he stood stark still and cast the beams 
 of his searchlight all about him. They were 
 most unsatisfactory, for they made a faint hol 
 low blub in the obscurity directly in front, and 
 left a pressing blackness all around. Sim 
 mins hesitated. The next instant he was on his 
 knees alongside the road hastily gathering the 
 
ON TIPTOE 33 
 
 materials for a fire. He was no Boy Scout and 
 it took him half a box of matches to get going; 
 but at last the cheerful friendly little blaze licked 
 up through the fuel. Simmins sat in front of 
 it, all thought of his duty shamelessly abandoned. 
 The screech owl, intrigued by the firelight, came 
 over to a nearer tree. It had eaten a shrew and 
 so had no pressing business on hand. At occa 
 sional intervals it made conversational reports 
 of its operations to another screech owl, a friend, 
 now cruising on a ridge about three miles dis 
 tant. Whenever this happened Simmins sprang 
 hastily from his doze and piled on more fuel. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 BURTON returned to the fireside carrying a 
 small covered basket. She sat down and 
 removed the contents. 
 
 I have been afraid to tell you of this basket 
 before, and of the fifth member of the party, 
 because I did not want to prejudice you against 
 my heroine. She is a good heroine, really; good 
 looking, good disposition at bottom, bright, 
 clever, lots of feminine lure, and a sense of hu 
 mor top hole in every respect. I know you ll 
 like her when you know her. But she is young, 
 and she s been raised a pet, and she has a few 
 silly little foibles that go with her age and her 
 station in life. Those are the things people out 
 grow and laugh about later. The thing she took 
 out of the basket was a Pomeranian dog, half 
 size even for that breed, and it was named 
 Punketty-Snivvles. There you have it! 
 
 Punketty-Snivvles was an arrant and arrogant 
 snob, vain as a peacock, addicted to almost in 
 cessant shrill noise, impudent to his largers and 
 scornful of his betters. He was a mamma s 
 darling, pink-ribbon creature, with an aggres- 
 
 34 
 
ON TIPTOE 35 
 
 sively demanding disposition. Every creature, 
 we are told, has its mission in life. Punketty- 
 Snivvles mission was in all probability the 
 humbling of self -righteousness. Many a Chris 
 tian minister who had put away all earthly pas 
 sions; many a New-Thoughter who had long 
 since got over thinking of anything more de 
 tailed than the All; many a disciple of Sweet 
 ness and Light as applied to Hindu Health who 
 habitually contemplated only Buddha s navel, or 
 something like that, was brought rudely to a 
 vulgar carnal desire to wring Punketty-Sniwles 
 neck! From which common human meeting 
 ground, I do not doubt, they worked slowly 
 back to Better Things. 
 
 Punketty-Snivvles, released from his basket, 
 promptly stood on his hind legs and walked, 
 strutted, back and forth to be admired. The 
 men surveyed the creature in silent disgust. 
 Burton adoringly fed it slices of chicken she had 
 saved out for the purpose. Punketty-Sniwles 
 showed its appreciation by uttering staccato and 
 incessant barks. This he kept up just long 
 enough to drive the great peaceful gods of the 
 forest evening to distant ridges; and then he 
 curled up in a small fluffy ball next the fire and 
 went to sleep. 
 
 It took the great peaceful gods some little time 
 to make up their minds to come back; but at 
 
36 ON TIPTOE 
 
 length they ventured, and night once more 
 brooded over the forest. 
 
 Burton reclined on the cushions, looking 
 straight up, still within her inscrutable silence. 
 Gardiner was clever enough to realise that this 
 was the time for effacement. Grimstead dozed. 
 Directly overhead was a little patch of the sky 
 with stars. Toward it reached the sparks from 
 the fire; at first shooting up straight and flam 
 ing; then hesitating, eddying, dulling; finally 
 making a last upward dart to die in the black 
 ness. They started out a hundred, a thousand 
 strong; there ended but two or three; yet ever 
 new hundreds, new thousands sprang up joy 
 ously to replenish the ascending column and as 
 soon to die. Around, the trees watched in mute 
 solemnity; above, the remote stars hung in the 
 awful void. Burton s eyes widened and the 
 tight drawn bands of convention and youth loos 
 ened; so that unknown to her the hidden spirit 
 within her reached out into its own element, and 
 bathed in it and was glad. 
 
 But now the peace of the night was broken 
 by the approach of something metallic and loose. 
 Three of the watchers sat up. Punketty- 
 Sniwles did not stir. The thing coming was 
 evidently a car: and the tinny rattle betrayed 
 its plebeian origin. Punketty-Snivvles paid lit 
 tle attention to anything beneath the rank of 
 
ON TIPTOE 37 
 
 a Rolls-Royce or a Pierce- Arrow. But some 
 of his humans were not so certain. 
 
 "Can t hear any engine," puzzled Gardiner; 
 "must be horse drawn a wagon load of milk 
 
 cans." 
 
 "Coasting," suggested Grimstead. 
 
 "Up hill from that direction," pointed out 
 Gardiner. 
 
 But the doubt was almost immediately re 
 solved by the dancing glare of headlights through 
 the trees, and an instant later a small light car 
 swerved off the road and came to a stop. Enter 
 the Bright-Shining Hero! 
 
 The thing he rode was one of those non 
 descript home-made things of galvanised iron by 
 which the youthful attempt in vain to disguise 
 and render sportful a certain otherwise jokeful 
 brand of inexpensive car. The hood was wide 
 arched and continued back to a cowl that in its 
 turn so nearly enveloped the single seat as to 
 resemble a cockpit. The rear ran out into a 
 peak, like a cigar, so that the terrific speed 
 would not create a dangerous vacuum. For an 
 analogous reason the superfluity of fenders and 
 running board had been stripped off. If one 
 wanted to board this clipper, he had to swing 
 himself over a high gunwale, for there were no 
 doors. At this moment the craft was in heavy 
 cruising order, for the long, lean racing lines 
 
38 ON TIPTOE 
 
 were disfigured by a huge canvas-covered pack, 
 lashed on her stern. One could imagine, how 
 ever, that should occasion arise, a few deft 
 slashes of a keen-edged knife would jettison all 
 this heavy freight, leaving her stripped for ac 
 tion, prepared to leap forward to her full thirty- 
 five miles per hour in pursuit of derring-do! It 
 is to be regretted that long absence from her 
 dry dock had apparently loosened enough of her 
 rivets so that temporarily her disguise was ren 
 dered nought by a rattle as characteristic as the 
 radiator she had borne from the factory. 
 
 The occupants of this craft were three. The 
 young man at the wheel, as he showed in the 
 firelight, was a pleasant-faced youth, with short, 
 light hair, and what had been a fair complexion 
 dark-reddened by much exposure. He had a 
 pair of laughing eyes and a fine flash of teeth 
 in his contagious grin. Behind him, seated atop 
 the canvas-covered pack, was an Irish terrier 
 dog, balancing himself in a difficult position with 
 the nonchalance of expert habit. The third oc 
 cupant was Simmins. 
 
 Before his employers could recover from their 
 astonishment at his reappearance, Simmins 
 leaped nimbly from the cockpit. 
 
 "This gentleman picked me up, sir," said he 
 glibly, "and I conceived as how it would be more 
 expeditious, sir, to come back with him." 
 
ON TIPTOE 39 
 
 "More expeditious! He s going in the other 
 direction!" said Grimstead. 
 
 Simmins agile mind saw the point, and real 
 ised that if this young man were supposed to 
 have offered his services in going for help, there 
 would have been no earthly object in returning 
 to the fire. He would simply have turned 
 around and headed for Tecolote. As a matter 
 of fact it was only when the little car came to a 
 stop that Simmins awoke to the fact that he had 
 to say anything at all. The terror of that wolf- 
 cougar - bear- pterodactyl- bandersnatch- screech- 
 owl combination had completely benumbed his 
 faculties. When the young man had pulled up 
 and said "Hop aboard," he had hopped aboard, 
 utterly unaware even that he had said that yes, 
 he was going that way. 
 
 "Yes, sir; certainly, sir," he answered Mr. 
 Grimstead s remark. "But, sir, although our 
 tank is ruined, sir, it occurred to me that by filling 
 the vacuum tank by hand every few miles we 
 would be able to work our car to Tecolote, sir, 
 in not over two hours. The vacuum tank holds 
 approximately a quart, which should take us two 
 and a half miles. Thus by filling the tank nine 
 times w r e should arrive. It might be a little 
 slow, sir, to be sure; but we should be in within 
 two hours, and that would be much more expe 
 ditious. We would have to borrow from this 
 
40 ON TIPTOE 
 
 gentleman only about two and a half gallons of 
 gasoline. I hope I have done right, sir," ended 
 Simmins virtuously. 
 
 He managed by his manner to convey the im 
 pression that all those details had been consid 
 ered and discussed with his new companion. As 
 a matter of fact Simmins was spinning it out 
 as he went along. The chief idea was to bring 
 up fresh and interesting issues so that the fact 
 that he had been found huddling over a fire in 
 stead of tramping manfully along the road to 
 Tecolote should become too trivial to mention. 
 Simmins was the best two-handed liar in Amer 
 ica because he could hit from any position at any 
 time. If he had been awakened from a sound 
 sleep and confronted with forgotten evidence he 
 would without a pause have started off in an 
 explanation so plausible, connected and self-evi 
 dent that the end would have been an abject 
 apology for disturbing his rest. Of course there 
 is nothing immoral about lying like that : moral 
 ity has nothing to do with great Art. Naturally, 
 then, Simmins realised perfectly there was one 
 weak point in his discourse, and he had his re 
 inforcements ready if needed; but that contin 
 gency seemed unlikely. 
 
 "Quite right, Simmins; quite right," Grim- 
 stead was saying. 
 
ON TIPTOE 41 
 
 But Miss Burton stirred; and Simmins mus 
 cles tightened. 
 
 "I suppose this gentleman has that much gas 
 oline to spare," she threw in, apparently idly. 
 
 That was the weak point. Simmins, naturally, 
 did not know. 
 
 "He offered his assistance, Miss," he replied 
 stiffly. After all you had to have some luck; 
 and by the size of his camp pack he must be on 
 an extended cruise. 
 
 During this short colloquy the young man had 
 sat at the wheel, his twinkling eyes leisurely ap 
 praising the party. Grimstead approached. 
 
 "It is very good of you to help us," said he 
 politely. 
 
 A fleeting expression of puzzlement swept the 
 newcomer s brow; but he answered with equal 
 courtesy. 
 
 "Glad to be of any assistance." 
 
 And waited. 
 
 Burton caught the puzzlement; and instantly 
 looked toward Simmins in time to capture the 
 tail end of entreaty directed toward the youth. 
 
 "Simmins," said Grimstead, "have we suffi 
 cient receptacles?" 
 
 "I m afraid not, sir. The canvas bucket would 
 hardly do." 
 
 "Perhaps," Grimstead addressed the young 
 man, "you could also let us have a utensil?" 
 
42 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "What sort of a utensil?" enquired the stran 
 ger. He was enjoying himself; but he could 
 not yet make out the situation. His roving eye 
 caught a look in Simmins that plainly begged 
 circumspection, and a flash of amusement from 
 the pretty girl in the flowered toque. 
 
 "A pail would do, I should think," Grimstead 
 was answering him, "something that would hold 
 about two and a half or three gallons." 
 
 "All right, I have such a pail. You can have 
 it," and waited again. 
 
 "And perhaps a funnel, if it would be possible," 
 put in Simmins hastily. "The vacuum tank 
 would be very hard to fill without a funnel." 
 
 The young man considered this statement for 
 some moments. 
 
 "Is your gas tank badly damaged?" he asked 
 at length. 
 
 Simmins heart lifted up in an inner paean 
 of joy. This was an intelligent young man who 
 could draw an intelligent inference. Saved 
 again! The yardarm would swing empty at 
 dawn! 
 
 Grimstead detailed the accident. The young 
 man nodded comprehension. 
 
 "I see. It s too bad, but I have no gas," he 
 announced calmly. 
 
 "I thought, sir," struck in Simmins eagerly, 
 "that the young man would be willing to loan 
 
ON TIPTOE 43 
 
 it to us and might wait here, as he has camp 
 equipment, until we could send him out a supply 
 from Tecolote ; especially, sir, on account of get 
 ting Miss Burton in out of the night air." Con 
 found the fellow: what did he mean, taking 
 chances away off here in the wilderness without 
 a reserve supply of fuel. 
 
 "Your solicitude for me is very thoughtful," 
 put in Burton sweetly. "Thank you, Simmins." 
 
 "I d gladly let you have it, of course," said 
 the young man, "if I had it; but I haven t." 
 
 "But you must have some!" cried Simmins, 
 routed from his grand manner. 
 
 "Not a single drop," smiled the newcomer. 
 
 "Well, distillate, alcohol, kerosene, whatever it 
 is," said Grimstead a little impatiently. "My 
 car will run on them at a pinch." 
 
 "Not a single drop," repeated the man; "I run 
 on well, electricity." 
 
 "Electricity!" cried Grimstead and Gardiner 
 in unison. "Where do you " 
 
 But the technical discussion was sidetracked. 
 The Irish terrier, who had been sitting atop the 
 pack, watching everything with bright eyes, sud 
 denly saw something that interested him. He 
 riveted his gaze on the ball of long black hair 
 at Burton s feet. The thing looked like one of 
 these muffs lady Humans liked to carry ; but the 
 Irishman thought it had stirred. After a mo- 
 
44 ON TIPTOE 
 
 merit he was sure of it. With instantaneous de 
 cision he went into action. 
 
 So quick and unexpected were his movements 
 that he had covered the distance between himself 
 and Punketty-Sniwles, had seized that person 
 age, and was halfway back to his master before 
 the bystanders realised what was taking place. 
 
 "Good heavens! 9 cried Burton. "Call off 
 your dog! He ll kiU him!" 
 
 Grimstead and Gardiner scrambled to their 
 feet. Simmins stooped and picked up a handy 
 club. But the young man was laughing. 
 
 "Stand still! Don t worry!" he commanded. 
 "He won t hurt him!" And somehow they be 
 lieved, and stood still. After a moment Grim- 
 stead and Gardiner too began to laugh; and even 
 Simmins permitted himself a discreet smile. 
 
 The Irish terrier was retrieving Punketty- 
 Sniwles, carefully, just as a hunting dog re 
 trieves a bird. He had the unfortunate person 
 age very completely in his mouth so that one 
 end stuck out one side and the other end out 
 the other side. His head was high, his step was 
 proud, and his eye was the eye of one who does 
 conscientiously a rather unpleasant duty. For 
 Punketty-Sniwles was having WTiggling hys 
 terics and screaming billingsgate in no uncertain 
 tones. 
 
 "Bring it here, Rapscallion," the young man 
 
ON TIPTOE 45 
 
 commanded, at the same time descending from 
 the car. 
 
 The terrier deposited his burden in his mas 
 ter s hand and drew back, spitting and sneezing 
 in his relief at getting rid of so much long hair. 
 
 "Come here, you old idiot," ordered his mas 
 ter. "This is a dog. I know it doesn t look it; 
 but smell of it. You see," he explained, looking 
 up, "I am naturally of a lazy but curious dispo 
 sition, so I have trained Rapscallion to bring me 
 in anything strange or queer he runs across in 
 the woods as long as it isn t skunks. But he 
 ought to know a dog when he smells it!" 
 
 Punketty-Snivvles had continued his screams. 
 
 "Oh, shut up!" the young man addressed him 
 unceremoniously. "You re not hurt a hair;" and 
 then, as Punketty-Snivvles continued his ravings, 
 he cuffed the atom smartly. Simmins gasped 
 audibly. Never before had Punketty-Snivvles 
 felt the hand of authority. He glanced at Miss 
 Burton to see how she was going to take this 
 outrage. She was staring at the young man with 
 a very queer look in her face. But Punketty- 
 Snivvles did shut up. 
 
 "If you have quite finished punishing my dog, 
 will you kindly return me my property?" she 
 asked coldly, after a moment. 
 
 "Why, certainly," acquiesced the young man, 
 his features lighting up with an engaging smile, 
 
46 ON TIPTOE 
 
 and stepping forward with the atom of fur out 
 stretched, "Do you really care for this?" 
 
 And then a queer thing happened. Burton 
 opened her mouth, intending to squelch this up 
 start in one of a half dozen ways, carefully 
 selected by an unerring feminine instinct. But 
 as she looked up straight into his carelessly laugh 
 ing eyes something ingenuously expectant in the 
 depths of them caused her to say, with consider 
 able emphasis, not to say passion: 
 
 "No, I hate and despise it!" 
 
 "I thought you would," responded the young 
 man in sympathetic tones. "Well, great is the 
 power of fashion. Here, Simmins," he ordered, 
 "take this nuisance away somewhere. You ought 
 to get you a real dog. Here, Rapscallion : you ve 
 got to apologise to the lady. First show her your 
 paws are clean." 
 
 The solemn, fuzzy Irishman came forward 
 gravely, sat erect, and extended his forelegs 
 stiffly straight up either side his head. 
 
 "She s a pretty lady," stated the newcomer 
 brazenly, "smile at her." 
 
 The dog wrinkled his upper lips back from 
 his teeth in a most engaging grin. 
 
 "Now speak to her in apology," with a slight 
 emphasis on the word "speak." 
 
 "Now see if she ll forgive you and shake 
 hands." 
 
ON TIPTOE 47 
 
 Rapscallion extended his right paw, keeping 
 the other still rigidly elevated. Nobody could 
 have resisted him. Burton did not. 
 
 "You darling!" she cried, dropping on her 
 knees before him. The terrier rolled his wistful 
 brown eyes toward his master. 
 
 "All right, Rap," said the latter. 
 
 The terrier came down to all fours and sub 
 mitted in dignified manner to the blandishments 
 of the pretty lady. 
 
 "I could give you the address of the man who 
 breeds em," suggested the newcomer. 
 
 "Oh, would you?" cried Burton, looking up. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 AT this moment Grimstead s booming tones 
 broke in. 
 
 "Young man," said he, "I do not know who 
 you are, nor how you do it; but if you have 
 made a permanent cure you can name your own 
 fee. IVe felt at times that no price was too 
 high to pay for riddance from that damn yap 
 ping" 
 
 But Burton had no intimation of being put 
 upon. She resumed her egg-shaped aura and 
 from it cast upon her parent One Look. 
 
 "But it s getting later every minute," put in 
 the latter hastily. "We d better get down to 
 business. You said, I believe, you ran on elec 
 tricity? Hadn t any gas?" 
 
 "That s right," smiled the young man. 
 
 "Well, it s an imposition, I know; but you 
 see how we are situated. Could you drive back 
 to Tecolote and get us help?" Grimstead hesi 
 tated, casting a glance first at the young man, 
 then at his car. "Of course I d that is, we d fix 
 it up" 
 
 "Surely; I ll do anything I can," agreed the 
 young man heartily. "My name is Davenport." 
 
 48 
 
ON TIPTOE 49 
 
 "Grimstead is mine. That s fine! Get them 
 to send out a touring car to-night ; and then to 
 morrow we can make arrangements for repairs." 
 
 But Davenport shook his head doubtfully. 
 
 "Not to-night," he decided. "To-morrow." 
 
 Grimstead flushed. 
 
 "It would be rather a hardship on my daugh 
 ter " he began stiffly, "and of course we should 
 expect you to consider yourself as our guest at 
 Tecolote " 
 
 Davenport laughed aloud. 
 
 "Bless you: I don t mind the being out late! 
 That s an old trick of mine. But it s going to 
 rain; and it s going to rain hard. I probably 
 wouldn t make it, and you d all be very wet and 
 uncomfortable." 
 
 "Rain!" cried Grimstead, astounded. 
 
 "Rain!" cried Gardiner contemptuously. 
 
 "Rain!" echoed Burton incredulously. 
 
 "The wind s due north, and has been all day/ 
 Grimstead pointed out, "and, besides, it s the dry 
 
 season." 
 
 "I saw the weather map this morning. 
 There s no low area within two thousand miles. 
 The barometer is up," said Gardiner. 
 
 "Look at the stars! It s a heavenly night," 
 contributed Burton. 
 
 "Apparently that is so," smiled Davenport. 
 "Nevertheless we are in for a storm, and a very 
 
50 ON TIPTOE 
 
 heavy one. I think it would be better for me 
 to wait here until morning and help make you 
 comfortable. I have a camp outfit; and plenty 
 of supplies." 
 
 "Of course you must suit yourself," said Grim- 
 stead coldly. There was no doubt in his mind 
 that this young man much preferred the com 
 pany of a pretty girl by a fire, not to speak of 
 a good night s sleep, to slamming about bad 
 mountain roads in the dark. 
 
 "I suppose," said Gardiner sarcastically, "that 
 you can tell us just when it s going to start to 
 rain and how many inches we will have." 
 
 "I might," replied Davenport unexpectedly. 
 "Wait a minute." 
 
 He stood upright and stared off into space. 
 The bright intelligence of his eyes drained slowly 
 away, leaving them glinting only with surface 
 reflections of the fire, as though they had been 
 made of glass. The others watched him, puzzled, 
 and a little impressed with this evidence of what 
 seemed extreme inner concentration. He stood 
 thus for perhaps half a minute; then slowly his 
 eyes reconcentrated. 
 
 "It will begin to rain about one or one-thirty," 
 he stated quietly, "and will continue for eight 
 hours and twenty minutes or five minutes either 
 way. I could not tell you exactly how many 
 
ON TIPTOE 51 
 
 inches will fall; but it will be a very heavy and 
 continuous downpour with high wind a tempest. 
 On a guess for that sort of a storm, lasting that 
 long, five inches." 
 
 "Five inches! A cloudburst!" Gardiner 
 snorted. 
 
 "Yes, this is a bad storm," agreed Davenport 
 seriously. "Another thing: that tree just beyond 
 your car, the one near the edge of the road, will 
 be blown down, so we d better move the car, and 
 be careful where we pitch camp." 
 
 Gardiner muttered contemptuously to himself. 
 Grimstead merely smiled a sardonic smile. He 
 was by now quite accustomed to Burton s effect 
 on young men. They always showed off in one 
 way or another. This was a new way to show 
 off; but anything to attract her attention. He 
 had it now. 
 
 "How do you claim to know these things so 
 accurately?" demanded Burton bluntly. 
 
 "Suppose we wait until morning and see if 
 I do know them," smiled Davenport. 
 
 "Yes, that s a good idea," approved Grimstead 
 drily. "And if we really are to stay here all 
 night, suppose we see what we can do toward 
 making ourselves comfortable." 
 
 He glanced aloft at the still, sweet night and 
 smiled under his moustache. 
 
52 ON TIPTOE 
 
 Davenport began to unlash the pack on his 
 little car. Simmins stepped forward to help 
 him. 
 
 "That s all right, my merry man," said Dav 
 enport, "but I can handle this. Suppose you 
 rustle out what you ve got in the way of rugs, 
 cushions and stuff of that sort. We ll just pool 
 our resources. Here," he summoned Gardiner, 
 "catch hold and help spread this out." 
 
 Gardiner hesitated, then obeyed. In a few 
 moments Davenport was surveying the pile of 
 effects with a speculative eye. There proved 
 to be a small tent made of some light paraffined 
 material ; a heavy canvas tarpaulin that had cov 
 ered the whole; two pair of camp blankets; a 
 quilted sort of bag affair that could be used 
 either as a mattress or as a sleeping bag in very 
 cold weather; three carriage rugs; and a folding 
 cot. To these, at Davenport s command, were 
 added four long heavy overcoats. 
 
 "We ll make out," he decided. "Miss Grim- 
 stead gets the tent, of course; and we d better 
 put that up first. It s a simple affair. You 
 put it up, Brother Simmins. Ever put up a tent 
 before?" 
 
 "I fought in the Boer War, sir," said Simmins 
 unexpectedly. After the brief glow of glory 
 this announcement evoked, Simmins was a little 
 sorry he had made it, for it committed him irrev- 
 
ON TIPTOE 53 
 
 ocably to an unassisted struggle. He lifted the 
 mess of material and little meaningless ropes. 
 
 "Where shall I ah pitch it, sir?" he en 
 quired. That word pitch was a good thought; 
 sounded professional. 
 
 "Get just as far down the meadow as you 
 possibly can," directed Davenport, "but stay out 
 in the open. Don t get into the woods. Better 
 build a fire to give yourself light." 
 
 "But why so far away?" protested Grimstead. 
 "I should prefer to have my daughter a little 
 nearer." 
 
 "Oh, of course we ll move down there too," 
 said Davenport carelessly, rummaging in the 
 torpedo stern of the little car. "Here s a hatchet, 
 Simmins, and a few iron pegs; but cut some 
 good long stakes for the corners. These iron 
 things are too short." 
 
 "But why not stay here where all our things 
 are?" persisted Grimstead. 
 
 "Not safe," mumbled Davenport, his head in 
 the car. "That one tree is the only one that 
 will fall; but a fellow can t guess at heavy limbs 
 that might get broken loose. The wind will come 
 from the sou west, and that will make it blow 
 lengthwise down the meadow. If we go to the 
 lower end we ll not get hit with falling branches, 
 at least." 
 
 Grimstead rolled his eyes at Gardiner with 
 
54 ON TIPTOE 
 
 a comical grin. The Pirate Chief was in reality 
 a soft old thing when it came to anything that 
 had to do with his only che-ild. This young 
 man was carrying his bluff through, anyhow; 
 and Grimstead liked a good consistent sport. 
 But Gardiner had other ideas. 
 
 "He s crazy as a loon," he said aside to his 
 chief. 
 
 "Well," pointed out the older man, without 
 contesting this point, "he s got a tent and a cot 
 and some warm bedding; not to speak of a car 
 that runs. If he makes Burton comfortable, I 
 don t care how crazy he is." 
 
 "Let s go!" cried Davenport cheerily, emerg 
 ing from his search with a little shovel, a ball 
 of heavy twine, and a short axe. He gathered 
 up the tarpaulin and the blankets. "Bring along 
 the rest of the plunder. Give us a lead with the 
 flashlight, Miss Grimstead." 
 
 They made their way to the lower end of the 
 meadow, where Simmins fire gleamed. Simmins 
 was apparently playing a game with himself that 
 much resembled a gentleman trying to find the 
 right-side-up of a lady s evening wrap. 
 
 "This tent seems to be of a pattern unknown 
 to me," he announced accusingly, "not at all 
 like the British army tent, if I may say so, 
 
 sir." 
 
 You may!" laughed Davenport, "and you 
 
ON TIPTOE 55 
 
 certainly will tell the truth. Here, you tie the 
 ends of these ropes to two trees these will do 
 and you haul them up as tight as you can. 
 That s the boy! Now you see which are the 
 corners, don t you? Well, stretch em out and 
 peg em down. Looks like a tent now, doesn t 
 it? Cut some stakes, as I told you, and peg her 
 down some more." 
 
 He looked about him. 
 
 "I guess that down log yonder is our best bet," 
 he announced. He gathered up the tarpaulin 
 and the hand axe. "You can come with me and 
 throw me a light," he ordered Burton, "and you 
 two men get out and rustle dry bracken for a 
 bed. Loads of it, plenty of it! It packs down 
 more than balsam, remember; so get a regular 
 old hayload, if you want to save your bones. 
 I ll rig a tent of the tarp." 
 
 "But I d as soon sleep out as not," objected 
 Grimstead. 
 
 "I tell you you d get wet," repeated Daven 
 port with a touch of impatience. 
 
 Grimstead threw up both hands in mock de 
 spair. Gardiner smiled tolerantly and made a 
 circular gesture before his forehead. Daven 
 port s back was turned; but Burton saw. A v 
 slow colour mounted to her cheeks, and she 
 stepped forward promptly with the flashlight. 
 The young man began skilfully to construct a 
 
56 ON TIPTOE 
 
 lean-to shelter, using the down tree as a back 
 wall. Burton watched interestedly, for the af 
 fair was most workmanlike and ingenious. She 
 exclaimed with delight over the simple expedient 
 of wrapping small stones in the corners of the 
 tarpaulin in order to have something unslippable 
 to which to tie the guy lines. 
 
 "I hope it does rain!" she remarked defiantly 
 to the world in general. She sat on a small hum 
 mock pointing the torch. The young man made 
 a very attractive focus to the light. His wiry, 
 strong figure showed well beneath the loose out- 
 of-door garments ; and his pleasant face, sobered 
 by the concentration on his task, was attractively 
 steadfast and kindly. He flickered up at her 
 remark. 
 
 "Oh, fair lady," he replied, "hearing is obey 
 ing. It will." 
 
 She examined him closely by the light of her 
 torch, which left her in darkness, and could not 
 make out how much actual seriousness lay be 
 hind these confident predictions. They sounded 
 like a hoax, an elaborate bit of foolery; and all 
 these tremendous preparations could well be a 
 mere follow-up intended more to puzzle than to 
 convince. There was a dancing devil in his eyes ; 
 and Burton had caught the instant dislike be 
 tween him and the Second in Command. 
 
 "He s trying to get Ross Gardiner s goat," 
 
ON TIPTOE 57 
 
 she half decided. At any rate it was all for her 
 bright eyes ; which was satisfactory. 
 
 "So good so far," he cried with a final blow 
 of his axe. "Now pile in the brakes, thick as 
 they ll go," he commanded the two men. "We ll 
 see how the festive Simmins progresses." 
 
 The festive Simmins had progressed to the ex 
 tent that he had driven in pegs or stakes through 
 all the loops at the bottom; and had nearly pulled 
 a lung out in his attempt to get the ridge rope 
 taut between the two trees. But in spite of the 
 best he could do the tent hung as wrinkled as 
 an elephant s pants. Simmins awaited comment 
 dejectedly. To his immense relief this compe 
 tent young man seemed pleased. 
 
 "That s good! That s fine !" he cried. "Those 
 pegs will weather any gale; though you might 
 lay some heavy stones against the slant of the 
 corners. Now all you have to do is to tighten 
 her up." 
 
 "Yes, sir," agreed Simmins heartily. That was 
 all! Just tighten her up! Sure! Simmins felt 
 his abraded palms where the cruel rope had bit 
 ten. 
 
 "Well, get at it," cried Davenport impatiently 
 as Simmins did not stir. "Take your hatchet 
 and get at it!" 
 
 Hatchet! Simmins wits darted about panic- 
 stricken. How could you tighten a tent with a 
 
58 ON TIPTOE 
 
 hatchet? Or did you run amuck and destroy 
 the obstinate thing? 
 
 "Yes, sir; quite so, sir," his outside was saying 
 mechanically. He felt Burton s sardonic eye. 
 
 "I saw a good one when I cut my stakes," 
 Davenport told him. "Come; I ll show you. 
 Pardon me," he begged the girl, taking the torch 
 from her hand. "Wait here: I ll be back in a 
 
 jiffy." 
 
 He drew Simmins in the direction of the 
 thicket. 
 
 "Look here, Simmins," said he good-humour- 
 edly, "you re a fraud." 
 
 "Yes, sir," replied Simmins in his best manner. 
 
 "Were you actually in the Boer War?" 
 
 "Yes, sir; indeed so, sir." 
 
 "What service? Now come through and be 
 human." 
 
 "Remount depot, sir." 
 
 "The only thing you fought was horseflies, 
 eh?" 
 
 "Quite so, sir." 
 
 "Ever see a tent before?" 
 
 "Yes, sir; at the circus, sir." 
 
 "I see," Davenport grinned. "Am I correct 
 in gathering that nine-tenths of the time you are 
 running a blazer on these people and that you 
 really are human?" 
 
 "I don t quite gather your meaning, sir." 
 
ON TIPTOE 59 
 
 "I think you do." 
 
 Simmins hesitated; then decided. 
 
 "Yes, sir; quite so, sir." 
 
 "Good! Now, Simmins, do you want to be 
 with me or against me?" 
 
 "Explain, please, sir." 
 
 "In plain English do you want me to tell 
 you how to tighten that tent, for example, or 
 bawl you out? Do you want me to back your 
 colossal and monumental bluff, or call it?" 
 
 "What do you want of me, sir?" asked Sim 
 mins astutely. 
 
 Davenport chuckled. "You re alive behind 
 that front after all, aren t you, old top? Well, 
 for one thing, for heaven s sake look and act hu 
 man out here in the woods ; while you re around 
 me, anyway. I like friendly creatures to work 
 with." 
 
 "That s what Miss Burton says," commented 
 Simmins. 
 
 "Oh, does she!" said Davenport with interest. 
 "Well, that s all I want at present. Bluff them 
 as much as you want: that s your profession. 
 But don t bluff me. Later I may want you to 
 kill the tall, dark man : I don t know. I don t like 
 him. Now as to that tent: cut two long poles 
 with forks in them ; the poles must be considera 
 bly longer than the tent is high. Stick the poles 
 slanting under the ropes that suspend the tent, 
 
60 ON TIPTOE 
 
 one at each end of the tent. By straightening 
 the poles you raise and tighten the tent. Get 
 it?" 
 
 "Yes, sir; indeed I do, sir!" cried Simmins 
 with real fire and enthusiasm. 
 
 "Noble child," Davenport approved these 
 qualities, "we ll have you a Boy Scout yet." 
 
 The shelters up, Davenport next started Sim 
 mins to digging semicircular ditches around 
 their up-grade sides. This was, he explained, 
 to carry aside the flood waters; at which Gar 
 diner, unable to contain himself further, uttered 
 an exclamation of impatience. 
 
 "I beg your pardon?" said Davenport, turning 
 in elaborately polite enquiry. 
 
 "I said nothing," Gardiner told him, "but I d 
 as soon say now that it would be well to drop 
 this childish foolishness and get down to busi 
 ness. It s getting late." 
 
 "By childish foolishness you refer ?" 
 
 "All this heavy digging and elaborate buffoon 
 ery. There s about as much chance of rain as 
 there is of snow. You must take us for east 
 erners or fools. We know something of the Cali 
 fornia climate!" 
 
 Davenport dropped the cot bed, which he was 
 unfolding, and sauntered carelessly over to 
 where Gardiner stood. Gardiner drew himself 
 up. When within hand distance Davenport 
 
ON TIPTOE 61 
 
 came to a halt. The men stared each other in 
 the eye. 
 
 "You are not overly polite," remarked Daven 
 port after a moment, "and, to be frank, I don t 
 believe I like you anyway. But as we re likely 
 to be together for the next week or so, it will 
 be pleasanter for everybody if we do not quarrel. 
 However, my merry man, I ll talk a language 
 you understand, and I ll just lay you a little bet 
 that it rains and that the redwood yonder falls." 
 
 His eyes held Gardiner steadily. The latter 
 looked superciliously down his nose, disdaining 
 reply. 
 
 "Well?" challenged Davenport. 
 
 "It s an absurd bet." 
 
 "I m offering it. Either you ll take it, or I 
 don t want another peep out of you as to the 
 arrangements I choose to make." 
 
 Gardiner s dark face flushed at the other s 
 tone. He made his decision to teach this upstart 
 a lesson. 
 
 "I ll take you," he said suddenly, "on condi 
 tion that I name the bet." 
 
 "All right." 
 
 "Very well, then. Ten thousand dollars." 
 
 Burton uttered a little cry of reproach. Grim- 
 stead, who had been listening amusedly, inter 
 posed. 
 
 "That s beyond a joke, beyond all reason, Gar- 
 
62 ON TIPTOE 
 
 diner," he objected. "Have some sense of pro 
 portion " 
 
 "He asked for it; not I," insisted Gardiner 
 steadily. 
 
 "Well, I m not going to permit any such non 
 sense " began Grimstead; but Davenport cut 
 him short. 
 
 "Thank you, Mr. Grimstead, but don t bother. 
 I ll take that bet." 
 
 "Now, young man," expostulated Grimstead, 
 "don t be stampeded by pride into " 
 
 "Pardon me again, Mr. Grimstead; and thank 
 you again; but that s all settled. I ll just get it 
 down in writing and get you to witness it, if 
 you will; so we ll have a little record of the 
 transaction." 
 
 "I expect to collect this bet," warned Gardi 
 ner, stung by the suggestion of this precaution. 
 
 "If you win," amended Davenport, "and I ex 
 pect to collect it, if I win." 
 
 "My money is good," stated Gardiner bluntly. 
 "How do I know whether you can pay?" 
 
 "Oh, as for that, I might ask the same ques 
 tion of you." 
 
 "Mr. Grimstead can vouch for my solvency. 
 Where are your guarantees?" 
 
 The young man looked a little puzzled. 
 
 "I have none for the moment, of course; but 
 the instant we go out to a town " 
 
ON TIPTOE 63 
 
 Gardiner laughed. 
 
 "You ll mortgage the garage to pay up of 
 course," he sneered. "No. As you told me a 
 while back, put up or shut up !" 
 
 Davenport shook his head at him, and laughed. 
 
 "You re a quibbler, Gardiner. I ll bet you re 
 legal adviser to a predatory corporation." 
 
 Gardiner laughed, a nasty, sneering, walk-the- 
 plank laugh. 
 
 "Bet s off," said he, "I thought it would be." 
 
 "The bet is not off," spoke up Burton sud 
 denly. "I will guarantee Mr. Davenport." 
 
 At this the silent wood gods who, it will be 
 remembered, had again drawn close about ut 
 tered three rousing but silent cheers. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 BY the time this little affair was all arranged 
 for, one good-sized storm had broken and 
 cleared, anyway. Burton had told her father 
 plainly that she was of age and mistress of her 
 own fortune. Gardiner had protested and had 
 been put in his place. Both men had appealed to 
 Davenport s better nature not to take advan 
 tage of an emotional young girl. Davenport 
 had winked openly and shamelessly at Burton 
 and blithely proclaimed himself a regular Shy- 
 lock when it came to money. The terms of 
 the bet had been restated, and the men s watches 
 synchronised. The work had been resumed 
 finally in sullen gloom on the part of the Chief 
 and his First Mate, and with joyous, carefree 
 carolling on the part of Davenport, who chose 
 that propitious moment to affront the wood gods 
 with a burlesque of Italian opera. The arrange 
 ments were concluded by running the two cars 
 farther out into the open meadow. 
 
 "The ground ll soften," speculated Davenport, 
 "and we ll bog down but if we stick near the 
 road we re likely to get smashed by a branch 
 I have it!" 
 
 64 
 
ON TIPTOE 65 
 
 He and the now enthusiastic Simmins pro 
 ceeded to cut a number of willow poles which 
 they laid on the ground to form a sort of plat 
 form, or rather floor. On this they ran the two 
 cars. 
 
 "Now when we want to go out, we can lay 
 more poles to form a corduroy," he said. 
 
 While engaged in cutting the poles Simmins 
 approached him with a proposition. 
 
 "I say, sir," said he, "I have a few quid laid 
 by. I d like it jolly well if you could cut me 
 in on that bet for a tenner or so." 
 
 Davenport stared. 
 
 "Aren t you taking big chances?" he enquired. 
 "What do you know about the weather?" 
 
 "Not a thing, sir!" replied Simmins cheer 
 fully. "Not a thing! But I do know a tidy 
 bit about sportsmen, sir; and, if you will par 
 don me, I do not think you are bluffing. And 
 I d back you, sir, against Mr. Gardiner any day 
 of the week." 
 
 "Thank you, Simmins. You re in for a ten- 
 spot; as you say." 
 
 All matters being settled, Davenport dis 
 tributed the blankets, rugs and greatcoats, 
 and suggested it would be a good idea to 
 turn in. 
 
 "Turn in!" cried Burton. "I couldn t sleep 
 a wink. I m going to sit right here until two 
 
66 ON TIPTOE 
 
 o clock and greet that rain storm! How could 
 you even suggest sleep?" 
 
 "Well," said Davenport, "suit yourself, of 
 course. But if you ll pardon me, I ll just snatch 
 a few winks. I ve been driving all day, and I 
 expect we won t any of us get much sleep after 
 the thing hits." 
 
 He crawled under the lean-to shelter, and 
 wrapped a blanket around his shoulders. 
 
 "Before you leave us," begged Grimstead with 
 a faint irony, "I would like to ask what you 
 meant when you said we were likely to be to 
 gether for the next week or so. Is that one 
 of your extraordinary predictions?" 
 
 "No. Knowledge of California mud," replied 
 Davenport; and was apparently at once asleep. 
 
 "Well," stated Grimstead emphatically in a 
 low voice, "I ve sat in at some steep games in 
 my time, but for good consistent hole-proof 
 bluffing this young man carries it out more com 
 pletely than any. By Godfrey, he does it well! 
 He s almost got me looking for his cussed storm 
 myself!" 
 
 "If you ask me, I think he is crazy," growled 
 Gardiner morosely. He was still savage over 
 Burton s rescue party; and he reflected vindic 
 tively that now he would collect that ten thou 
 sand even if Davenport proved to have escaped 
 from a lunatic asylum. 
 
ON TIPTOE 67 
 
 Burton said nothing, but occasionally glanced 
 up to the opening in the redwood tops ; where, it 
 must be acknowledged, the stars still gazed 
 serenely down. 
 
 After about nine or ten hours of this Grim- 
 stead looked at his watch. 
 
 "Holy Mike !" he exclaimed. "It s only a little 
 after ten o clock! I thought it was near morn 
 ing, at least. Look here, Burton; I m going to 
 turn in, and I know Ross and Simmins want to 
 too. Sit up and greet your rain storm all you 
 want, but for heaven s sake do it in your tent 
 and give us a chance!" 
 
 In five minutes the dying fire was deserted. 
 The lean-to covered four recumbent forms. In 
 side the little tent Burton lay on the cot staring 
 upward at the flicker of the flames cast across 
 the wall. She would wait thus until the zero 
 hour had passed. It was inunderstandable how 
 the men could sleep in the face of thrilling sus 
 pense. After a few moments she heard the sound 
 of a soft and stealthy approach. She raised her 
 self tensely on her elbow. In the tent opening 
 the firelight showed the Irish terrier, his back 
 humped in obsequience, his head ingratiatingly 
 sidewise, his lips wrinkled back in his engaging 
 grin. Seeing himself observed, he sneezed softly 
 in propitiation. It was evident that he was ac 
 customed to spend his nights in the tent; but 
 
68 ON TIPTOE 
 
 his canine courtesy rendered him doubtful of 
 the proprieties. 
 
 "Come in, Rap," invited Burton softly. 
 
 He made one bound to the foot of the bed, 
 where he curled up in a compact fuzzy ball, 
 wriggling his stump of a tail. Burton threw the 
 edge of her cloak over him. As she sank back 
 again she realised for the first time she had 
 failed to tuck Punketty-Snivvles in his little bas 
 ket ; indeed, she had not the slightest idea where 
 Punketty-Snivvles was. And did not care! 
 
 She lay for some time, flat on her back, watch 
 ing the flicker of the fire against the canvas. 
 Several times her eyes blurred into a staring, 
 and the leaping shadows became monstrous. 
 Then they faded; and she slept. 
 
 Some time later she came to herself with a 
 start. The fire shadows were no longer play 
 ing against the tent. A heavy, black, breathless 
 stillness brooded, as though the world slumbered 
 deeply. Through the slit of the tent s opening 
 shone a single star. With a foreboding sinking 
 of the heart Burton lighted a match and glanced 
 at her wrist watch. One-fifteen. Fifteen min 
 utes remained before the conclusion of this fan 
 tastic bet; and there hung the star in its patch 
 of heaven. A profound disappointment seized 
 her. She reached down to pat the terrier, who 
 acknowledged the attention merely by snuggling 
 
ON TIPTOE 69 
 
 a little closer into his fuzzy ball. Then she lay 
 back and stared up into the darkness. 
 
 Never had she experienced such absolute still 
 ness. A silence is made up of many sounds ; and 
 the silence of night has, for all its hush, a thou 
 sand tiny voices. But here were no frogs, no 
 crickets, no tree toads, no distant muffled owls 
 nor whip-poor-wills. The fronds of the redwood 
 giants were so lofty that the whispers of any 
 breeze there might have been were inaudible. 
 The immediate vicinity of the tent seemed des 
 titute even of the tiny water drippings so usual 
 in the forest. Burton became acutely conscious 
 of the beat of her pulses, the singing of her 
 ears. By holding herself quiet she could even 
 hear faintly the roar of the sea; and that was 
 over a mountain range and many miles. Her 
 thoughts wandered back to the young man and 
 his bet, though in justice it must be stated that 
 not once did the fact that she had guaranteed 
 his paying cross her mind. 
 
 Again her mind ungeared, and she heard the 
 far-off surf. It sounded louder, more distinct. 
 Some peculiarity of air currents had curiously 
 affected the acoustics. She struck another 
 match. One-twenty-two. Some one stirred in 
 the other shelter; arose; and poked the embers 
 of the fire to a flame. Burton knew instinctively 
 that this was Ross Gardiner. She turned her 
 
70 ON TIPTOE 
 
 head impatiently. The change of position had 
 blotted out even the friendly star. How near 
 the surf sounded! She must be falling asleep 
 in spite of herself, be already on that border 
 land where physical sensations are magnified. 
 By an effort she sat upright and shook herself. 
 Rapscallion awoke and whined. 
 
 Overhead a tiny twig fell on the canvas with 
 a sharp spat. After an interval another; and 
 another; and another. Suddenly Burton remem 
 bered that the tent was not under the trees. She 
 sprang from the cot. The twigs were coming 
 more quickly. She thrust open the flap and 
 thrust her head and shoulders through. The roar 
 of the surf was now even more plainly to be 
 heard. A warm drop splashed her forehead; 
 another her cheek. Airs were stirring, soft as 
 velvet. The man at the fire had coaxed it into 
 a tiny flame. Burton saw she had been mis 
 taken; that this was not Gardiner, but Daven 
 port. The young man had on a yellow slicker 
 and sou wester hat. He looked up and caught 
 her eye. 
 
 "She s coming," said he cheerfully. "Listen to 
 her!" 
 
 And then Burton suddenly realised that the 
 roar was not of the surf, but of the tempest hur 
 tling through the forest. 
 
 She stepped to the fire, glancing curiously at 
 
ON TIPTOE 71 
 
 the recumbent figures under the other shelter. 
 
 "Once a man s asleep, he s hard to awaken 
 until after three o clock," Davenport answered 
 her unspoken wonder, "unless he s been brought 
 up in the open and so is sensitive to outside 
 things. But they ll awaken quickly enough in 
 a few minutes!" 
 
 Burton looked at her watch again. One- 
 twenty-six. 
 
 "Oughtn t you to awaken Mr. Gardiner to wit 
 ness that it s raining and he s lost his bet?" she 
 asked. 
 
 "He probably wouldn t acknowledge these few 
 drops as rain," said Davenport easily. "He s a 
 natural quibbler." 
 
 "There are less than four minutes." 
 
 Davenport glanced at his own wrist watch. 
 
 "Three," said he composedly, "Gardiner and 
 I set our watches alike, you recall." 
 
 "Oh, dear!" cried Burton. 
 
 "Don t worry; it will be here in less than two. 
 Listen." 
 
 The roaring was louder, with a half -guessed 
 undertone of crashing, the beat of a wild rhythm. 
 
 "It frightens me," she confessed, "it s like the 
 approach of a ravening wild beast." 
 
 "You are safe," he told her confidently; "I ll 
 answer for it. Believe that; and enjoy it as the 
 great and fearful spectacle it will be. But get 
 
72 ON TIPTOE 
 
 into the tent now. You must not get wet, for 
 there will be no chance to dry off ; and when this 
 hits it will come in buckets." 
 
 They turned together to the tent. One of the 
 figures under the shelter stirred uneasily, some 
 faint echoes of the turmoil penetrating his 
 dreams. 
 
 "When the wind comes before the rain, 
 Hoist your topsails up again. 
 When the rain comes before the wind, 
 Topsails dowse and halliards mind!" 
 
 chanted Davenport in full voice. Overhead 
 Burton heard a hurried patter as though many 
 little feet scurried across the canvas; then suc 
 ceeded a drumming. 
 
 "Roll out! Roll out!" yelled Davenport. 
 "Roll out and sec it rain! At a thousand drops 
 for a cent my ten thousand would be overpaid 
 a thousand times!" 
 
 With a furious rush the wind fell upon them. 
 
 Burton had thought she would be looking out 
 to see the spectacle. Instead she huddled on 
 the cot, hugged Rapscallion, and wondered how 
 long the tent would stand under the furious as 
 saults delivered against it. The roar of the water 
 against the canvas and the fierce howl of the 
 wind muffled the rending crashes of branches, and 
 
ON TIPTOE 73 
 
 the crescendo of falling trees. All the air seemed 
 full of devils of wind and water. The tent al 
 ternately sagged and bulged in sharp, fierce tugs 
 at its moorings, so that it seemed impossible it 
 could hold together. Burton appeared to her 
 self to be completely isolated, with Rapscallion; 
 cut off by the fierceness of the elements from 
 all mankind. Once, however, the circle of the 
 flashlight showed at the bottom of the tent, fol 
 lowed it around. She heard muffled blows, as 
 the tent pegs were assured. A few moments 
 later Davenport showed at the doorway, the 
 water streaming from his face and garments, 
 grinned at her reassuringly, shouted something, 
 and disappeared. 
 
 This continued for a long time. It seemed 
 hours to Burton. But a little before three 
 o clock the fury of the tempest passed on. Or 
 derliness resumed its control. The wild orgy 
 of the elements was replaced by a business-like 
 deluge of rain, that struck its pitch and held 
 it in a steady, sustained roar of falling waters. 
 After the nervous strain of the upheaval it was 
 actually soothing. Burton relaxed; lay down; 
 drew the covers over her. In thirty seconds she 
 was profoundly asleep. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SHE came to herself hours later, rather un 
 comfortable at having slept in all her clothes ; 
 but considerably refreshed, none the less. The 
 grey daylight had come. Outside, the rain 
 drummed steadily on the tent, but its sound had 
 been overlaid by the sustained rush and dash of 
 flowing waters. The creek was in flood. Burton 
 threw off the blanket and arose, shaking her 
 wrinkled garments into place, and attempting 
 to readjust by sense of touch her tumbled hair. 
 As soon as she stirred, Rapscallion, who must 
 have been awaiting this signal, hopped down 
 from his snug nest, wriggled his stump of a tail, 
 and disappeared outside. Rapscallion was hardy, 
 and possessed a thick coat. 
 
 Burton parted the flaps and looked out. Dav 
 enport s forethought had faced the opening 
 down the meadow, so that the force of the tem 
 pest had hit the back ; but this arrangement made 
 it impossible for her to see the other shelter. 
 Only the grey veil of the rain and the slow drift 
 of mists that eddied and concealed and momen 
 tarily revealed the columns of trees, or dark little 
 fragments of fern or frond. 
 
 74 
 
ON TIPTOE 75 
 
 After a moment she heard her name called 
 from behind the tent, and upon her answer came 
 Davenport in his oilskins, accompanied by the 
 dog. 
 
 "Rapscallion told me you were awake," he 
 greeted her cheerfully. "Rest any?" 
 
 "I slept like a top. How did all of you get 
 on?" 
 
 "We made out. There s some coffee ready, 
 and we ve got a little fire over in the other pal 
 ace." He glanced at her feet. "Mud six inches 
 deep," he remarked; and before she gathered 
 what he was about, he had picked her up and 
 was on his way. 
 
 Her first impulse was to protest and be set 
 down; but an instantaneous second thought re 
 minded her of Simmins, on which she chuckled 
 delightedly and submitted. Indeed the liquid 
 squelch of Davenport s footsteps would have re 
 signed her to worse than that. 
 
 "Hullo, everybody!" she cried cheerfully as 
 they hove in sight; but before she could collect 
 her anticipated fun in looks of disapproval or 
 amazement, she was dumped rather unceremoni 
 ously on a blanket under the shelter. 
 
 "Look out you don t touch the canvas, even 
 with the tip of your finger," warned Davenport, 
 "or it will leak.". 
 
 A tiny fire blazed merrily just at the edge of 
 
76 ON TIPTOE 
 
 the shelter, a marvellous sight to Burton in all 
 this deluge. Her father and Gardiner sat lean 
 ing against a log in the background and Simmins 
 fussed with a coffee pot over a small gasoline 
 stove. Grimstead looked good-natured, and 
 amused by the turn of events ; Gardiner was com 
 pany-manners polite, which meant that he was 
 disgruntled; Simmins was bright and chipper. 
 This fact registered on Burton s mind only on 
 second inspection; when she examined more 
 closely the erstwhile automaton. There was no 
 doubt of it ; something had happened to Simmins. 
 His manner was free and independent and hu 
 man; his spirit was plainly blithe and debonair; 
 no longer did he conceal rigidly his naturally 
 frivolous proclivities. When he caught her eye 
 he greeted her brightly; with entire lack of im 
 pertinence, to be sure, but nevertheless brightly, 
 instead of with the mortuary frigidity appropri 
 ate to a mastodon preserved in a glacier. He 
 poured some coffee and crawled carefully with 
 it to Burton. 
 
 "Coffee, Miss," he should have enunciated 
 briefly in the dispassionately mechanical method 
 of the dictograph ; instead of which he remarked : 
 "That ll warm you up." 
 
 Not a very startling variation; say you? Get 
 out of my story! It is evident that the tribe of 
 Simmins is unknown to you. 
 
ON TIPTOE 77 
 
 This cataclysmic volte-face was of course, as 
 all such things are, a slow culmination. The 
 Land of the Free, the Melting Pot, and the Re 
 fined Screen Drammer had long been getting in 
 their subtle work. But the immediate occasion 
 was Davenport. Simmins was by nature a hero- 
 worshipper; otherwise he would have had noth 
 ing stable to tie to in his kind of life. He did 
 no try to imitate his heroes ; they were much too 
 splendiferously magnificent for such as he. But 
 he could make of himself an appropriate appa 
 nage. I once saw alongside the highway a mag 
 nificent work of art painted on a hoarding. It 
 represented in the foreground, and nearly life 
 size, a certain, small, cheap motor car, which we 
 will call the Surrey. Dimly, in the background, 
 ghostlike but plainly to be identified, stood a 
 Rolls-Royce, a Pierce-Arrow, and a Locomo 
 bile. The legend ran: "The Surrey, Companion 
 to the World s Best Cars." Well, that was Sim 
 mins. Heretofore his world s best car had been 
 a certain speedster with forty-seven suits of 
 clothes and particular manners named Lord 
 Cecil some-thing-or-other-important. There is 
 no use going into the specifications of Lord Cecil, 
 for he does not appear in this story; but where- 
 ever in this wide and uncouth world our Sim 
 mins wandered there acted he the part of one 
 serving Lord Cecil as particularly and as im- 
 
78 ON TIPTOE 
 
 personally as that peer could require. But with 
 the laying of that ten-thousand-dollar wager, 
 Simmins allegiance shifted. 
 
 That morning when Davenport had awak 
 ened from his brief sleep he found that Simmins 
 place was already empty; and slopping his way 
 out to the cars, he found the butler-chauffeur, 
 clad in a mackintosh, delving in the pockets of 
 the larger car. 
 
 "Hullo, Simmins," Davenport addressed the 
 stooping back. 
 
 Then even he was astonished. Simmins 
 straightened and turned. He spoke. 
 
 "Toodleyou!" he cried brightly. 
 
 Sheer astonishment held Davenport dumb. 
 
 "You certainly did call the turn!" continued 
 Simmins. "And I congratulate you, sir! I d 
 like to have you with me at Goodwood! 
 Wouldn t we make a cleaning, if you could pick 
 the ponies as well! My word!" He waved his 
 hand airily. "And to rook his nibs does my heart 
 good ! I ll buy me a little souvenir with the ten 
 ner you let me in for. I suppose that goes, 
 sir?" 
 
 "Certainly," laughed Davenport. "How could 
 I forget it? You and Miss Burton were my 
 only backers. We ll all buy a souvenir. You d 
 better make yours a Liberty Bond though, Sim 
 mins, if you take my advice." 
 
ON TIPTOE 79 
 
 "Liberty Bond, sir, with a tenner?" puzzled 
 Simmins. 
 
 "Tenner," repeated Davenport, also pretend 
 ing to be puzzled. "Oh!" he simulated enlight 
 enment. "I see! Did you imagine for a moment 
 I d bother with a sum like ten dollars?" 
 
 "What else, sir?" asked Simmins uneasily. 
 
 "Ten hundreds, of course," replied Davenport. 
 
 "Good Lord! If it had not rained I d have 
 been out a thousand dollars?" 
 
 "Most certainly," Davenport assured him seri 
 ously. "As it is you shall have my check for 
 a thousand the moment Mr. Gardiner pays his 
 debt." 
 
 And now you know why Simmins passed the 
 coffee in that care-free, swashbuckling spirit 
 that permitted him to tell Burton that that 
 would warm her up! 
 
 Burton too looked at him with a surprise that 
 he received almost with a cheerful wink. 
 
 "You re coming on, Simmins," she remarked. 
 
 "Yes, miss," he acknowledged with so engag 
 ing an air that both Burton and Davenport burst 
 into laughter, in which Simmins joined quite un 
 abashed. 
 
 "Looks as if it might rain forever," remarked 
 Grimstead after a pause. 
 
 Davenport glanced at his wrist watch and 
 made a rapid calculation. 
 
80 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "It will stop at ten minutes to ten," he stated. 
 
 Grimstead too made a calculation. 
 
 "I remember now you did say it would last 
 just eight hours and twenty minutes," he said, 
 "and that would bring it to the hour you name. 
 I ll acknowledge that you called the turn on this 
 storm, and you cut pretty fine to the time it 
 would begin, too. You had mighty good luck 
 there; but you can t lean on your luck too heav 
 ily, my boy. You re cutting it too fine. Be rea 
 sonable!" 
 
 "Nevertheless, if you ll allow me five minutes 
 either way," smiled the young man, "I ll lay 
 anybody another bet." He glanced at Gardiner, 
 who did not look up. 
 
 The millionaire laughed. 
 
 "Well, you are a good sport; I ll say that for 
 you. I m no heavy gambler, like you young 
 fellows with lots of money. I ll bet you a box 
 of cigars, just to make it interesting." 
 
 "All right." 
 
 "By the way," added Grimstead, "didn t you 
 say something about a tree ?" 
 
 "It s down, square across the road," inter 
 rupted Simmins eagerly. 
 
 "The deuce you say!" Grimstead sat up. 
 "How many others are down?" he enquired after 
 an instant. 
 
 "None, sir, not one!" cried Simmins trium- 
 
ON TIPTOE 81 
 
 phantly, as though the glory were his own per 
 sonally. "I took especial pains to look." 
 
 "This is the most extraordinary exhibition of 
 either fantastic bull luck or prophecy or a mix 
 ture of both I have ever witnessed!" said Grim- 
 stead. "It s it s almost uncanny!" 
 
 "There s nothing uncanny about it," assured 
 Davenport, "and there s no luck at all. It s ex 
 act, or nearly so." 
 
 "Exact! You ll have to show me!" 
 
 "Well, haven t I?" 
 
 "To a certain extent. But looks to me as if 
 there s a lot of luck." 
 
 "Not at all. The storm was the exact product 
 of a whole series of causes and effects working 
 out; and as the causes and effects are all sub 
 ject to physical law, which is unchangeable, any 
 prediction as to the time or the direction or the 
 strength or duration of a storm can be entirely 
 exact, provided it is based on those causes and 
 effects." 
 
 "And the tree?" put in Burton interestedly. 
 
 "Same thing: cause and effect. A thousand 
 of them have been working for a very long time. 
 Some of them are even so small as a beetle 
 severing a single root tendril. Yet the sum of 
 all of them points inexorably to a definite mo 
 ment of culmination. The tree falls. You see 
 that, don t you?" 
 
82 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "Of course I see that!" replied Grimstead im 
 patiently. "But to make an accurate prediction 
 every one of these numberless causes and effects 
 must be known, without exception, and their pre 
 cise strength and bearing accurately estimated. 
 That is impossible!" 
 
 "How else could it be done?" demanded Dav 
 enport. 
 
 "I don t know luck! Sheer, bald luck!" 
 growled Grimstead. 
 
 "At any rate it saved us a wetting and per 
 haps death if we had stayed under that tree," 
 Burton pointed out. 
 
 "By Jove, you re right!" agreed Grimstead 
 heartily. "And incidentally won your ten thou 
 sand dollars. You ll have to pay up, you know, 
 Gardiner! Fair bet!" 
 
 "I intend to pay up; I always discharge my 
 obligations. The young man hardly expects me 
 to carry such a sum of money in my waistcoat 
 pocket, I suppose," replied Gardiner. He 
 turned to Davenport with thinly veiled insolence. 
 "I hope you have planned what you will do with 
 such a large amount?" said he blandly. 
 
 Davenport was surveying him with dancing 
 eyes. 
 
 "No," he replied carelessly, "I can t say I have. 
 I ll tell you what I ll do; I ll match you for it." 
 
ON TIPTOE 83 
 
 He produced a coin which he balanced on the 
 tip of his finger, challengingly. 
 
 Gardiner hesitated uncomfortably; then 
 shrugged his shoulders with as good an air of 
 disdain as he could muster. 
 
 "Certainly not; I m no damn fool," he de 
 cided. 
 
 A quickly smothered sound burst from Sim- 
 mins. It sounded like a choking cough, but had 
 started life as a British cheer. Davenport pock 
 eted his coin with a droll wink in the direction 
 of his new slave. 
 
 "As I said before with reference to quarrel 
 ling," said he, "we shall be here for five or six 
 days, anyway ; and we may as well consider our 
 
 resources." 
 
 "Is that another prediction?" demanded Grim- 
 stead. 
 
 "Well in a way call it that. It does not pre 
 tend to be exact; for it is founded merely on 
 common sense and a knowledge of Northern Cal 
 ifornia roads in the wet season. The gumbo out 
 there would stick a ground squirrel. If you 
 don t believe it, go and take a look. There ll 
 be no traffic of any sort until it hardens. Of 
 course one might walk, at a pinch, but it would 
 be some walk! I m not sure you wouldn t stick 
 like a fly on flypaper at that. Anyway there s 
 
84 ON TIPTOE 
 
 little gained by that, unless your business, sir, 
 makes it absolutely imperative that you get 
 somewhere in a given time." 
 
 "My business," stated Grimstead, "for the 
 next ten days or two weeks is to burn up about 
 a half pound of tobacco and to see that the 
 scenery doesn t move around too much. I had 
 also a sort of supplementary job of murdering 
 a few rainbows; but that was a frill." 
 
 "Good!" said Davenport. "I was a little 
 afraid we d have to make the try. As for the 
 rainbows, the stream yonder is full of them. Of 
 course in this flood water you can t catch any; 
 but by to-morrow you could try good bait, and 
 by the day after a fly." 
 
 "Then let her be wet, if she wants to be. I m 
 happy. I don t know why we were skyhooting 
 over so much country, anyway. This looks 
 good." 
 
 "We have, I believe, no provision for an ex 
 tended stay anywhere," Gardiner pointed out 
 icily. 
 
 "I have confidence in this young man," coun 
 tered Grimstead comfortably. "From some hid 
 den magic he will produce all that we require 
 for our simple wants." 
 
 "I have plenty of camp food," corroborated 
 Davenport, -for I had just stocked up for rather 
 a long cruise. If you can stand camp fare we 
 
ON TIPTOE 85 
 
 won t starve. As soon as it stops raining we 
 will get things a little more shipshape. I think 
 there will be bedding enough at a pinch. If not, 
 put on two suits of underwear; you ll find it 
 warmer than an extra blanket air space, you 
 know. I only wish we had more suitable clothes 
 all round." He spoke generally, but he glanced 
 at Burton s silk-clad ankles. 
 
 "I have some sport clothes and heavy tramp 
 ing boots, if you mean me," said she. "And I m 
 glad we re going to stay. I adore these great 
 trees. I want to live with them. I believe I 
 could stay here forever." 
 
 Grimstead lay prone and lighted a cigar. His 
 object was in way of attainment. Here was a 
 little human interest. Sulks gone. For the first 
 time forward and not backward looking. To be 
 sure Gardiner was not living up to expectations ; 
 but that was a small matter. The Pirate Chief 
 had not particularly set his mind on Gardiner, 
 though Burton thought he had. Gardiner was 
 good looking, and as the Second in Command 
 available on the instant, so he was drafted 
 into service as a hoped-for antidote. If results 
 could be procured without him, as now seemed 
 possible, Gardiner could go hang. Pirate Chiefs 
 are always ruthess, just like that. What Grim- 
 stead wanted to do was to rid himself of his 
 two especial hates. He was accustomed to be- 
 
86 ON TIPTOE 
 
 ing attacked in the newspapers, and shuddered 
 at by the altruistic, and ambuscaded by his fellow 
 pirates, and double-crossed by his amiable fellow- 
 club members, and being grand- juryised, and all 
 that; and he took it with a good-natured growl. 
 They were part of life as he understood it. But 
 two things really worried him, had the power 
 to penetrate to his inner self -poise. Or, to speak 
 more freely, two things got under his skin ; could 
 get his goat. One of these was Punketty-Sniv- 
 vles; the other was Willie Smeed. They were 
 both always underfoot. Punketty-Snivvles we 
 have met. It is not necessary to draw a full- 
 length portrait of Willie. He was a nice enough 
 boy, but the symbols of his exterior meant things 
 to the Pirate Chief that were perhaps not en 
 tirely justified by essential facts. Lots of peo 
 ple have remarkably sumptuous manners, play 
 the ukelele, wear embroidered monograms on the 
 left sleeves of silk shirts, affect small, downy, 
 light moustaches, take a personal interest in 
 flower arrangements, are authorities on colour 
 schemes, dress always in light or pastel tones, 
 and are for all that admirable, efficient, force 
 ful and lovable human beings. Lots of grown 
 people besides golf-professionals are called Wil 
 lie and get away with it nobly. But not with 
 Pa Grimstead! When he found there was no 
 open season on Willie Smeed in any month of 
 
ON TIPTOE 87 
 
 the year, and unwise to kill Punketty-Sniwles 
 at all, he just abducted his daughter and de 
 parted thence. Willie was left forlorn. Pun- 
 ketty-Snivvles was still with him; but one thing 
 at a time! 
 
 His contented thoughts had wandered this far 
 when Burton, as though she had followed them, 
 enquired for the dear little animal. 
 
 "I stowed him in the car last night, miss," an 
 swered Simmins, "and covered him quite safely." 
 
 "Better get him," advised Burton. 
 
 Punketty-Sniwles, on being given the free 
 dom of the camp, took up his station opposite 
 Rapscallion and started in a shrill, yapping voice 
 to tell that rough-neck where to get off. He did 
 this from near his mistress, and he kept a beady 
 black eye on her to catch her approval. This 
 was an old and successful game with Punketty- 
 Sniwles. Rapscallion closed both eyes in order 
 to lower the percentage of temptation anyway. 
 
 And then the heavens of Things as They Are 
 fell crashing about Punketty-Sniwles. His mis 
 tress reached out, seized him by the scruff of his 
 neck and cuffed him soundly. 
 
 "You exasperating little idiot; keep quiet!" 
 quoth she. 
 
 Punketty-Sniwles, released, backed into the 
 deepest part of the shelter which happened to 
 be next to Ross Gardiner and there he 
 
88 ON TIPTOE 
 
 crouched, his eyes shining phosphorescently, gaz 
 ing small malevolence at a ruined world. 
 
 A huge cloud of smoke arose from the recum 
 bent Grimstead. 
 
 "Oh, boy!" he cried in tones of ecstasy; and 
 then hastened to ask: "How big do those rain 
 bows run, Davenport?" 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 AT the appointed hour the rain ceased and the 
 clouds broke in the instantaneous California 
 fashion to admit a bright shining sun. The whole 
 world was a-glitter with jewels, and little mists 
 eddying through the forest drifted in and out 
 of steady, broad shafts of light. Down in the 
 hollow the creek still roared wildly; and nearer 
 at hand yet sounded the drip of many waters. 
 
 "You re a marvel of a weather prophet," ac 
 knowledged Grimstead, "and you must have had 
 long experience in the country. I take off my 
 hat to you. And I may add that if I had your 
 luck I d head for Tia Juana and the ponies. * 
 
 Simmins brought the bags from the car. All 
 retired to return in a few moments dressed in 
 the loose, serviceable clothes and stout boots of 
 the summer camper. Then they all tramped 
 down to the road to see the fallen giant. 
 
 A full-grown redwood tree is impressive be 
 yond the reach of description when it is stand 
 ing upright in its proper way; but it fails to 
 impress the faculties of awe as deeply as when 
 it lies prone. The height of an average room 
 is ten feet; the thickness of this tree then, as 
 
 89 
 
90 ON TIPTOE 
 
 it lay before them, would fill two stories of a 
 house; the roof of a bungalow would just have 
 been visible over it; to mount to its side a flight 
 of thirty steps would have been required. The 
 little group stood looking at it in the silence of 
 awe. Its length extended at a long angle across 
 the road and far into the forest on the other side. 
 The root circle stood high above the trunk, 
 shaggy with the wet earth that clung to it. The 
 hole from which it had been torn was as wide as 
 a city garden plot, and half full of water. 
 
 "Looks like the shell hole of a Big Bertha," 
 remarked Davenport. 
 
 "Were you in France?" demanded Burton 
 quickly. 
 
 "I saw a little of it." 
 
 "How in time will they ever clear that out 
 of the road?" interposed Grimstead, who was fol 
 lowing his own line of thought. 
 
 "I think they ll probably have to build a new 
 road around it," suggested the young man. 
 
 Grimstead measured the difficulties with his 
 eye. 
 
 "At that rate it will be some time before there 
 is any through traffic," he predicted. "Well, 
 I ll say further that you re quite a woodsman, 
 young man, to have spotted this tree as due to 
 take a tumble. I suppose there are indications 
 to those who know." 
 
ON TIPTOE 91 
 
 "Cause and effect," repeated Davenport. 
 
 They ventured a few feet into the forest and 
 saw that somehow, in spite of a few evidences 
 of fallen limbs or splintered branches, of matted 
 brake or twisted bush, the woodland had recov 
 ered marvellously its customary green softness. 
 But the underbrush was still too water-laden to 
 tempt them far. They swung back into the 
 meadow past the cars. Grimstead stared curi 
 ously at Davenport s little machine. By daylight 
 it looked even tinnier than ever. In fact a great 
 deal of the outside shell was of galvanised con 
 struction that had not been painted. 
 
 "Make her yourself?" enquired Grimstead. 
 
 "Such as she is," acknowledged Davenport 
 carelessly. "I didn t use much pains with her 
 looks because she is just an experiment. I m 
 trying something out." 
 
 "You said she was electric driven?" queried 
 Grimstead. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Isn t that a curious thing for a man like you 
 on this sort of a trip? What s the matter with 
 gas?" 
 
 "Nothing the matter with gas, except that it 
 costs money, and is sometimes hard to get." 
 
 "And I suppose charging a battery costs noth 
 ing," struck in Gardiner scornfully, "and there 
 are charging stations everywhere." 
 
92 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "Often enough for my purpose," rejoined 
 Davenport with entire good humour. 
 
 "I should think you d want more speed and 
 power," observed Grimstead. 
 
 "Geared as she is I can make fifty an hour 
 on a paved road; and that means power for 
 anything within reason I haven t had it brake- 
 tested; but it must develop between thirty-five 
 and forty-five horsepower." 
 
 "Your battery can t have a long charge-life 
 at that rate," pursued Grimstead. "I don t see 
 how you keep charged. How many hours do 
 you make?" 
 
 "I don t know; I haven t determined that yet. 
 That s what I m experimenting on." 
 
 Grimstead paused to get this straight. 
 
 "Do I understand you to say that you are 
 running, on the original charging?" he asked, 
 "that you have not recharged since starting?" 
 
 "That s it." 
 
 "Where did you start from? How long have 
 you been out?" 
 
 "Left San Rafael about three weeks ago." He 
 stooped to examine a dial. "Been just eleven 
 hundred miles." 
 
 "On one charge !" exploded Gardiner. "You ll 
 have to show me!" 
 
 Davenport straightened up and looked at him 
 coldly. 
 
ON TIPTOE 93 
 
 "On the contrary," he pointed out, "I do not 
 have to show you." 
 
 "You interest me very much, Mr. Davenport," 
 interposed Grimstead, secretly gesturing Gardi 
 ner to keep quiet. "Among other things, as 
 you perhaps know, I have very extensive hydro 
 electric interests, and am in consequence some 
 what of an electrical engineer. What you tell 
 me indicates that your new battery I assume it 
 is your invention ; and that it is that feature you 
 are trying out?" 
 
 Davenport nodded. 
 
 "Well, if you really have a battery of such 
 power and long life, it will turn the storage 
 battery business upside down." 
 
 The Pirate Chief, like all good commanders, 
 was always ready to climb himself to the crow s- 
 nest. This speck on the horizon was probably 
 a mirage that would vanish on nearer approach ; 
 but there was just a remote possibility it might 
 be a galleon heavy with untold wealth. Or, in 
 deed, it might be somewhere between the ex 
 tremes: some craft laden mainly with dreams, 
 but with a trifle of metal ballast worthy of a 
 pirate s attention. So like a prudent chief, he 
 piped all hands below decks, including the Sec 
 ond in Command, unlimbered the carronades, 
 put over the helm, and bore down on the stran 
 ger. 
 
94 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "Such a battery, if it could be well proved 
 out, would be valuable," pursued Grimstead. 
 One of the great elements in his success was 
 that he knew better than to cry down the ob 
 vious. "I confess I can t imagine the princi- 
 pie- 
 
 "Like to look at it?" enquired Davenport un 
 expectedly. 
 
 This was luck Grimstead had not hoped for 
 yet. He assented with alacrity. All crowded 
 curiously around while the young man raised the 
 hood. 
 
 They saw what appeared to be an ordinary 
 large electric motor set across the frame. In 
 front of it and connected to it by two thick 
 wires was a black box measuring about a foot 
 along all dimensions. 
 
 "There she is," said Davenport cheerfully. 
 
 "That! Is that your whole battery?" cried 
 Grimstead, pointing an incredulous finger. 
 "Why, that thing wouldn t run a bell for three 
 weeks, let alone a car. You re joshing me, young 
 man. Where s your running battery? Under 
 the seat?" 
 
 Without reply Davenport raised the seat 
 cushions to display a recess occupied only by 
 tools; lifted the trap door of the rear to show 
 a nearly empty interior. 
 
 "You see, I have nothing up my sleeve with 
 
ON TIPTOE 95 
 
 which to deceive you," said he, jestingly. 
 "There s the whole works." 
 
 He stooped to disconnect the two wires and 
 tucked the black box under his arm. 
 
 "We may as well have some light in the tent 
 for Miss Grimstead," he explained. "I have a 
 little outfit that I will install." 
 
 On the return to the camp Grimstead fell back 
 to consult low- voiced with his Second in Com 
 mand. 
 
 "What do you make of it, Ross?" he enquired. 
 
 "He s lying, showing off. The thing is im 
 possible." 
 
 "Well, he certainly drove up last night from 
 somewhere." 
 
 "He probably lives quite near and recharges 
 from water power." 
 
 "Probably," agreed Grimstead, "but even at 
 that he s got something. That box isn t any 
 larger than a starting battery. We ll have to 
 look into it a little. A battery as compact as 
 that will drive others off the market." 
 
 "Provided it doesn t take too much care and 
 tinkering," agreed Gardiner carelessly. 
 
 Davenport put everybody to work, after a 
 quick meal had been improvised and eaten, so 
 that by mid-afternoon a comfortable and con 
 venient camp had come into existence. The tent 
 had been moved a short distance into a circle of 
 
96 ON TIPTOE 
 
 small redwood trees that stood about it to form 
 a stockade, and the ground had been levelled 
 free from hummocks. The other shelter had 
 been left where it was; but its boundaries had 
 been defined by small logs within which, so Dav 
 enport informed them, the men were privileged 
 to pile as much soft bedding as they felt they 
 needed and were able to find. The cook fire had 
 its proper crevice within which to function; and 
 a wide space had been scooped for the friend 
 ship fire. After all else was finished, and while 
 the others were having a fine puttery time be 
 stowing their personal effects, Davenport con 
 structed with his axe ingenious and comfortable 
 backs against which to lean while sprawled out 
 before the blaze. Then he departed with Sim- 
 mins and Rapscallion in search of fuel. The 
 sound of his axe could be heard as he chopped 
 for dry heart wood. 
 
 By the time these things were all finished the 
 sun once more was slanting from the west. Sim- 
 mins, panic-stricken, claimed total ignorance of 
 camp cookery. 
 
 "I ll do it," stated Davenport briefly. "You ll 
 do the dishes, run the errands, get the water and 
 carry in the wood. I ll chop the wood." He 
 looked around at the others. "That s the only 
 thing I want you all to leave strictly alone the 
 axe. I ll do all the axe work myself." 
 
ON TIPTOE 97 
 
 "Mr. Gardiner and papa both can use an axe," 
 Burton pointed out. "They re regular lumber 
 jacks. They won t cut off a foot." 
 
 "I do not doubt it," agreed Davenport, "but 
 if that s the case, they understand. It s too far 
 to a grindstone. Either a man wants to be en 
 tirely responsible for his edge and do all the 
 chopping; or else do none of it." 
 
 "I m perfectly willing," agreed Gardiner dis 
 dainfully. "Hard work is out of my line." 
 
 Davenport grinned. 
 
 "Well, I imagine it s going to be in every 
 body s line for a while. How do you think we re 
 going to get those cars out of here and into 
 the road?" He waved toward the centre of the 
 meadow where the motors stood, side by side, 
 each on its platform of laid poles. "We ve 
 got to build a road, not only across the 
 meadow but around that fallen tree. There s 
 going to be quite a little exercise involved in 
 that, I m thinking; and everybody will have to 
 help." 
 
 "What fun!" cried Burton. 
 
 "It is fun," agreed Davenport, "to be up 
 against things and work out by your own in 
 genuity." 
 
 "How will we go at it?" 
 
 "Well, first we ll cut poles for a corduroy over 
 the soft ground." 
 
98 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "You have exclusive use of the axe, I believe," 
 drawled Gardiner. 
 
 "The poles must be trimmed with the hatchet 
 and then carried or dragged into place," con 
 tinued Davenport ; only an aggravated sweetness 
 of tone indicating this as a reply to Gardiner s 
 comment. "Then when we re across the meadow, 
 we ll simply clear a right-of-way through the 
 brush, and corduroy where we need it. It won t 
 be much of a road, but it will get us out. We 
 will start to-morrow morning." 
 
 "It ll be a lot simpler to have Simmins hike 
 out as soon as the road dries a little and bring 
 in a force of men," growled Gardiner. 
 
 "Yes, that can be done," agreed Davenport, 
 "if you want to lose this chance." 
 
 "Chance? Chance of what?" struck in Grim- 
 stead interestedly. 
 
 "Chance of showing yourself you can take 
 care of yourself no matter what happens," re 
 plied Davenport with a faint shade of contempt ; 
 "chance of proving you ve not grown fast to an 
 electric button; chance of sweating a little on 
 some good, hard constructive work for a pur 
 pose; chance of being up against it and getting 
 out of it by your own effort. Aren t many of 
 those chances these days. Don t you get any 
 fun out of that sort of thing?" 
 
ON TIPTOE 99 
 
 "Can t say I do," returned Gardiner unim 
 pressed. 
 
 "Well, that s too bad," commiserated Daven 
 port. "Because it s really quite a lark to meet 
 difficulties. Especially is it too bad when you 
 have to do it anyway." 
 
 "What do you mean by that?" asked Grim- 
 stead, who was following this by-play with con 
 siderable inward relish. 
 
 "Why, this," returned Davenport. "Simmiiis 
 would walk twenty miles good hard miles that 
 would take him all day and he d get to Teco- 
 lote. Tecolote has a general store and post 
 office; a boarding house or hotel; and the public 
 garage. It is situated on the cross roads that 
 go from Soquel to Morro, on the coast. There 
 are three small houses in patches of garden." 
 
 The young man paused to light his pipe. 
 
 "Simmins arrives, footsore and weary I be 
 lieve that s the way they always arrive and, 
 like a good soldier, he thinks first of duty and 
 goes to the garage. He will find it a good-size 
 affair of corrugated iron with a dirt floor con 
 taining about six disreputable-looking cars, a 
 bewildering mess of junk iron, a forge, an an 
 vil, a work bench, and a tall, fat, profane man. 
 There may be one or two others present I don t 
 know but the tall, fat, profane man will be 
 
100 ON TIPTOE 
 
 the one to whom Simmins will unfold his mov 
 ing tale. And, believe me, before the tall, fat 
 and profane man whose name is Tom gets 
 through with him, he will have all of the afore 
 said moving tale! He is possessed of a mono- 
 maniacal desire to get to the bedrock bottom of 
 all situations; and all the necessary qualifica 
 tions for doing so. Simmins may start with the 
 full intention of luring him out by telling him 
 merely of a towing job; but before he has been 
 ten minutes among those present he will have 
 conveyed an accurate picture of our situation and 
 personnel. I m not arguing about this; I m tell 
 ing you. When he quite understands, Tom will 
 tower over Simmins and discourse as follows: 
 no, not as follows; I forgot Miss Grimstead s 
 presence." 
 
 "Don t mind me," urged Burton. "I ve been 
 a debutante and am used to a rough life." 
 
 "No. Tom is as profane as he is tall and fat. 
 But he will discourse approximately as follows: 
 
 " You poor attenuated simulacrum of the 
 manly virtues, he will say, why in the abode of 
 the preordained condemned phantasmagoria of 
 mediaeval religious belief don t you bring in your 
 own car? Are you all afflicted with infantile 
 paralysis? Are you victims of ossification of the 
 cranial cavity? Why do you come bothering 
 me? 
 
ON TIPTOE 101 
 
 "And then Tom will enumerate seriatim 
 twenty-eight jobs demanding his immediate and 
 constant attention. He will probably end by 
 telling Simmins of a good winter resort and 
 advising him to proceed thither without de- 
 
 lay." 
 
 "That s all right," said Grimstead, who was 
 laughing heartily, "but Simmins would be 
 authorised to offer any pay whatever within 
 reason money-no-object idea." 
 
 "Tom regrettable as it may be is little 
 swayed by thoughts of pelf when he has his dan 
 der up. And Tom s dander is positively self- 
 rising when he envisions a pardon me, but the 
 words are his grown-up he-man without guts 
 enough to help himself. At such times the glitter 
 of gold is nothing in Tom s life." 
 
 "I think Mr. Grimstead s name would have 
 some weight, even with such a person as you de 
 scribe," said Gardiner with quiet confidence. 
 
 Davenport threw back his head and laughed. 
 
 "Following Simmins ill-received offer of 
 bribery," he continued to visualise his imaginary 
 scene, "he would adduce the consideration just 
 referred to. Grimstead, he would roar, is it 
 that old lying, sneaking, bull-dozing, land-grab 
 bing, robbing usurper of the public domain? I 
 wouldn t go an inch to pull him out of hell! and 
 then he d throw Simmins out on his neck." 
 
>02 ON TIPTOE 
 
 Grimstead s bushy eyebrows had drawn to 
 gether and his eyes flashed lightnings. 
 
 "You are insulting, young man," he warned. 
 
 "Not I," replied Davenport cheerfully. "I m 
 just telling you what Tom would say. I know 
 him and his methods pretty well. Point is, the 
 old cuss would work all night in a rainstorm to 
 get us out if we were helpless, but he wouldn t 
 raise his hand to do anything we could do our 
 selves/ 
 
 "There must be others available," growled 
 Grimstead, still ruffled. 
 
 "No; there aren t," replied Davenport, drop 
 ping his extravagant manner; "not near enough 
 to be available, within reason. It s much sim 
 pler to do it ourselves. It s not a serious job." 
 
 Grimstead happened to look aside at this mo 
 ment to see Gardiner glance at his long, well-kept 
 hands. A sardonic gleam crossed his eyes. 
 
 "You re right, Davenport," he said, "and as 
 you say, it will be fun." 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 6 T 71 TELL, this is something like !" cried Grim- 
 V V stead as he lowered himself to a cushion 
 of aromatic boughs at just the right distance from 
 a leaping camp fire. He was well-fed, and warm 
 and dry, and pleasantly tired after the mild exer 
 cise he had been forced to take. "Gardiner, I 
 don t know why we didn t think of this ourselves, 
 before we got our noses rubbed in it." He glanced 
 about the scene with satisfaction. Everything 
 was trim and shipshape, just the way he liked 
 to see things. The coals of the cooking fire 
 glowed tidily beneath a kettle of beans a sen 
 sible, well-behaved little fire that one could work 
 about without scorching. Utensils hung handily 
 from wooden pegs driven into the soft bark of 
 a tree. The ground was free of bumps, roots 
 and hummocks and was evenly carpeted with fir 
 boughs. Between the trunks of the trees the 
 tent, within which Burton was moving around, 
 could be seen glowing like a moon or a huge, 
 frosted lantern. The real moon walked through 
 hushed aisles of the forest, turning solid realities 
 to the insubstantial, fragile silver filigree of en 
 chantment. Rapscallion slumbered ridiculously 
 
 103 
 
104 ON TIPTOE 
 
 near the fire. Punketty-Snivvles, who was a 
 clever little devil in spite of all, having in the 
 course of a single day realised his fall from his 
 high estate, and having become undemanding 
 and unobtrusive, sat a few paces away adoring 
 Rapscallion. He had essayed in turn arrogance, 
 yapping insult, and an ingratiating playfulness, 
 to none of which had the terrier paid the small 
 est attention. Punketty-Snivvles might have 
 been made of thin air. So at last Punketty- 
 Snivvles became a hero worshipper. He fol 
 lowed Rapscallion slavishly about, trying in a 
 puny, futile fashion to copy his raffish rough and 
 ready manners, hoping mightily for some atten 
 tion; and when, as now, the marvel slept, Punk 
 etty-Snivvles deprived himself of needed sleep 
 to sit, a sliver of imbecile pink tongue showing, 
 worshipping with humble heart. Thus did Punk 
 etty-Snivvles at last take the initial steps of the 
 Climb ; and acquire his first Merit. 
 
 Simmins, on the other side, was doing the 
 same thing toward his new hero, though he did 
 not stick out his tongue. 
 
 "Young man," began Grimstead in a large, 
 paternal manner, blowing the first cloud from 
 his cigar, "where is your shop? San Rafael, did 
 you say?" 
 
 "My shop? oh, Sausalito," replied Daven 
 port. 
 
ON TIPTOE 105 
 
 "Do a pretty good business ?" 
 
 "It makes me a living." 
 
 "I suppose you could use a little more." 
 
 "Who couldn t?" 
 
 "A little additional capital might enable you 
 to expand to advantage." 
 
 "Additional capital," said Davenport unex 
 pectedly, with a grin, "wouldn t enable me to ex 
 pand an inch." 
 
 "But you just said you could use more money." 
 
 "That s different." 
 
 "I don t see how it s different," said Grim- 
 stead a little impatiently, "but it doesn t matter. 
 I like your style, young man. You re a live wire, 
 and it s a principle of mine to connect with live 
 wires. It crossed my mind that if you needed 
 a little buy in a share, you understand. Of 
 course on investigation " 
 
 "So you are interested in my battery, after 
 all," said Davenport. 
 
 Grimstead stared at him, then threw back his 
 head and laughed. 
 
 "Keno!" he acknowledged. "At least I m in 
 terested in what you say about your battery. 
 The State of Missouri isn t big enough to hold 
 me when it comes to what you claim for it. I 
 shrewdly suspect that in that you re trying to 
 spoof me, as Willie Smeed would say. But it s 
 obvious you ve come from somewhere, and it s 
 
106 ON TIPTOE 
 
 obvious that little battery brought you. Even 
 if it s only five or ten miles, and you expect to 
 get home again, you ve got something big." 
 
 "Of course," Davenport pointed out, "I 
 haven t tried to sell you anything, nor make you 
 believe anything. And I don t suppose, in view 
 of your technical knowledge, I would have any 
 right to resent your doubting my word. Never 
 theless, I repeat that with that battery as my sole 
 motive power I have driven about eleven hun 
 dred miles." 
 
 "Without recharging?" demanded Gardiner. 
 
 "Without recharging," repeated Davenport. 
 
 A polite but restrained silence succeeded this 
 remark. There really seemed nothing further 
 for either Grimstead or Gardiner to say, except 
 you re a liar; which in the circumstances seemed 
 hardly tactful. Davenport himself relieved the 
 situation. 
 
 "Don t feel embarrassed!" he laughed. "Say 
 it if you want to; I won t be offended. It may 
 relieve your minds. There s no way to prove 
 it to you right now, so there s no sense worrying 
 about it." 
 
 "Pardon me," put in Gardiner suavely, "I 
 think your statement could be at least partially 
 tested with the facilities at hand." 
 
 "What do you mean?" asked Davenport. 
 
 "I mean that if you are willing to allow your 
 
ON TIPTOE 107 
 
 battery to carry a load for any specified length 
 of time, I can arrange the load." 
 
 "If it s not beyond the power of my battery, 
 go to it," agreed Davenport. "I figure she ll 
 give about forty horsepower." 
 
 "That is more than ample. For how long?" 
 
 "Long as you like until we get out of here, 
 if you please. Of course that s subject to Miss 
 Burton s use of it for her lights." 
 
 Grimstead, who had been watching Daven 
 port s face as he was accustomed to watch a 
 poker opponent s, raised his voice. 
 
 "Burton, come here!" he roared. Then as the 
 girl appeared in the circle of firelight, "Can you 
 get along with candles? Can you let us have 
 that battery?" 
 
 "Why, if necessary, of course. What is the 
 idea?" * 
 
 "This young man agrees that it will perform 
 some test Ross has up his sleeve continuously 
 until we go away." 
 
 "Of course I can use candles!" cried the girl, 
 her eyes lighting up. "Is it another bet?" 
 
 "I m willing," said Davenport, "doubles or 
 quits. Is it a bet?" 
 
 "No, not, and emphatically far otherwise!" 
 stated Grimstead. "Not so far as I m concerned, 
 though I won t stand in Ross s way to getting 
 back his money." 
 
108 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "I don t bet that heavily against another man s 
 game," said Gardiner, "but I do know something 
 of electrical possibilities, and I m ready to put 
 up a reasonable amount, say five hundred, that 
 I can produce a legitimate test right here, and 
 that this thing won t stand up under it. It is 
 understood that my test must be met, and that 
 the time limit is four days." 
 
 "Well, that s rather an unsight unseen prop 
 osition itself," rejoined Davenport. "But just 
 to show you I m a sport I ll go you, provided 
 that it is not beyond the strength of the battery. 
 Its endurance within its strength is all I claim." 
 
 "What I propose," said Gardiner, "is that the 
 terminals of this battery be connected with the 
 self-starter of our car; and the starting pedal 
 be locked down. Then the battery, through the 
 self-starter, will be turning over the engine 
 against the compression. I don t know the exact 
 power required, but it is considerable. To-mor 
 row I will compute it exactly. It is sufficient to 
 exhaust the ordinary starting battery in from ten 
 to twenty minutes." 
 
 "That s ingenious," acknowledged Davenport, 
 "but it s going to be as noisy as a street car. 
 It s going to destroy our peace and quiet; and 
 will end by getting on our nerves, I m afraid." 
 
 "It s begun by getting your nerve, I m afraid," 
 sneered Gardiner. 
 
ON TIPTOE 109 
 
 "Pshaw," rejoined Davenport impatiently, 
 "I m not speaking for myself; I can stand it. 
 I m thinking of the peace and quiet of a per 
 fectly good and charming camp. After all, tests 
 can be applied at any time." 
 
 Gardiner leaned back with a triumphant 
 glance at his chief. 
 
 "Oh!" cried Burton, indignant. "You aren t 
 going to give up like that! Were you bluffing? 
 I didn t think you d do that!" 
 
 "I wasn t bluffing," said Davenport quietly. 
 
 "Then do it!" 
 
 "Well, I ll tell you," suggested the young man, 
 "there s no use getting excited or disagreeable 
 about it. Let s be reasonable. To-morrow 
 morning we will move camp upstream a little 
 to get away from the racket, and then we ll start 
 her up. There s no sense in spoiling our night s 
 rest. Stay an extra day if you want to; it s 
 worth it." 
 
 "I ll agree to that," acquiesced Gardiner after 
 a moment, "as far as the general camp is con 
 cerned. But personally I stipulate to stay here 
 within sound of the motor." 
 
 Burton exclaimed indignantly; but Davenport 
 was unperturbed. 
 
 "Well," said he cheerfully, "you encourage me. 
 A little while ago the battery couldn t last over 
 ten or twenty minutes; and now it s night-time 
 
110 ON TIPTOE 
 
 already! I ll agree you shall stay here, if you 
 want to, provided Simmins stays too." 
 
 "Simmins!" exclaimed Gardiner. "Why 
 should Simmins stay here?" 
 
 "For the same reason you do," replied Dav 
 enport blandly; "just to hear the motor go." 
 
 "Well," sighed Grimstead after a moment, 
 "this trip certainly promises to be interesting, 
 and I m glad I came. If the thing works even 
 partially as you say it does, you must have a 
 brand-new principle in battery construction. 
 The old principles have been carried to the ut 
 most of refinement and have not resulted in this 
 compactness and efficiency." 
 
 "Alleged," drawled Gardiner. 
 
 "It is a new principle," said Davenport, pay 
 ing no attention to the interjection. "Would you 
 like to hear about it?" 
 
 Grimstead put on his poker face to conceal 
 his inner excitement. This offer was more than 
 he had hoped. 
 
 "I should like to very much," he replied. 
 
 "So should I," spoke up Burton, "but I want 
 to hear it in words of one syllable." 
 
 "It s not at all complicated. Now you know 
 if you put a copper plate and a zinc plate side 
 by side in an acid solution, and connect them with 
 wires you generate electricity. That is the simple 
 wet battery. 
 
ON TIPTOE 111 
 
 "All right. If you run a dynamo you also 
 generate electricity, this time by induction. 
 
 "Where does that electricity come from? You 
 might say chemical action in the one case or 
 mechanical action in the other; but they are ac 
 tually only a means to an end. The world lies 
 in a great field of static or inert magnetism. 
 The cell and the dynamo are merely means by 
 which this inert electricity is livened up, made 
 into kinetic or active electricity; they actually 
 produce nothing in themselves. Is that clear?" 
 
 "Perfectly," said Burton. 
 
 "When we have used this kinetic electricity, 
 or it becomes grounded, it returns to the reser 
 voir of static. All the electric lights you have 
 in your house, for example, are manifestations 
 of the static electricity which is everywhere 
 made available for use by means of a rather 
 clumsy and cumbersome apparatus involving me 
 chanical power and dynamos and all the rest of 
 it. All I ve done is to make a short cut between 
 the static electricity in which we are immersed 
 and the kinetic electricity we can use." 
 
 "That is self-evident, young man," remarked 
 Grimstead drily. 
 
 "I am just making it clear for Miss Burton. 
 
 "Go back to the wet cell. It is heavy and 
 awkward and short lived. My battery is just 
 like a wet cell without those disadvantages. The 
 
112 ON TIPTOE 
 
 wet cell consists of two plates of different metal 
 in a solution. Mine consists of two plates of dif 
 ferent metals side by side in air. The wet cell 
 transforms or produces its electricity by or 
 through a chemical action that is limited in effec 
 tiveness and in duration. My battery transforms 
 the static from the air into kinetic without chem 
 ical action apparently; and in much greater 
 quantity in proportion to the size of the plates. 
 It s a short cut, as I said I m talking like a 
 school teacher! However, that s the general 
 idea." 
 
 Grimstead was sitting up now in his interest. 
 
 "There must be chemical action!" he cried. 
 "You can t lift yourself by your bootstraps." 
 
 "Of course; there probably is," agreed Daven 
 port. "I only said there was apparently none. 
 It must be very slight like the apparent loss in 
 radium, I suppose for as I say, I have used this 
 battery to drive my car eleven hundred miles 
 without any wear I can determine by looking 
 at it." 
 
 "What metals do you use? 5 
 
 "Pardon," returned the young man, "but 
 there, of course, you re asking my secret. I will 
 say this, however. They are alloys of metals 
 easily procurable. The alloy must be exact and 
 the distance between the plates must be exact. 
 I have a micrometer screw; to adjust my plates." 
 
ON TIPTOE 113 
 
 "You say the metals are easily procurable. 
 How much do you estimate it cost you to build 
 such a battery?" 
 
 "Mine up to now have been experimental and 
 built piecemeal by experiment," Davenport 
 pointed out. "But in quantity they could be 
 built of that size for somewhere between fifty 
 and a hundred and fifty dollars. It isn t the 
 materials; it s the accuracy, and I don t know 
 just what workmen of the necessary skill would 
 cost." 
 
 Grimstead s poker face was still doing busi 
 ness, but his cigar butt was chewed to a frazzle. 
 
 "You say that battery there will run a brake 
 test of forty horsepower?" he asked. 
 
 "About that." 
 
 "Will a larger battery develop more horse 
 power in proportion? What are the limits in 
 capacity?" 
 
 "I haven t the slightest idea. I never built but 
 two, and they are of the same size. I do know 
 they will work tandem though, for I drove some 
 of the machinery of a little saw mill with them 
 for a day or two. As far as I know there is no 
 reason why you shouldn t put a hundred of them 
 in a row. There s no limit apparently to the 
 amount of static you can take by means of dyna 
 mos; why should there be any more limit to 
 what you can take by other means? Of course, 
 
114 ON TIPTOE 
 
 I don t know; I m just beginning to try it out." 
 
 "Well, you may have something, though it 
 sounds pretty radical," yawned Grimstead, drop 
 ping prone as though the subject had ceased to 
 interest him. "As I get it, we all go to work 
 to-morrow morning, and get the afternoon off. 
 Is that it, Boss?" 
 
 "That s it," replied Davenport. 
 
 "How about those rainbow? Think they ll be 
 hungry by afternoon?" 
 
 "You might try them with grubs; or a Colo 
 rado spinner. Never can tell." 
 
 Burton hopped from the log. 
 
 "The moonlight is heavenly," she declared, "I 
 must see it through the big trees. Will you go 
 with me, Mr. Davenport, outside the firelight?" 
 
 Davenport jumped to his feet. Gardiner too 
 stirred as though about to arise, but paused as 
 he felt Grimstead s restraining hand on his arm. 
 The two young people stepped out into the en 
 chantment of the forest. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 walked for a hundred yards, feeling 
 JL their way in the black and white contrasts of 
 moonlight ; then sat side by side on the trunk of a 
 small fir tree uprooted by the gale. There was 
 nothing to say ; there could be nothing to say in 
 the presence of moonlit night in the redwoods. 
 What we in the busy world would call the in 
 tangibles majesty, awe, peace, calm aloofness, 
 and shivery, ecstatic, fragile poetry here be 
 came real forces that ever flowed and would 
 ever flow world without end. The little human 
 consciousness must perforce lift and blend to the 
 mighty stream. Burton and the young man sub 
 mitted to the spell. It submerged their spirits, 
 and dissolved them and expanded them, until 
 they had ceased to be tight and huddled with 
 little affairs and tiny details, and rose to con 
 tain and be contained by these greater things. 
 
 At last Burton sighed and stirred. 
 
 "It is almost too perfect," she said. "It almost 
 hurts. But I shall never forget it." 
 
 The required change had come into their souls. 
 The Invisibles withdrew a little space. They be 
 gan to chat, to make disjointed remarks, swing- 
 
 115 
 
116 ON TIPTOE 
 
 ing back down the wide arc of ecstasy to the start 
 ing point of every-day things. In a little while 
 Davenport was talking eagerly, openly. The 
 subject was his battery. 
 
 "I don t like to say so very openly, people 
 are apt to think you a silly ass if you get en 
 thusiastic, but I m very keen on that," he con 
 fessed. 
 
 "I think it s wonderful," she encouraged. "I 
 don t know much about such things; but I do 
 know Dad, and when he s enthusiastic about any 
 thing, it s apt to be valuable." 
 
 "Do you think he s enthusiastic?" wondered 
 Davenport. "I didn t observe many symptoms." 
 
 "I know Dad," she repeated. 
 
 "Well, I hope he is. I believe he s just the 
 man to help." 
 
 "It ought to be tremendously valuable. You ll 
 probably make a million or so out of it. I hope 
 you do." 
 
 "Yes, of course. I d like to make something 
 out of it. But that isn t the real point. Do you 
 mind if I talk a little about it?" 
 
 "Oh, please!" she begged. 
 
 "Don t you see what it will mean to the world," 
 he said, "the poor struggling old world? Lord, 
 how it does work! What a burden it does carry! 
 How it does struggle! All its energy is con 
 sumed just in feeding itself and clothing itself 
 
ON TIPTOE 117 
 
 and keeping itself warm. And it has to hustle 
 just to do that." He twisted on the log more 
 nearly to face her. "Look here," he demanded, 
 "what is the greatest material need, the very 
 greatest need of the world?" 
 
 "Davenport s batteries," she replied promptly. 
 
 He threw back his head and laughed boyishly. 
 
 "I was getting preachy, wasn t I? Well, the 
 thing the world needs most is breathing-time, 
 time to play more and to soak up the things that 
 never come to a man when he s in a hurry or 
 surrounded by the buzz-flies of detail. What the 
 work-a-day world needs most is leisure, a little 
 leisure." 
 
 His laughing face had become grave, and his 
 dancing eyes level. 
 
 "Until the pressure of material necessities is 
 lifted a little from lives the human race is going 
 to be lop-sided. Only with leisure can come the 
 greater, leavening, quiet influences of the spirit 
 that will make life balanced." 
 
 "The trouble is," said Burton, "people are 
 never satisfied. If they d be contented to go 
 without so many frills they d have leisure 
 enough." 
 
 "No, you re wrong. They should have the 
 frills. The frills represent the grace and beauty 
 of life. We all have an instinct for frills; and 
 real instincts should be gratified in proportion. 
 
118 ON TIPTOE 
 
 But the point is, frills are too hard to get. A 
 living is too hard to get. Heaven forfend we 
 should ever get anything without working for 
 it; that is absolutely fatal. But there s no sense 
 in having to perform soul-deadening and grind 
 ing toil for it." 
 
 "I have all the frills; I never work for them," 
 challenged Burton suddenly. "What about 
 me?" 
 
 "You are young and the field of your life is 
 yet in the distance," replied Davenport slowly 
 and soberly. "You have had gifts; but it is not 
 yet the time for you to know that every gift bears 
 its responsibility." 
 
 "I I m afraid I ve never thought of that," 
 faltered Burton in rather a stifled voice after a 
 moment. "But what has the battery to do with 
 this?" 
 
 "Why, don t you see? Every invention that 
 reduces the labour necessary to produce things is 
 a step toward that leisure for the race. It s a 
 step toward supplying more frills, besides more 
 abundant necessities, with the same amount of 
 labour." 
 
 "Yes, I can see that," acknowledged Burton. 
 She was just the least bit disappointed at so 
 prosaic a culmination to an argument that had 
 aroused her imagination. But his next words re 
 kindled her. 
 
ON TIPTOE 119 
 
 "And this little battery, multiplied a million 
 times," went on Davenport, "means power; 
 power direct, without the human toil and labour 
 now necessary to produce it. Just stop a second 
 and think what is necessary now before we move 
 an inch toward actual production of the few 
 necessaries and the many frills we would like to 
 have. Thousands of men work underground 
 digging coal; thousands more are transporting it, 
 handling it, placing it under boilers. An army 
 is digging or conducting oil wells; another is 
 chopping wood; still another is building dams 
 for water power. And think still further of the 
 vast numbers who manufacture and handle and 
 deliver the implements and instruments by which 
 these raw materials of power are turned into 
 the power itself steam engines, dynamos and 
 all the rest. It s tremendous!" 
 
 Her eyes were wide, staring unseeing down 
 the moonlit aisles. She was seeing imperfectly, 
 for her experience could not furnish the requisite 
 materials to her incandescent imagination these 
 swarms of liberated men, coming up grimed from 
 underground, from the factories, from the ends 
 of the earth, dropping the obsolete toils of a 
 clumsy circumvention. 
 
 "Millions of them," repeated Davenport, "re 
 leased for the production of that which our bodies 
 and our souls actually consume." 
 
120 ON TIPTOE 
 
 She was staggered, troubled by the immensity 
 of the detailed problem of all these men. 
 
 "They d lose their jobs," she objected. "Could 
 they get others?" 
 
 "It would mean a big readjustment," ac 
 knowledged Davenport, "but you must remem 
 ber that it would not happen all at once. And 
 every big change means a readjustment. The 
 history of industry is full of such readjustments. 
 Every invention that has reduced the amount 
 of labour necessary to produce any given thing 
 has caused such a readjustment. Just look at 
 the things done now by machinery that were done 
 by hand a hundred years ago. Look at the row 
 the cotton gin made, or weaving machinery. 
 Same thing on a smaller scale. In the long 
 
 run" 
 
 "Yes, the long run," she agreed, "but the 
 present, the immediate present is what I am 
 thinking of." 
 
 "It would mean a readjustment," he acknowl 
 edged again, "and it would mean hardship and 
 sacrifice in some cases. It is by hardship and 
 sacrifice always that the great things of the world 
 are bought. There is hardship and sacrifice in 
 war, but men undergo it gladly for a cause. 
 There is hardship and sacrifice in pushing out 
 into a wilderness. But always when the hardship 
 
ON TIPTOE 121 
 
 and sacrifice are past, the world has advanced. 
 It is an honour to have been chosen." 
 
 "I doubt if the coal miner out of a job would 
 appreciate that fact," she proposed, smiling a 
 little whimsically, a little tenderly, at his exalted 
 face in the moonlight. "It would look to him 
 an undeserved injustice." 
 
 "Who of us does appreciate our real benefits?" 
 replied Davenport. 
 
 "Benefits?" she repeated doubtfully. 
 
 "Yes, our chances." 
 
 "I don t believe I understand." 
 
 "Our chances to go ahead. The thing done for 
 ourselves at the expense of others sets us back; 
 the thing done for ourselves without harm to 
 others sets us forward a little way; the thing 
 done for others really helps us on." 
 
 "I seem to remember cases where people have 
 prospered amazingly at the expense of others," 
 she said, still a little quizzically. 
 
 He stared at her in open amazement. 
 
 "Good Lord!" he cried. "You aren t one of 
 those people who thinks that all development and 
 all evolution for all eternity are started and fin 
 ished for keeps in this earth phase of our exist 
 ence!" 
 
 "What do you believe about it?" she countered. 
 
 "I know very little of what I believe. It s 
 
122 ON TIPTOE 
 
 too big for me ; or any one else. But I do know 
 a few things. I know that when I get out of 
 here I shall go right on working and right on 
 developing through work. And I do know that 
 every time an opportunity comes along and I 
 side-step it, or deliberately do the wrong thing, 
 that opportunity starts at once bearing com 
 pound interest against me. Some day I ll have 
 to pay up both that opportunity and the com 
 pound interest. No, I don t know how. I ? ve 
 got a lot of beliefs; but those are the only two 
 things I really know" 
 
 A little wind came wandering. The girl shiv 
 ered. 
 
 "It s it s a terrible thought," she faltered. 
 
 He laughed. 
 
 "Why, no; it s a very inspiring thought," he 
 said. "But we re talking like a prof, in ethics. 
 Point is that even though the readjustment to a 
 world of direct power will be an uneasy one, the 
 end will be worth it. Listen: have you stopped 
 to think even a little in detail what that will mean 
 to human kind? The burden of brutish toil 
 lifted? The lighter, pleasanter, more graceful 
 burden of wholly creative labour substituted?" 
 
 He leaned forward, and in his eagerness his 
 boyish, laughing face became grave and mature. 
 With vivid sentences he sketched the world as 
 he saw it: a reorganised world, free to put all 
 
ON TIPTOE 
 
 its energies into the positive creation of those 
 things which men s true instincts crave ; produc 
 ing its abundance by honest, sincere, necessary 
 labour, but accomplishing the production without 
 the exhaustion of squalor. It was no impossible 
 utopia; it was no absurd dream of an impossible 
 "equality" ; but it was a world of opportunity re 
 leased from pressure. What men did with the 
 opportunity would still be, as it had always been, 
 a matter for themselves. But no longer would 
 there be any reason or necessity for the ;sub- 
 mergence under inexorable circumstance of the 
 man whose hands reached toward the stars. That 
 is what he visioned; and that is what Burton, 
 kindling to his ideas, saw too. And as she had 
 not lived with the idea, as had he, and was un 
 accustomed to it, she was the more eagerly afire. 
 And through whatever mysterious affinities or 
 harmonies or channels there be, the great Intel 
 ligences, one of whose charges is our little earth, 
 felt the vibration, and understood, and were con 
 tent. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THINGS move by ordered Law, which none 
 may transcend. Effect follows cause and in 
 its turn becomes cause to many more effects. An 
 event wound up by the impetus of an original 
 desire moves straight ahead like a child s me 
 chanical toy across a floor. When the strength 
 of its impetus is exhausted, it runs down. The 
 spending of the impetus we call destiny. 
 
 In these mechanics is just one living, outside 
 thing, the Desire. That wound the toy, that 
 started it on its way! The strength of it deter 
 mined the duration of its run. Without desire 
 nothing happens. I move the smallest muscle 
 of my littlest finger only because I desire, and 
 in pursuance send forth my will. Wherever 
 machinery moves, visible or invisible, following 
 accurately the law of its being, it is because 
 somewhere, somehow, an intelligence has desired 
 and willed. A baby s hand may touch a lever 
 that will release the dynamics of an engine 
 wherein is stored the mighty impetus of a thou 
 sand coal miners, mechanics, engineers, inventors. 
 But the baby desired to move its hand. 
 
 Destiny is the spending of this impetus, then, 
 
 124 
 
ON TIPTOE 125 
 
 according to inexorable, unchangeable law. But 
 destiny can be altered by the free will of man. 
 It is possible to pick up the mechanical toy and 
 set it down facing in another direction so that 
 it may run on the hardwood floor instead of on 
 the rug. The Law is inexorable; but it may be 
 utilised by those who understand. Thus we must 
 define destiny anew as the spending of impetus 
 unmodified by spiritual consciousness. 
 
 So we see the great Intelligences, dimly per 
 ceived, never understood, who, I warned you, 
 were characters in our tale, watching the incon 
 ceivably tangled working out of the Law on our 
 little earth. Slowly the evolution climbs. Cause 
 and effect; effect and cause again. Never a de 
 sire thrown into the world that does not start its 
 impetus in accordance with its strength. Never 
 an impetus that comes to rest unspent. An in 
 extricable web yet slowly growing to a pattern. 
 A hopelessly clashing world; yet gradually de 
 fining the harmonies of its fate. A mad confu 
 sion ; yet imperceptibly working through the Law 
 toward simplicity. 
 
 This is the ultimate business of life; the kin 
 dling of desire. Otherwise all is dead. 
 
 Desire is aroused by pressure, by resistance. 
 Far down in the beginnings of things the cell 
 was awakened by its simple needs of nourish 
 ment, of warmth. Dimly, gropingly, it sent forth 
 
126 ON TIPTOE 
 
 its feeble effort of volition to attain them; and 
 so an impetus was born. JEons later mankind 
 fought his more complex pressures hunger, 
 cold, nakedness and he fought them desper 
 ately, his strength barely sufficing at its utmost 
 to turn the scale in his favour. Yet by the im 
 petus thus generated he rose. It is a profound 
 truth that only by resistance can anything rise. 
 An aeroplane mounts by the resistance of the 
 air. For this reason some particularly intelli 
 gent people use the words work and resistance 
 interchangeably. 
 
 "I must go forth and seek some resistance," 
 say they; or, "I must go find some work to do," 
 depending on whether the spiritual or the ma 
 terial quality happens to be uppermost in their 
 minds. But it is the same thing; springing from 
 the same necessity; resulting in the same quick 
 ening. 
 
 At first pressures are crude and heavy; for 
 it is only by the drastic that dull lower forms 
 are aroused. It is a dreadful thing to submit 
 to pressure without being aroused! But as the 
 slow spiral of evolution mounts, one by one the 
 cruder pressures are lifted or lightened. Man 
 improves his environment; he invents; he co 
 operates. There have been certain crucial 
 periods in the world s history when age-old bur 
 dens have fallen. A dozen of them spring to 
 
ON TIPTOE 127 
 
 mind. And always in the last analysis the cause 
 has been in the genius of a man. We have talked 
 of inspiration; and we have been right. 
 
 For note you this: our Lords of Life, the 
 great Invisible Intelligences who in their own 
 upward spiral have found for the moment their 
 Resistance in the progress of our little earth 
 these Invisibles can no more work without the 
 Law than we can. There are no miracles. But 
 this they can do: When they see that in the 
 slow brooding of the ages mankind has reached 
 the point where it seems it can be trusted to go 
 on, to develop its certain impetuses spontane 
 ously without the stimulus of a certain pressure, 
 then they can remove that pressure. How? 
 Some man, brooding beneath the stars, conceives 
 a great idea. We say he was inspired. Thus 
 the mechanical toy is lifted from the floor and 
 set running in a new direction. Thus is the Law 
 assured. Thus, and thus only, does mankind 
 climb slowly and painfully by the sole strength 
 of his self-conceived aspiration. Thus one by 
 one will the difficulties and material struggles 
 of wars and pestilences and grinding toil and 
 poverty and injustice be lifted from us; but only 
 as their usefulness ceases, only as we rise and 
 prove worthy. 
 
 Do you see now how our Invisibles whoever, 
 whatever they may be are in real truth en- 
 
128 ON TIPTOE 
 
 tered in our tale? An inspiration given; a new 
 thing in the world, new but working as all things 
 must in accordance with law ; a great pressure of 
 toil about to vanish as early morning mists van 
 ish before the strengthening rays of the sun. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 BY the campfire Grimstead and his Second 
 in Command talked in low tones. 
 
 "What about this, Gardiner?" demanded the 
 Pirate Chief as soon as the young people were 
 out of hearing. "It sounds like the most insane 
 thing I ever heard. Sounds like perpetual mo 
 tion. But this young fellow has a way of calling 
 the turn" 
 
 "There s no real scientific reason why he hasn t 
 got it," stated Gardiner, "any more than there s 
 any real scientific reason why, if there are spirits, 
 they shouldn t communicate with us in certain 
 conditions. We simply don t believe either of 
 them because it hasn t been scientifically proved 
 to us that they have." 
 
 "In other words it s possible, but not probable; 
 and we re from Missouri," said Grimstead. 
 
 "Exactly. It is well known that the earth 
 lies in a vast magnetic field and that that mag 
 netic field means power. Trouble is to isolate 
 your generating or rather transforming ap 
 paratus." 
 
 "Huh?" ejaculated Grimstead. 
 
 "Well, suppose you sunk a bottle without a 
 
 129 
 
130 ON TIPTOE 
 
 cork a few thousand feet into the sea. At that 
 depth there is tremendous pressure enough to 
 crush in a thick steel shell and of course such 
 a force is power. But sink your bottle with a 
 cork in it, and very promptly that cork will be 
 forced in. The thing that forced it is, of course, 
 power. What you ve done is to get outside of 
 your source of power. Same thing here. We re 
 in this magnetic field, but we re all soaked up 
 with it. If we could get outside it, or, rather, get 
 it outside us, we could use it. If this fellow has 
 anything, he s done just that." 
 
 "Then you think it possible?" 
 
 "I didn t say so. I said merely that it is not 
 scientifically impossible." 
 
 "Well, that we can soon determine. I m glad 
 you ve got this fool bet. It will give you a 
 good excuse to keep close tabs on the whole 
 thing. This may prove important, Gardiner, and 
 I want you to make it your business while we 
 are here to stay on the job. It is business; and 
 it might conceivably amount to a big thing for 
 both of us." 
 
 "I shall not leave the place while the test is on." 
 
 "It will pay to make no mistakes. You will 
 of course be taken care of if the thing s any 
 good." 
 
 Gardiner nodded. 
 
 "Well, so much for that. Simmins," Grim- 
 
ON TIPTOE 131 
 
 stead addressed that silent person, "do you sup 
 pose you could find me some worms in the morn 
 ing?" 
 
 "Worms, sir?" repeated Simmins incredu 
 lously. 
 
 "Yes, worms. The kind the robins pull up. 
 Fishing worms." 
 
 "I could not say, I am sure, sir," said Sim 
 mins with hauteur. 
 
 Well, you dig around the wet places and see. 
 I want a nice little can full." 
 
 Simmins disdained reply. It was no part of 
 the duties either of a butler or of a chauffeur, 
 as he understood them, to furnish worms to any 
 body. Feeding Punketty-Snivvles was as low 
 as he d got up to date, and that was only in def 
 erence to Miss Burton. The bright and hilarious 
 thought came to him that he might advise Grim- 
 stead to use Punketty-Snivvles for bait instead 
 of worms; and he dramatised delightfully in 
 great detail just his own manner of haughty dig 
 nity leavened with dry humour and the aston 
 ished appreciation of his employer. 
 
 "You are right, Simmins," rejoined the latter, 
 "such menial tasks are beneath the dignity of one 
 like yourself. I should never have asked it, and 
 I offer my apologies. The request was proffered 
 without thought." 
 
 Whereupon Grimstead, by way of emphasis- 
 
132 ON TIPTOE 
 
 ing his excuses, offered Simmins one of his dollar 
 cigars with the flavour of which, by the way, 
 Simmins was already thoroughly familiar. 
 
 Fortunately there was another side of Sim 
 mins that advised his not staging the drama. 
 That side was practical and had a vision of its 
 own. So after savouring his triumph for a few 
 moments Simmins put it away in cold storage 
 and substituted another speech of enquiry as to 
 how early worms would be needed. Simmins 
 led a hidden life of haughty and scornful repudi 
 ation and revolt, always successful. But he al 
 ways went and did it. 
 
 He went and did it the next morning, though 
 he wanted intensely to be in on the mysterious 
 rites at the car. Rapscallion was sorry for him, 
 and as Simmins was apparently engaged in 
 doggy business, the terrier helped him dig. The 
 ground was soft and it was very good digging, 
 though the motive for excavation was obscure. 
 Sniff as he might Rapscallion could get no faint 
 est whiff of ground squirrel, mole or gopher. 
 He told this to Simmins, but the poor goof 
 went right on digging just the same. Thereupon 
 Rapscallion also went right on digging, though 
 he knew perfectly it was hopeless; for such is 
 the fine courtesy of dogs. Punketty-Snivvles 
 slavishly copied his hero as far as he was able. 
 He had never dug before. His long silky hair 
 
ON TIPTOE 133 
 
 became matted with wet earth; his beady eyes 
 sparkled, he yapped shrilly and continuously to 
 the effect that he was having the time of his 
 life. This caused both Simmins and Rapscallion 
 to look upon him bitterly. How could any sane 
 being have the time of his life at such a futile 
 occupation? 
 
 However, there were worms. A sufficient 
 quantity was secured about the hour it came time 
 to move camp. The famous battery, lashed to 
 the running board, had been connected up with 
 the self-starter which was now turning over in 
 the laborious and vociferous manner peculiar to 
 the species. Grimstead and Gardiner were in 
 clined to stand and watch it in fascination; but 
 Davenport was quite unimpressed. 
 
 "That s all there is to it," said he. "Now all we 
 have to watch out for is that she doesn t run dry 
 of lubrication. Simmins can keep track of that." 
 
 He turned away. 
 
 "Now we ve got a good morning s work in 
 front of us," he announced cheerfully. "I picked 
 a good place for camp, before breakfast. We 
 must move camp, and then we must make a start 
 on our road out." 
 
 "I m going fishing this afternoon," warned 
 Grimstead. 
 
 Davenport laughed. 
 
 "And I m going walking back to the ridge, 
 
134 ON TIPTOE 
 
 with Miss Burton if she cares to go, to see how 
 the rhododendrons are making it." 
 
 "Rhododendrons? Real rhododendrons? Like 
 those in the Park?" cried Burton. 
 
 "The same." 
 
 "Well," growled Grimstead, "I don t see why 
 we shouldn t get at it. Simmins ought to be able 
 to move camp. Here, Simmins, you move the 
 tent down, and my things, and Miss Burton s 
 and Mr. Davenport s. Fix up a good camp, like 
 this one. You and Mr. Gardiner are to stay 
 here." 
 
 "Sir," answered Simmins with entire respect, 
 but very firmly, "it is true I take your wage, 
 but in the wildwood it is immemorial custom that 
 all men are equal and perform their equal shares 
 of the daily tasks. It is true also that a leader 
 or directing head is necessary to any co-opera 
 tion; and I am entirely willing to obey the com 
 mand of such a leader. But I submit that that 
 leader should be the one best qualified to com 
 mand. Mr. Davenport is our logical captain. I 
 will cheerfully carry out his decisions, even 
 should, as in the present instance, they prove 
 distasteful." 
 
 This speech Simmins translated into, "Yes, 
 sir, very good, sir," and at once set about his 
 task. 
 
 The others followed Davenport to the willow 
 
ON TIPTOE 135 
 
 bottom where they all set busily to work cutting 
 poles and dragging them out onto the meadow. 
 Burton hung about them for a while, then wan 
 dered away in the direction of Simmins activities 
 and was seen no more. Out in the little meadow 
 the big car quivered under the slow rhythmical 
 impulse of the whirling self-starter, which 
 shrieked its high song. From time to time Grim- 
 stead or Gardiner, after dropping a load of poles, 
 would look at it for a few seconds, a growing 
 wonder in their eyes. About mid-morning Grim- 
 stead said: 
 
 "I don t need any four-day test to show me 
 this is a big thing. If it stopped right now, ex 
 hausted, played out, it would be a big thing. 
 How much of a fool do you make out this young 
 man is?" 
 
 "He s the crazy up-in-the-air gambling kind 
 of fool," replied Gardiner contemptuously. 
 
 "About ten thousand dollars worth, hey, 
 Ross?" grinned the Chief. "But I get you." 
 
 When the sun was overhead Davenport called 
 a halt and they all went to the stream s edge 
 to wash and cool off. Grimstead eyed the rushing 
 waters critically. 
 
 "By George, she looks to me as though 
 she were going down!" he cried hopefully. 
 "Wouldn t you say that the water is clearing, 
 Davenport?" 
 
136 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "Undoubtedly," encouraged the young man, 
 "but if I were you I d stick to worms or a spinner 
 just for to-day." 
 
 "I m going to," assured Grimstead; "some of 
 these thirty-three degree cranks won t fish with 
 anything but a fly, but who am I to deny an 
 honest trout what he wants?" 
 
 They returned to camp. Simmins had really 
 done remarkably well. He was an adaptable, 
 an observant creature, and he had watched Dav 
 enport minutely the day before. A certain faint 
 pride might have been discovered in him by a 
 closely observant bystander. A blatant, flushed, 
 unashamed pride could not fail to be remarked 
 on the glowing countenance of Burton. The 
 cause of that was not apparent until Simmins, 
 bringing the camp kettles to the edge of the 
 spread tarpaulin, announced in reply to a careless 
 compliment : 
 
 "No, sir; not I, sir. Miss Burton did the cook 
 ing, sir." 
 
 Davenport merely smiled at her with a vague 
 commendation. But if the kettles had exploded 
 like so many trench mortars the effect on Grim- 
 stead could not have been more devastating. His 
 eyes popped, his mouth opened, his breath came 
 quickty. 
 
 "You ll have apoplexy, dad," cried Burton im 
 patiently. "Try it; it isn t as bad as all that." 
 
ON TIPTOE 137 
 
 Grimstead subsided and helped himself; hut 
 he continued to shake his head and mutter, and 
 from time to time he was seen to examine closely 
 the food and to sniff at it in a manner that 
 brought a bright flush to his daughter s cheeks. 
 
 This was the more ready because, when all is 
 said and done, the said food was no better than 
 passable. As evidence of willing intention it 
 was superb; but as proof of culinary skill there 
 was somewhat to be desired. Perfectly edible, 
 you understand, capable of sustaining life, and 
 even moderately palatable to men who had been 
 working in the open air; but a little the sort to 
 which one would not care to invite an enemy 
 or would, depending on whether pride or vindic- 
 tiveness was uppermost. Burton had worked 
 very hard over what seemed to be a simple mat 
 ter, and her mood was dangerous, even before 
 her father s silly performance. 
 
 "By Jove," Davenport was saying, "it cer 
 tainly is a comfort to come in off work and find 
 a meal waiting for you instead of having to turn 
 in and rustle it yourself. You re a public bene 
 factor, Miss Burton." 
 
 She looked at him gratefully. 
 
 "I m afraid it isn t very good," she confessed, 
 "but I did the best I could. Simmins" she 
 flashed a glance of scorn at that individual 
 "claims he knows nothing about cooking." 
 
138 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "Nothing whatever, miss," corroborated Sim- 
 mins firmly. 
 
 "Indeed?" commented Davenport. "Well, 
 we ll teach him. Nothing like a knowledge of 
 open-air cooking for an accomplishment, Sim- 
 mins. Very valuable to you." 
 
 "Yes, sir," murmured Simmins, crushed. 
 
 "Open-air cookery," pursued Davenport 
 largely, as though dealing in generalities, "is 
 quite a trick in itself. The best cooks on a stove 
 have practically to begin all over again. There 
 are little tricks about it that you can get only with 
 experience. Hot fire, and currents of air and 
 all that sort of thing. Now take rice." He 
 waved an explanatory spoon. "Seems as if the 
 dumb stuff would stick to the bottom and burn 
 or else come out watery. Yet it s very simple." 
 
 "Drat the rice!" interrupted Burton with 
 heartfelt fervency. "That s what happened to 
 mine both!" 
 
 "Well, next time try this. Take just four 
 cupfuls of salted water. When it is boiling hard 
 put in a cupful of rice. At once clap on the 
 cover and put a good big rock on top. Leave 
 it for exactly twenty-two minutes ; not a minute 
 more or less. Then it s done. There ll be no 
 water left; the rice will be soft and plump, and 
 it won t be burned." 
 
 "Don t you stir it?" asked Burton. 
 
ON TIPTOE 139 
 
 "No. The confined steam does that." 
 
 "I should think" 
 
 "I ve done it hundreds of times. It works," 
 he assured her smilingly. "There are a lot of 
 little kinks like that; and they are quite inter 
 esting. Stick around when I undertake Sim- 
 mins education." 
 
 "I will," she cried gaily. She was deeply 
 grateful for the tactful manner with which the 
 young man had relieved the situation. None 
 of her acquaintance could have done it better. 
 Burton confessed to a growing interest and re 
 spect in the capabilities of a self-made young 
 garage mechanic. She had always looked on 
 them as probably skilful, but rather coarse and 
 ignorant, and certainly dirty. That was as far 
 as she had gone. 
 
 The meal finished, Grimstead was all eager 
 ness to be off. Davenport advised some large 
 pools near the break of land, which he would 
 find down stream a mile or so. He departed 
 sturdily. Gardiner said he thought he would 
 take a snooze on the boughs at the other camp. 
 Davenport drew Simmins aside and conversed 
 with him low-voiced for a while; in consequence 
 of which, after the dishes had been washed, Sim 
 mins also retired to the old camp. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 HE two young people plunged into the f or- 
 JL est, Davenport leading the way. Rapscal 
 lion cut wide, interrogatory circles around them. 
 Punketty-Sniwles attempted to follow, but was 
 sternly ordered back. The inextricable web of 
 cause and effect we call chance decreed that Gar 
 diner should be standing nearest ; that upon Gar 
 diner s unenthusiastic care Punketty-Sniwles 
 should be bestowed by Burton. After they had 
 resumed their walk they could hear the little 
 beast s shrill, yapping protest, as nagging to the 
 nerves as the reiterated cry of the fever owl in 
 the African jungle. The yapping suddenly 
 ended by a squeak of anguish. Punketty-Sniv- 
 vles had been well swatted, and that swat had 
 added Gardiner to his list of enemies. In the 
 slow revolving of the incidents and accidents 
 that make up our story this enmity had im 
 portant results. Punketty-Sniwles was a true 
 Bourbon in that he never learned and never for 
 got. 
 
 Davenport led the way skilfully on ever-rising 
 ground, following the faint, mossy half-trace of 
 what was a water course only when rain was 
 
 140 
 
ON TIPTOE 141 
 
 actually falling. It afforded comparatively clear 
 footing through the lofty bracken, dogwood and 
 smaller thicket which spread beneath the red 
 wood giants like a carpet with a nap ten feet 
 high! The sun, searching in turn with its slant 
 ing shafts and arrows every aisle and pocket of 
 the forest, had thoroughly warmed the air. A 
 thousand odours thus released drifted like but 
 terflies idly here and there, fluttering against the 
 senses and away again; smell of hot evergreen 
 needles, smell of lush, green, over-warm things, 
 smell of damp, dark, uprooted earth, smell of 
 the cool of running water, and the faint, unguess- 
 able, elusive little perfumes too shy to make 
 themselves fully known. These were the busiest 
 and most numerous of the woods creatures, these 
 odours, making the most of the brief hours of 
 their release by the sun warmth before the chill 
 of evening should banish them again. But with 
 them were also busy, small, scratching birds mak 
 ing two-clawed swoops at the humus under fern 
 or underbrush; and equally busy, small, search 
 ing birds who would look you both sides of every 
 twig and leaf of a bush before you could say 
 knife, and keep a bright eye on you all the time. 
 Likewise there were buzzing and droning insects 
 that either flew in straight lines to distant parts, 
 or that hovered in swarms, darting erratically 
 back and forth within a limited space as though 
 
142 ON TIPTOE 
 
 dancing in the sun. All through the forest car 
 pet whose nap, be it remembered, was ten feet 
 thick was life, busy and small and charming 
 and self-centred. But when the eye was raised 
 one saw again only great fluted columns, and 
 still awe, and cathedral lights slanting. The For 
 est, like an aloof, benign god, watched and 
 brooded while her creatures lived. 
 
 Shortly the hill rose more steeply, and here 
 was a patch of the gorgeous rhododendrons they 
 had come to see. A dim old woods road, long 
 unused, led through it, and this they followed. 
 It led finally to a sunny, azalea-bordered, natural 
 clearing of several acres, grass grown, with scat 
 tered bushes. Here and there, at irregular and 
 widely distributed intervals, grew scrubby and 
 gnarled old apple trees. These, a number of 
 stumps, and the half-obliterated road by which 
 they had come, were the only traces of some 
 long past attempt to reclaim for human use this 
 little spot in the wilderness. 
 
 The sun here was warm and pleasant. Bees 
 hummed and hesitated over the wild flowers. 
 They sat on the ground, leaning against one of 
 the ancient stumps. 
 
 "Tell me about yourself," she interjected sud 
 denly into a desultory speculation as to the man 
 who had planted the apple trees. 
 
 "I was born of poor but honest parents 
 
ON TIPTOE 143 
 
 "No! No! Please don t be silly! I want to 
 know." 
 
 "What particularly, Oh Lady?" 
 
 "I want to know how you knew so accurately 
 about the rain and the tree falling and all the 
 rest of that. And I want to know about the 
 battery and how you came to make it. It was 
 something the same thing, wasn t it?" 
 
 He stared at her. 
 
 "Why do you say that?" he asked at last. 
 
 "I don t know; I feel it. Please tell me; I 
 do want to know." 
 
 He hesitated a moment; then abruptly took 
 his decision. 
 
 "I ll try," he promised, "but I don t know very 
 clearly myself. I ve never tried to express it." 
 
 He hesitated again, seeking for an opening. 
 
 "Did you ever read Maeterlinck s Life of the 
 Bee ?" he enquired. "Or any of Fabre s insect 
 books?" 
 
 "I ve read the Bee and one of Fabre s the 
 one where the Emperor moth " 
 
 "Yes, I know. Well, that gives us a start. 
 Now bees, and especially ants, have what you 
 might call a co-operative government that is as 
 complicated and a lot more intelligent and effi 
 cient than any human government. I m just 
 taking them as a sample; the same thing applies 
 all through nature. Creatures work, inside their 
 
144 ON TIPTOE 
 
 own needs, with an intelligence that beats ours 
 a calendar mile. Sometimes, as in the case of 
 the ant and the bee, it is a very complicated 
 intelligence. If a man were required to sit down 
 and plan out on paper all the political ramifica 
 tions of a system of government like the ant s 
 he would have to be possessed of a very high de 
 gree of brain power, and he d have to use it. 
 How come?" 
 
 "Instinct," replied Burton promptly. 
 
 "Sure thing. But that just sticks in a word 
 as a stop -gap. No, get down and look at it 
 closely. You would hardly go so far as to say 
 that an ant is an intellectual creature; that he, 
 or any of his ancestors or fellows, has a brain 
 that could think out and put in operation a sys 
 tem of government. Yet he acts with a heap 
 more intelligence than most men do on the aver 
 age. How come?" 
 
 "I don t know." 
 
 "Neither do I; but I surmise. Suppose for 
 the sake of argument that in the void all about 
 and through us is a saturate solution of all pos 
 sible knowledge and wisdom. The things we call 
 living creatures live in this; it is all around us; 
 but we are more or less cut off from it by the 
 fact that we are individual and imperfect beings. 
 We are in shells, let us say; particular wisdom 
 
ON TIPTOE 145 
 
 or knowledge gets to us only through special 
 cracks. A perfect being would have a point of 
 contact for every possible knowledge or wisdom. 
 But in our finite world every individual, whether 
 it is a rock or a tree or an ant, is so built that 
 he can come in contact only with the particular 
 little piece of wisdom or intelligence from the 
 great store that he needs in his business. All 
 the rest of the points of contact are blocked 
 off by his individual structure. Thus within his 
 limits he has perfect knowledge. The limits may 
 be extremely narrow, as in the case of a tree. 
 The tree knows only what to do when soil is poor, 
 or there is a dry season, or any of the ordinary 
 tree things; but he is absolutely sure and wise 
 as to them. He doesn t know one earthly thing 
 about anything else." 
 
 "I never thought of a tree as wise," commented 
 Burton. 
 
 "He is very wise in what he knows. Simi 
 larly the ants. They have access to the universal 
 wisdom along lines of contact that have to do 
 with government by co-operation; and in that 
 they are admirably and universally wise. The 
 current flows through certain holes and turns 
 certain wheels, and is everywhere else blocked 
 off. It s the same all through nature. How do 
 you suppose quail know ahead of time whether 
 
146 ON TIPTOE 
 
 the season is to be dry or wet, and breed accord 
 ingly? The more you think of it the more in 
 stances you will perceive." 
 
 "It s fascinating," she cried. 
 
 "Point is," he summed up, "having no intel 
 lect, in our sense of the word, these lower crea 
 tures are unobstructed channels. Cause and ef 
 fect are absolutely clear to them; but only the 
 cause and effect that have to do with their own 
 normal kind of life; and the wise thing to do 
 in that cause and effect automatically becomes 
 known to them." 
 
 "But hold on !" objected Burton. "How about 
 accidents? They are absolutely the result of 
 causes and effects. Why doesn t your ant see 
 that I m going to step on his hill, and move?" 
 
 "Simply because it is an accident, as I make 
 it out. He is equipped for the normal causes 
 and effects of his life; not for the abnormal." 
 
 "That is the most interesting thing I ever 
 heard !" breathed Burton. "And it sounds so rea 
 sonable! But you know we started to talk about 
 you, not about ants. I believe you are a crafty 
 side-stepper!" 
 
 "We re headed toward me. I think I should 
 like to have you understand." 
 
 "I think I do understand the idea," rejoined 
 Burton slowly, "but I don t know that I quite 
 accept it. It would seem, according to that, that 
 
ON TIPTOE 147 
 
 the lower in the scale of life you got the wiser 
 you were." 
 
 "The wiser you are inside your limitations," 
 corrected Davenport, "our limitations are wider 
 than those of the ant. But let s not get into 
 philosophy; let s stick to the main subject, and 
 that, I believe, is Me." 
 
 He said this in a manner to bring a laugh, but 
 Burton did not smile. 
 
 "It is very interesting," she said slowly. "I 
 have a slight suspicion it is highbrow." At last 
 she laughed. "Think of me being highbrow! 
 Annette Colton would fall dead!" 
 
 "Well, as I see it," Davenport resumed, "if 
 things were all working along the way they 
 should, man would have this same access to uni 
 versal wisdom that the lower creatures have, only 
 more so, because he is a higher and more com 
 plicated being. He would not be wholly wise, 
 of course, and he would make mistakes and bump 
 against accidents, just as the ants and bees do; 
 and they would be more colossal mistakes and 
 gaudier accidents because they would be on a 
 different scale. But as respects all the things 
 He would normally run against in his everyday 
 normal life he would see, or feel perceive is a 
 tetter word the causes and effects and results ; 
 because the stream of life would flow through 
 him by certain channels turning certain wheels. * 
 
148 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "That s what you do!" she cried excitedly. "I 
 see!" 
 
 "In a very small and practical way; a little 
 more than the average. People have just about 
 lost that power. They have little remnants of 
 it. You ve heard of premonitions that have 
 worked out; or a feeling that some one was in 
 the room ; or experienced some one of the numer 
 ous coincidences, such as receiving a letter right 
 on top of some especial thought of the person 
 who wrote it. You may have had dreams that 
 came true." 
 
 "Yes," she cried, "what about it?" 
 
 "You probably thought of all this as uncanny/ 
 It wasn t uncanny at all. Simply old, choked 
 channels letting through a trickle." 
 
 She pondered this a moment, her brows puck 
 ered prettily. 
 
 "Is it our fault this choking?" she asked. 
 "How did it happen?" 
 
 "I don t know, of course; but I surmise," he 
 repeated. "It is the intervention of mind, of 
 intellect. The ant has practically no mind, as 
 we know it, and so he responds literally unthink 
 ingly to what comes through him. Mankind, at 
 the present time, doesn t respond unthinkingly to 
 anything. Rather he responds to his thinking." 
 
 "That sounds deep," she objected, "and surely 
 the human intellect " 
 
ON TIPTOE 149 
 
 "Yes, I know and I agree noblest work of 
 God and all that. But we ve got the thing up 
 side down, the cart before the horse. How we 
 ever began to hitch em up that way, I don t 
 know. Natural perversity, fall of man and all 
 that sort of thing, I suppose." 
 
 "I don t understand what you mean." 
 
 "Well," he explained, "the ant has legs, and 
 pincers and eyes and all those things; and they 
 are practically tools to carry out the especial 
 wisdom of life, the desirable reactions, he gets 
 from that part of the great current that flows 
 through him. That clear?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "All right. Well, man s intellect also was in 
 tended to be merely a tool to handle and carry 
 out the especial wisdom of life, the desirable re 
 actions, he gets from the current. It s a fine 
 tool, and complicated. But it was supposed to 
 be only a tool for the purpose of examining and 
 making practical what came to it by direct chan 
 nel. Mankind got so tickled with it that he 
 began to run himself and all his affairs by it 
 alone. That blocked the channel. The mind 
 took control, instead of working under control. 
 Result is we re getting more and more mixed 
 up and complicated. Instead of playing with 
 a nice fresh supply of first hand well, call it 
 inspiration; that s what it is we make over and 
 
150 ON TIPTOE 
 
 refashion old stuff. If it weren t for the fact 
 that some people s channels are not completely 
 blocked, so that a kind of a trickle does get 
 through; and if it wasn t for an occasional crazy 
 genius who busts out, we d tie ourselves up in 
 our minds and dry up and blow away." 
 
 She was leaning forward, her eyes shining, her 
 cheeks red with the excitement of a new funda 
 mental idea. Burton s life was not one prolific 
 of fundamental ideas. For the moment she com 
 prehended by means rather of her inner percep 
 tion than by an ordered process of mind. With 
 true instinct she reached toward the individual 
 instance. 
 
 "Then," she summed up slowly, "you could tell 
 about the rain and the tree falling because this 
 current flowed through you." 
 
 "That s roughly it." 
 
 "How do you do it?" 
 
 "It s hard to say. I set my mind aside and 
 then take what comes to me." 
 
 "Comes to you? How? In words?" 
 
 "JSTo. I just know things. There they 
 
 are." 
 
 "But there are so many things " 
 
 "Things swarm all about us, trees, flowers, 
 
 grasses, birds, insects, lights, shadows, all sorts 
 
 of things. Yet they have absolutely no existence 
 
 as far as you are concerned until you turn your 
 
ON TIPTOE 151 
 
 attention to them. I turn my attention to the 
 type of thing that is useful for me to know." 
 
 "Like a searchlight," she nodded thoughtfully. 
 "That s what you did the other night in regard 
 to the weather and the tree." 
 
 "The weather, yes; the tree was incidental. 
 There are some things that have to do with dan 
 ger that force themselves on the attention. I 
 don t pretend to understand it very well. What 
 I ve told you is of course just the explanation 
 I ve figured out." 
 
 "Can you do it any time?" 
 
 "Why, of course. Just as I can open my 
 mouth at any time. Why not? Unless, of 
 course, there is something going on so distracting 
 that my mind simply refuses to be set aside." 
 
 "Show me, then," she demanded eagerly. "Do 
 it now!" 
 
 "All right," he agreed. "I feel a little silly 
 showing off that kind of a thing. Most people 
 would think me crazy. But what kin I do fer 
 you, kind Lady?" he mimicked. "Cross me palm 
 with silver." 
 
 He held out his hand wheedlingly. Laughing, 
 she fumbled in her pocket, and at last produced 
 a five-cent piece. He looked at it doubtfully. 
 
 "That s not silver; it s nickel," he accused. 
 "But never mind; I m good-natured. What do 
 you want to know?" 
 
152 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "Tell me just how many trout father will 
 catch." 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 "Your guess is every bit as good as mine," said 
 he. "You see, your father s catching trout has 
 nothing to do with normal average human life." 
 
 "It s the accident!" she cried joyously. "I ll 
 have to tell father that!" 
 
 "Not from me!" he warned. 
 
 "Well," she considered, "tell me just what 
 Simmins will be doing at nine o clock to-night." 
 
 Davenport shook his head. 
 
 "You don t get the limits of this thing, either 
 for ants or humans. All we really get is cause 
 and effect, and the complicated trend of it. 
 There s one thing that can upset the show about 
 every clip, and that is human free will. An in 
 telligence with enough wisdom to understand the 
 law of cause and effect absolutely accurately in 
 all its complications could make you a prediction 
 of almost any nature, and it would come out, 
 provided some fellow didn t come along with his 
 free will and modify the whole sequence in some 
 way and start another chain of causes and ef 
 fects. I could perceive that the tree was going 
 to fall probably because a great many great and 
 small causes were just about to culminate in 
 the natural course of events. But for the life 
 of me I couldn t tell you when or whether any 
 
ON TIPTOE 153 
 
 tree is going to be cut down by an axeman. Do 
 you get the difference?" 
 
 "I think so." 
 
 "Well, anything else within that limitation." 
 
 "I believe," said she suddenly, "I ll leave it 
 to you. Do something startling. You don t 
 mind, do you? It isn t being being well, ir 
 reverent in any way?" 
 
 He shouted with laughter. 
 
 "Irreverent! Where did you get that idea? 
 There s nothing mysterious or sacred or occult 
 about any of this any more than there is about 
 your digestion. It s a simple natural thing. I 
 wouldn t like to show off before people ordina 
 rily, any more than I d like to stand on my head; 
 but I d just as soon stand on my head if it will 
 amuse my intimate friends. The lady wants 
 something startling," he mused. "Wonder what 
 the modern debutante considers startling!" 
 
 "Don t be silly; and I m not a debutante." 
 
 "I beg your pardon. That of course alters 
 the situation. Simple yet startling demonstra 
 tion of the man s powers." 
 
 He pondered for a moment. 
 
 "I think perhaps the simplest is the best," he 
 decided. "Now on the other side of the stump is 
 a large ant hill I noticed it as we came in. Sup 
 pose you go around there and get an eye on it 
 while I get going." 
 
154 ON TIPTOE 
 
 She arose, shook her skirts, and circled the 
 stump. Davenport sat up straight, and for the 
 second time since the beginning of these adven 
 tures his eyes took on the peculiar, far-away, 
 glassy-surfaced stare. After about half a min 
 ute he began to speak. 
 
 "The shadow of this stump at this moment 
 just reaches the outermost edge of the ant hill. 
 In a second or so it will be in sunlight. Just now 
 the ant hill seems to be deserted. When the sun 
 falls on it a lone soldier-ant will come out from 
 the second orifice counting from the north. As 
 he reaches the top of the hole a large grain of 
 sand about small boulder size to him will roll 
 under him and he will have to recover his balance 
 with an effort. He will be followed after a sec 
 ond or so by five worker ants who will turn to 
 the eastward and disappear in the grass. Before 
 they are out of sight, however, quite a number 
 will come out and scatter in various directions, 
 but four of them will climb up the stub. There 
 is something to eat on the top of the stub and 
 they are going to get it. Two of them will get 
 it to the edge, one pushing and one pulling; 
 and once there the other two will tie in and 
 help." 
 
 "What is there to eat on the stub?" she en 
 quired. 
 
 "I don t know. Something inanimate. That s 
 
ON TIPTOE 155 
 
 enough. Now have you got that clearly in 
 mind?" 
 
 "Better than that; I ve got it on paper," she 
 called. 
 
 He fished out a stubby pipe and a plug of 
 tobacco from which he began to whittle a charge. 
 On the other side the stump from time to time 
 he heard little excited exclamations. At the end 
 of five minutes she appeared, her cheeks flushed 
 with excitement. 
 
 "Check up?" he enquired amusedly. 
 
 "Perfectly," she cried. "It s the most won 
 derful thing I ever heard of! It s it s clair 
 voyance, isn t it?" 
 
 "Mildewed word. Stop gap," he corrected. 
 "Doesn t make you understand things to label 
 them with words, though most people think a 
 thing is explained once it s named something. It 
 sounds mysterious, but it is again nothing but 
 cause and effect. The physical arrangement of 
 facts brought automatically conditions to which 
 the various ants reacted through their instincts 
 the parts of the current of wisdom that flowed 
 through the channels provided in ants." 
 
 "Did you actually see those things going to 
 happen?" 
 
 "No. I just knew them; I had a conviction. 
 I put my mind aside and sat still and they just 
 came into my mind. It s hard to describe." 
 
156 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "I think I understand a little. I ve had 
 things come to me that way, once in a blue moon. 
 Won t you tell me how you first experienced 
 it, and whether you developed it?" 
 
 He blew a cloud of smoke and looked at her 
 through quizzically narrowed eyes. 
 
 "Most as amusing as the Orpheum," said he 
 drily. 
 
 "No! No!" she denied with vehemence. "I 
 want to know!" 
 
 "Why?" he demanded. 
 
 She calmed, and looked a little confused. 
 
 "Why why you re right, I suppose I am 
 prying. I beg your pardon but I did want to 
 know." 
 
 He laughed comfortably. 
 
 "I ll tell you all I know gladly which isn t 
 much," he promised, "because you really do want 
 to know. You must pardon me, but in my time 
 I ve been up against fake debutante enthusiasm. * 
 
 "I told you I m not a debutante!" she cried 
 indignantly. " And I ll have you understand 
 I m not to be humoured like a child." 
 
 "Now don t go away mad!" he coaxed, half- 
 humorously, but with an undertone of pleading 
 sincerity that arrested her half movement. "1 
 meant not to offend your gracious majesty. But 
 also I have a skittish horror of being made a 
 goat. I really enjoy talking about myself I m 
 
ON TIPTOE 157 
 
 quite a normal young man but only when I m 
 sure I m not being made fun of. Let s see, you 
 wanted to know how this thing started." 
 
 "Yes," she eyed him doubtfully, "but please 
 do not feel " 
 
 "No, I don t," he interrupted her firmly, 
 "whatever it is. When I was a youngster I dis 
 covered by accident that I had a queer faculty 
 of being able to move around in the dark freely 
 and without hitting things as long as I kept 
 my mind blank, or let it just idle along. For 
 instance, coming home through the woods at 
 night, I d turn out for trees or avoid thickets or 
 step over stones that I could not see at all; and 
 furthermore I d land accurately in camp. That, 
 mind you, was only as long as I didn t think 
 about it consciously. The minute I d think 
 whether I ought to turn to the right or left, or 
 wonder whether I wasn t going to hit a tree, or 
 something, I d begin to bump and blunder." 
 
 "That s the way it started. Then what?" 
 
 "Why, then, nothing. I just thought of it 
 as a handy kink in my make up. But when I 
 grew up and began to think about things more 
 I began to see certain connections between that 
 faculty and the way things worked out in my 
 profession. To get any furderer with this I ve 
 got to talk shop outrageously. Do you mind?" 
 
 "Of course not ! I d love it !" 
 
158 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "Well, most people think that when a man 
 writes a story " 
 
 "Oh!" she cried, taken aback. "Do you write 
 stories?" 
 
 "I so understand from sufficient outside au 
 thority to overcome my own natural scepticism." 
 
 She stared at him intently but abstractedly, 
 as a tremendous suspicion took her mind. 
 
 "You aren t you aren t Lawrence Daven 
 port!" she said incredulously. 
 
 "Friends call me Larry," he acknowledged. 
 
 "Not the Lawrence Davenport?" 
 
 "I m the only one I know about. There may 
 be others I wot not of; but be assured, O Lady, 
 that they are nothing but spurious imitations." 
 
 "Why, I ve read all your books " 
 
 "You are very patient." 
 
 " and I ve just loved them!" 
 
 "Long and patient study has not yet revealed 
 to me the suitable answer to one who claims she 
 loves your books," sadly confessed Davenport. 
 
 Burton began to chuckle, then to laugh aloud. 
 This continued so long that Davenport knit his 
 brows at her. 
 
 "Even my famous wit " he began. 
 
 "I m thinking of the joke on us," she ex 
 plained, wiping her eyes, "of Dad. We thought 
 you were a garage mechanic!" 
 
 Davenport looked genuinely astonished. 
 
ON TIPTOE 159 
 
 "And me with such gentlemanly manners/ he 
 mourned, "and my plug tobacco is for smoking,, 
 not chewing; and my diction, faulty as it is, yet 
 observes the rules of grammar. And my rai 
 ment while not sumptuous " 
 
 "Your funny little car misled us, I suppose," 
 she explained, "and then you were so handy about 
 everything." 
 
 "You relieve me. The car was the cheapest I 
 could get for a pure experiment. Its strangely 
 horrific disguise was imposed by its former 
 owner. I had not thought of it. But it does 
 signify, now that I consider it ; much as long vi- 
 sored caps signify, or college cut clothes. But 
 I am glad I was handy." 
 
 "But go on about the battery," she ordered. 
 
 "Do you know," he said admiringly, "my re 
 spect for you becomes prof ounder every moment. 
 You have an admirable directness and perti 
 nacity; and your short cuts of intuition are a 
 delight. We were talking about the battery a 
 few centuries ago, weren t we?" 
 
 "We ve been talking about the battery right 
 along, and you know it," said she. 
 
 "Well, as I was saying: most people imagine 
 that when a man writes a story he sits down and 
 invents it with the front part of his brain, the way 
 you d sit down and make a list of something: 
 that he decides that this character will do this, 
 
160 OX TIPTOE 
 
 and that character will do that and that the whole 
 plot will do so-and-so." 
 
 "Doesn t he?" 
 
 "He may think he does ; but he doesn t. What 
 he really does is this : he either has a situation, or 
 a central ethical idea, or one or more characters. 
 He makes a start. Then one by one the situa 
 tions, the telling points and even the trend of 
 conversations come into his mind, and he picks 
 them out. He doesn t do any thinking at all, in 
 the way a mathematician invents a theorem. He 
 just keeps his story in his consciousness, so to 
 speak; and things form. There may be alter 
 natives from which he has to make a choice, but 
 that s as far as he gets. It s hard to name. It 
 isn t thinking: it certainly isn t dreaming idly, 
 for there is very active volition in it." 
 
 "Subconscious mind," she suggested. 
 
 "Mildewed word. Another example of think 
 ing you ve explained when you ve merely named. 
 But there s one thing that can be said : the min 
 ute you try to take hold of it and drag it out with 
 your mathematical mind before it s ready, you get 
 to be second rate. The mathematical part must 
 be on the job to do a workmanlike job and keep 
 the congruities, mind you." 
 
 She nodded slowly. "I think I see dimly where 
 you re coming out." 
 
 "I m sure you do. Well, I noticed that my 
 
ON TIPTOE 161 
 
 old experience in the dark and this story writing 
 had one thing in common : the more or less hold 
 ing in abeyance of the sharply reasoning mind. 
 From then on it was practice." 
 
 "And the battery?" 
 
 "Came to me just like a story, a little at a time. 
 I m no mechanic, and I have no scientific educa 
 tion. No one could be worse fitted than I to be 
 an inventor. But, like any one else, I couldn t 
 help noticing from time to time the incredible 
 amount of power everywhere going to waste, and 
 the equally incredible exertions we have to make 
 to get hold of what little power we do use. Just 
 think of the amount of power necessary to raise 
 and lower the tides; or to deliver millions of 
 waves on the beach; or, indeed, to warm a single 
 acre of land to the growing point. And of course 
 we re just beginning to use water power." 
 
 "Yes," she urged him as he paused. 
 
 "Then one day when I was filling the starting 
 battery of my car I have got a car it struck 
 me what a nuisance it was, and I wondered if we 
 couldn t get a battery that would work with air." 
 
 "And then you figured it out." 
 
 "I did not," he disclaimed. "I merely kept it 
 in mind, the way I do a story, and it worked out 
 its own plot, bit by bit. Every once in a while 
 I d try it, just the way I d try a story plot, and 
 it wouldn t work; so I d quit it, and keep it in 
 
162 ON TIPTOE 
 
 mind again, and wait for another bright idea. It 
 took ^me some time to tumble to the fact that the 
 plates had to be just exactly so far apart. I got 
 a current mainly by accident and it worked 
 well for two or three days. Then all at once it 
 V quit on me. I found afterwards that probably 
 the plates got jarred a little. It took me three 
 weeks to get on the right track. Then one day 
 I said to myself, Oh, yes, a micrometer screw. 
 
 "But you ve succeeded at last!" 
 
 "To a certain extent, anyway. There s a lot to 
 be considered whether a number of batteries 
 will all work together, for instance. But at least 
 I ve got two to work and to work hard for a long 
 time. One horrible thought occurred to me : that 
 maybe it will only work near electric plants al 
 ready in operation under the old methods." 
 
 "Stealing what s already been made! I see!" 
 
 "That s why I m up in this wild country, bag 
 and baggage. I m going to get far enough away 
 to find out. It seems to be all right, though." 
 
 He glanced toward the west. 
 
 "I ll go back on my statement a while back," 
 said he, "and I ll tell you accurately what the 
 members of this party are doing. Your father 
 is headed toward camp : and Simmins and Gardi 
 ner are getting hungry and wondering where we 
 all are. Isn t that right, Rapscallion?" 
 
ON TIPTOE 163 
 
 The red-dog uncurled, yawned and stretched: 
 then announced himself game for anything. 
 
 They returned to camp down the old wood 
 road. The evening shadows were crouching 
 close to earth, stealing back and forth like play 
 ers in concealment waiting the moment to rise 
 and take the stage. Hermit thrushes were 
 proclaiming holiness. They walked in a spell 
 that was unbroken until the campfire flickered 
 through the trees. 
 
 "You don t know how I appreciate your telling 
 me all this, Mr. Davenport," then said she. 
 
 "I told you my friends call me Larry," he 
 pointed out: then at her slight withdrawal, "Oh, 
 I know we re supposed to be recent acquaintances 
 and all that; but we re not really, and you know 
 it. But it isn t that. I speak from a sense of 
 the appropriate. Now really, look at me. Am 
 I a Larry looking person or a Davenport looking 
 person?" He cocked his eye comically in her 
 direction. 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 "You re right Larry," said she. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 RIMSTEAD did not appear until the twi- 
 light was ten feet deep on the forest floor; 
 although the sun still painted with green-bronze 
 the tops of certain trees. He tramped into camp 
 savagely, without response to greetings, hung his 
 rod from a projecting nub on a tree, threw his 
 creel from him, and plumped himself down by 
 the fire. 
 
 "Get any fish, Dad?" Burton had the temerity 
 to ask. 
 
 Grimstead grunted and bit off the end of 
 his cigar. 
 
 "I had a notion it was too soon after the rain," 
 observed Gardiner. "They never bite until the 
 water has cleared more." 
 
 "I suppose you wouldn t have gone fishing?" 
 Grimstead enquired of him with mock politeness. 
 
 "I certainly should not," replied Gardiner, 
 unmoved. 
 
 "Rather listen to about five hundred dollars 
 worth of self-starter music," sneered Grimstead. 
 "I hear she s still going strong. You got any 
 thing to say about what a damn fool I was to go 
 fishing?" he enquired of Davenport. 
 
 164 
 
ON TIPTOE 165 
 
 "Not a word," smiled Larry. 
 
 "I suppose you wouldn t have gone fishing 
 so soon after the rain, either?" persisted Grim- 
 stead. 
 
 "Depends on how much I wanted to go fish 
 ing," replied Larry. 
 
 "Humph!" grunted the Pirate Chief. His 
 roving eye rested on Simmins. "How about you, 
 Simmins?" he enquired with heavy sarcasm. "I 
 suppose you wouldn t have gone fishing to-day, 
 either?" 
 
 "Yes, sir, quite so, sir," said Simmins. 
 
 Having silenced all the guns within range, 
 Grimstead lighted his cigar. 
 
 "Well, hang up my creel somewhere," he com 
 manded, "and bring me some dry things for 
 my feet." 
 
 Simmins glided to where lay the discarded 
 creel. He lifted it; then, with a surprised air, 
 lifted the cover and peered within. An exclama 
 tion escaped him which was immediately succeed 
 ed by a squawk of alarm. Grimstead, with an 
 incredible agility in one so bulky, had leaped to 
 his feet, rushed upon him, and snatched the creel 
 from his grasp. Gone now was the scowl, shaken 
 the grouch. His face illumined with a grin of 
 triumph, Grimstead pranced to the fireside, pac 
 ing high like an Indian dancer. 
 
 "Too soon after the rain!" he chanted derisive- 
 
166 ON TIPTOE 
 
 ly, shaking the creel over his head. "Never bite 
 until the water is clear! Yow!" 
 
 He reached into the creel and drew out inch 
 by inch a fair leviathan of a trout, which he held 
 by a finger in the gills and shook in their faces as 
 an Indian shakes his rattle of pebbles. 
 
 "Look at urn!" he shouted. "I ll betcha he 
 weighs six pounds! I ll betcha he s two foot and 
 a half long! I ll betcha you never saw a trout 
 like that before! Won t bite, eh ! Oh, no! You 
 know that big pool down about a mile below the 
 fallen redwood?" he asked Larry. "Well, I got 
 down there along about half -past four or five 
 o clock. Hadn t had a bite, not a smell. Then 
 I began to use the old bean " 
 
 "Who is the one who objects to my being 
 slangy?" interrupted Burton mischievously. 
 
 But he brushed her aside. Shaking the big 
 rainbow in their faces to emphasise each point, 
 Grimstead went on with his narration. He told 
 every detail, and he circled and told certain of the 
 most triumphant details over again. The adven 
 ture of catching this certain fish became an ad 
 venture which only a person of Grimstead s 
 capacity could have brought to a successful con 
 clusion ; indeed, only to one like Grimstead would 
 discriminating fates have offered it at all. When 
 at length the landing net lifted the prize from the 
 water, the narrator about-faced and started to 
 
ON TIPTOE 167 
 
 tell it all over again in reverse order; but Burton 
 cut him short. 
 
 "Now, Dad," she said decidedly. "You give 
 that trout to Simmins and you get ready for sup 
 per. We re all famished. It s a beauty, but 
 we d like to see how it tastes. Simmins, take the 
 fish and clean it." 
 
 Grimstead came off the boil, but he still sim 
 mered pleasingly, and continued to impart em 
 bellishing particulars to the world at large while 
 he prepared to tidy himself up for the meal. 
 Rapscallion stepped forward to where the trout 
 dangled from the horrified Simmins, took one 
 dainty sniff, and retired in disgust. The smell of 
 raw trout was not disagreeable to Rapscallion 
 except by association. He knew by experience 
 that now he would be expected to begin a fish 
 diet and Rapscallion considered himself no sledge 
 dog. 
 
 Davenport caught Simmins distressed eye 
 and arose. 
 
 "Clean it down stream, Simmins, below where 
 we use the water," said he, and disappeared in 
 the direction of the cars. 
 
 Simmins, taking heart, stumbled toward the 
 creek holding the trout gingerly away from him. 
 Sure enough he was joined by his benefactor. 
 
 "Very few fish on the dry South African veldt, 
 I understand, Simmins," remarked Larry drily. 
 
168 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "Quite so, sir." 
 
 "So I surmise you don t really know whether 
 they clean trout with a scrubbing brush or a 
 feather duster. That right?" 
 
 "The establishments in which I have taken 
 service have always maintained young persons 
 of inferior station to perform such duties, sir." 
 
 Davenport surveyed him thoughtfully. 
 
 "Simmins," he said sadly, "you mustn t pull 
 that stuff on me; you really mustn t. You see, 
 I m on. I d like to help you save your face, you 
 poor nut; but I m not going to do it if you try to 
 bluff me. I know it s hard : you ve got the habit. 
 But why try it on a garage man?" 
 
 Simmins looked unconvinced. 
 
 "Shoot!" commanded Larry, "what you keep 
 ing back?" 
 
 "You may be a garage man, sir, but I doubt it. 
 You are a gentleman." 
 
 "What s that?" 
 
 But Simmins refused to analyse. 
 
 "One like yourself, sir," said he neatly. 
 
 Larry shouted. 
 
 "Well played, Simmins. But now get back to 
 earth. Do you know how to clean that trout?" 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 "Good! Well, I m going to help you out, as 
 usual." 
 
ON TIPTOE 169 
 
 "Thank you, sir," said Simmins, and tried to 
 hand Larry the fish. 
 
 "Not so," negatived that young man. "You re 
 going to do it. Take him in your left hand, belly 
 up-" 
 
 In five minutes Simmins possessed a cleaned 
 rainbow trout, bloody, slimy hands, and a mind 
 in which loathing and barbarian triumph were 
 strangely mingled. His backbone was stiffer 
 and he looked Davenport in the eye with what 
 approached a comradely grin. 
 
 "A bit messy!" he commented; but without 
 the "sir." After all, there is nothing that makes 
 for a sense of equality more than joining in the 
 occupations of the upper classes like cleaning 
 fish. 
 
 The evening meal was a jolly one, thanks to 
 this trout. Grimstead s high good humour car 
 ried all temperamental differences before it. 
 Even the taciturn Gardiner unbent to tell an an 
 ecdote. Burton was in the highest spirits, also, 
 for she had what she considered a very intriguing 
 secret, which she intended to keep for the time 
 being at least, in the hope of extracting from the 
 situation still further amusement. In this she 
 was abetted by Larry Davenport himself. Now 
 that that young man really understood the posi 
 tion in the social structure he was supposed to 
 
170 ON TIPTOE 
 
 fill, he played up and became the Perfect Garage 
 Mechanic. When this performance drew Sim 
 mins puzzled eye Larry s happiness was com 
 plete. 
 
 After everybody had eaten all the trout he 
 could, and praised the same all he was able, the 
 meal was at an end. Simmins and Gardiner had 
 cooked some other things, but nobody wanted 
 them. 
 
 6 Don t you care, old scout," Larry comforted 
 Simmins. "It is always that way with the first 
 trout. Take a tip, and after this when the first 
 trout of the season are brought in cook just tea 
 and bread." 
 
 "Now," sighed Grimstead comfortably, as he 
 struggled to his thick legs, "if you young people 
 will excuse us, Ross and I have a little business 
 to talk over. We ll wander down toward the 
 creek." 
 
 He lighted a cigar and, followed by Gardiner, 
 disappeared in the darkness. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 he demanded of Gardiner, once they 
 were settled on a convenient log. "How 
 about it?" 
 
 His benign good humour had fallen from him, 
 and his whole being had tautened into a hard 
 alertness. 
 
 "It s been running without a break, and with 
 out apparent loss of energy at any time up to 
 five o clock, when I came in with Simmins to 
 cook supper." 
 
 "Looks like a good thing, then?" 
 
 "It looks like better than that just on the 
 showing it s already made." 
 
 "I m almost beginning to believe that cock 
 and bull story about his having come eleven hun 
 dred miles with it already." 
 
 "It s not impossible. It would be no more un 
 precedented than driving that starter all day." 
 
 "Well, we certainly played in luck hitting that 
 stub. We ve got to tie this thing down before 
 somebody else gets hold of it. I wonder if any 
 body has? He might be tied up already." 
 
 "May be," agreed Gardiner, "but I don t 
 
 171 
 
172 ON TIPTOE 
 
 think so. This seems to be his first test of the 
 thing." 
 
 "Well, we must tie him up," said Grimstead. 
 
 He fell silent for so long that Gardiner at 
 length asked: 
 
 "Going to buy him out, chief? You could 
 probably get it cheap, comparatively." 
 
 "No," replied the older man. "I ve been con 
 sidering that. In the first place, I don t believe 
 he d sell out. I ve been sizing him up pretty 
 carefully, and I m pretty sure that a direct offer 
 he d want advice about, or want time to consider. 
 And, Ross, once he gets out of these redwoods 
 and consults somebody, it s all off. Any fool 
 can see the possibilities. No, we ve got to cinch 
 this thing here and now." 
 
 "Yes, you re right on that," agreed Gardiner. 
 
 "But a share in the business is different " 
 went on Grimstead, "perhaps a royalty. I don t 
 know: we ll see how he rises to it." 
 
 "You can probably make a good bargain," 
 agreed Gardiner once more. "He apparently 
 has no idea of the possible value of this thing." 
 
 Grimstead shrugged his shoulders a little im 
 patiently. 
 
 "Gardiner," said he, "I sometimes wonder a 
 little about you!" 
 
 "What do you mean?" asked Gardiner, star 
 tled at the tone. 
 
ON TIPTOE 173 
 
 "Your technical knowledge is beyond praise; 
 but you ve got the most awful blind spots." 
 
 "I m sorry, chief, but what is it this time?" 
 begged Gardiner, whose diplomacy was no small 
 part of his success. 
 
 "I gather you think we could drive a cheap 
 bargain with this young man?" 
 
 Gardiner considered his reply for a moment. 
 
 "Yes," he said finally, with conviction. "I 
 think we could before he gets talking with 
 some one else." 
 
 "Of course we could, but we won t." 
 
 "Sir?" 
 
 "I say we won t. I ll offer him the very 
 largest share I can, or the highest royalties pos 
 sible consistent with control and good business. 
 See why?" 
 
 Gardiner hesitated; then shook his head. 
 
 "Well, either this is a whopping big thing, or 
 it is a flivver. If it s a flivver it doesn t matter 
 if we give him the whole works : it would be giv 
 ing him nothing. But suppose it turns out to 
 be a world beater and we ve made a sharp bar 
 gain. Either he, or some one else, is going to 
 buck. Then there s law suits and infringements 
 without end. If, however, we have at the very 
 start, before the thing is proved up at all, given 
 him a full share, then when it turns out big he ll 
 stay with us. Get it?" 
 
174 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "Yes, sir, I do. You re right," said Gardiner. 
 He saw the point quickly enough, once it was 
 pointed out to him, for he was clever. This sort 
 of thing was why Grimstead was the Chief and 
 not the Second in Command. 
 
 They returned to the fireside, where Burton 
 and Larry were teasing Rapscallion, while Punk- 
 etty-Sniwles cast malicious animal magnetism 
 at them. 
 
 "Well, young man," said Grimstead directly, 
 "your battery seems to be making good. There s 
 no doubt that you have a big thing there. I don t 
 know just how big: that will have to be tested 
 out pretty exhaustively. But even as a small 
 battery it is big: and it may conceivably run into 
 power." 
 
 "I believe it will," said Davenport. "As I 
 told you, I believe it will either run tandem with 
 as many others as we can hitch on, or maybe in 
 crease of size would do it." 
 
 "Maybe. That would be a matter of experi 
 ment. But it s good enough to market as it is. 
 Ever thought of it?" 
 
 "Yes, of course. But I ve never been sure 
 enough it was going to work to do anything 
 about it." 
 
 Grimstead cast an eye of triumph toward 
 Gardiner. 
 
 "Well," said he, "I am considerably in the 
 
ON TIPTOE 175 
 
 electric line myself. What would you think of 
 taking it up with me?" 
 
 "I was going to propose it myself, after you 
 had satisfied yourself the thing was going to 
 
 run." 
 
 "Good ! Now I m not going to insult your in 
 telligence by trying to buy outright," said Grim- 
 stead, craftily gaining merit from his decision. 
 "You d know better than that. There are two 
 other methods. By one you would get a certain 
 amount of stock in the company. By the other 
 you would be paid a definite royalty. In the 
 first instance you would have a voice in manage 
 ment, and also responsibility. In the second in 
 stance you would be relieved from all trouble, 
 but would have nothing to say." 
 
 "I see the difference," Davenport nodded. 
 "But I don t believe I could decide as to my 
 choice until I heard a more definite proposition 
 of each kind. How much stock would I get, and 
 how much royalty?" 
 
 Grimstead here showed further his qualifica 
 tion for chiefhood by shooting back his proposal. 
 He had thought it all out, and was ready. 
 
 "In either case you should be a millionaire," 
 he concluded. 
 
 "I don t know that being a millionaire particu 
 larly interests me," rejoined Davenport thought 
 fully. "I ve seen a lot of those birds in my time, 
 
176 ON TIPTOE 
 
 and their money seems to have done something 
 to even the best of them that I m not sure I d like 
 done to me." 
 
 "Well," suggested Grimstead jocularly, 
 "there d be no objection to cutting down your 
 share, if that s the difficulty." 
 
 Davenport laughed. 
 
 "Oh, I m no ass!" he replied. "If I don t 
 want to be a millionaire I can probably arrange 
 it for myself." 
 
 "Marry a girl who knows how," suggested 
 Grimstead, grinning at Burton, who flushed 
 angrily. 
 
 "I m no ass!" repeated Davenport. "That s 
 the sort of girl who insists that you keep on being 
 a millionaire." 
 
 "No, you re no ass," agreed Grimstead unex 
 pectedly, "and you re no garage man. I don t 
 know who you are, but you can t bluff me." 
 
 Burton glanced at him amusedly. 
 
 "The royalty idea appeals to me," continued 
 Davenport, paying no attention to the byplay, 
 "for I certainly do not want to get mixed up in 
 affairs unless I have to. But I do feel responsi 
 bility in turning a thing like this loose without at 
 least trying to do my part." 
 
 "You d find the business part of it in pretty 
 competent hands," Grimstead assured him. 
 
 "I do not doubt that for a moment," said 
 
ON TIPTOE 177 
 
 Davenport earnestly. "I shouldn t have a mo 
 ment s uneasiness on that score. I m thinking 
 of the world at large." 
 
 "World at large?" repeated Grimstead, a little 
 blankly. 
 
 "Yes. You, of course, have not thought of 
 this as much as I have, for it is a new proposi 
 tion to you. But I ve been pondering on it for 
 a very long while. It s the terrific upset in in 
 dustry that must come from this." 
 
 "Of course there will be readjustments, * 
 agreed Grimstead. 
 
 "But just stop to follow this out. Let s sup 
 pose, for the sake of argument, that this battery 
 is all it might be ; that it is a genuine short cut to 
 unlimited power. There would be no sense in 
 mining another pound of coal, of cutting another 
 stick of cordwood, of turning another dynamo, 
 of making another steam or gas engine. Just in 
 the field of the domestic, every man could have 
 one or more down cellar by which he could light 
 and heat his house, cook his food, and turn what 
 ever appliances he might have to turn. The gas 
 and electric companies would simply have to go 
 out of business. Why should anybody buy any 
 thing of them? The hydroelectric companies 
 would close. The oil companies would not close, 
 but they d be largely reduced and crippled. 
 Those are the principal things. But reaching out 
 
178 ON TIPTOE 
 
 from that, think of the correlated industries that 
 would be more or less affected 
 
 "I ve got that kind of imagination, young 
 man," interrupted Grimstead drily. "I d al 
 ready considered all that." 
 
 "Of course," smiled Davenport, relapsing from 
 his tense eagerness. "And then besides the hun 
 dreds of millions of dollars of capital, there are 
 hundreds of thousands of workmen who would 
 be thrown out of employment for a time until 
 the readjustment had been made." 
 
 "Why, it sounds terrible!" cried Burton. 
 
 "That s why I say there s a responsibility con 
 nected with it. All this capital and these works 
 of various kinds and these workmen will find 
 other and probably more ultimately useful things 
 to do after a time. Everybody expected the 
 breweries and wine grape vineyards to shut up 
 shop when prohibition came in, but they man 
 aged to find something to make. But they should 
 be given time. It shouldn t be sprung on them 
 all at once." 
 
 "What would be your suggestion?" asked 
 Grimstead, who was watching the flushed young 
 man through narrowed lids. 
 
 Davenport laughed boyishly. 
 
 "My goodness! That s a large order! But I 
 suppose it might be fed out through a single in- 
 
ON TIPTOE 179 
 
 dustry at first say, motor boat engines, or some 
 thing of that kind. If we held the patents, we 
 could regulate that exactly." 
 
 "I see your point, Mr. Davenport, of course. 
 Then you think that the stock proposition ap 
 peals to you most?" 
 
 "It doesn t appeal to me the most," disclaimed 
 Davenport. "Far from it. But I guess it s what 
 I ought to have." 
 
 "Very well," returned Gardiner decisively. 
 "Gardiner, get your note book and take this." 
 
 Gardiner had risen from the post of private 
 secretary and so took shorthand. 
 
 "Draw me up a proper contract embodying 
 these points," Grimstead instructed him. "Pat 
 ents in name of Universal Power Corporation. 
 Capital stock one hundred thousand shares, no 
 par value, non-assessable. Forty per cent to 
 Mr. Davenport. Sixty to me. I to furnish all 
 working capital. Manufacture to commence 
 within three months. One hundred thousand 
 dollars to be paid Mr. Davenport as bonus cash 
 payment on the conclusion of the first one thou 
 sand bona fide sales. That satisfactory as far 
 as it goes?" 
 
 The attentive youth nodded. 
 "All right. Now just to cover the point you 
 brought up, add this: that for the first five years 
 
180 ON TIPTOE 
 
 Mr. Davenport is to have the veto right as to 
 any contemplated extensions of business. That 
 ought to suit you, Davenport." 
 
 "That s fine!" cried the young man, his brow 
 clearing. "I was trying to figure how I would 
 have anything to say with only forty per cent of 
 the stock and yet I realise perfectly that the 
 business control should be in the business hands." 
 
 "All right. Get your typewriter and put it in 
 shape, Ross." 
 
 Gardiner disappeared with a flashlight in the 
 direction of the car, to return after a few mo 
 ments carrying a portable typewriter. Grim- 
 stead met him just at the circle of firelight. 
 
 "No shenanigan about this, Ross," he warned 
 in a low voice. "I want this contract drawn ab 
 solutely fairly, so that any lawyer he may con 
 sult will approve of it. I don t want a chance 
 for an objection once we leave this place." 
 
 "I understand that part of it, but " 
 
 "He s one of those lily-whites," growled Grim- 
 stead. "I ve got him located now. Full of up 
 lift and shy of horse sense. I know em; and 
 they ve got to be handled. He s cuckoo on the 
 service-to-humanity stuff." 
 
 "I don t quite get your giving him that veto 
 right" 
 
 "Too long: I ll tell you to-morrow." 
 
 "Do I get some of this stock?" 
 
ON TIPTOE 181 
 
 Til take care of you and I ll use you! 
 Don t you worry ! Come fishing with me to-mor 
 row and we ll talk it over. Oh, one more thing: 
 the chances are that he won t sign any contract 
 without seeing a lawyer, no matter how well sat 
 isfied he is with its provisions. He ll want to see 
 if it s technically all right. So draw up a sub 
 sidiary agreement on his part to sign the contract 
 provided his lawyer get his name pronounces 
 it technically correct. We ll get him to sign that 
 anyway; and that will tie him up." 
 
 It was near ten o clock before the little type 
 writer ceased clicking; and about eleven when 
 Davenport affixed his signature to the agreement 
 to sign. As Grimstead had foreseen, he did not 
 want to sign the contract itself without expert 
 advice as to its form ; but, being satisfied with its 
 substance, he was willing to agree to that. 
 
 "Now," cried Grimstead, heaving himself erect 
 with a joyous bellow, "we ll demonstrate what 
 an unprincipled old law breaker you have hooked 
 up with. Simmins, bring me my black bag." 
 He produced a small key on the end of a gold 
 chain and unlocked the black "bag," which was 
 more like a deep and stiff suitcase. Simmins 
 eyed the key sadly. He had never been able, try 
 as he might, to duplicate it. The two sides of 
 the box, on being opened wide on their hinges, 
 disclosed a velvet-lined interior filled with appro- 
 
182 ON TIPTOE 
 
 priate notches and slots into which fitted six bot 
 tles. Other notches carried two nests of tum 
 blers. 
 
 "Water, lemons, sugar!" commanded Grim- 
 stead. 
 
 He set out on the ground before him four of 
 the tumblers and poured into each a generous 
 measure from one of the bottles. 
 
 Illegal to transport without a permit," he 
 chuckled. 
 
 He reached up a hand for the ingredients and 
 caught Simmins eye, after which he fumbled 
 again in the box and set out another tumbler. 
 The psychic could then have heard beatific peace 
 plunking into Simmins soul. 
 
 The drinks mixed, Simmins handed one to 
 each. Grimstead arose. 
 
 "Here s to the Universal Power Corpora 
 tion!" he proposed. 
 
 "And to its inventor," supplemented Burton. 
 
 "And to its commercial genius," added the 
 diplomatic Gardiner, looking toward his chief. 
 
 "And to its inspiration," concluded Larry 
 boldly, lifting his glass to Burton. 
 
 They drank. Larry saw the toil-driven mil 
 lions, and the lifting of yet another of the great 
 Pressures of life. Burton saw confusedly an 
 angel with a flaming sword somehow reopening 
 by a crack the gates of Eden. Gardiner con- 
 
ON TIPTOE 183 
 
 templated a vision of great activity and great 
 wealth. Grimstead was smiling. What he saw 
 the great invisible Intelligences too were per 
 ceiving through the lenses of his soul. They did 
 not smile. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 fTl HE next morning the corduroying across the 
 A meadow was finished and a new road around 
 the fallen giant was begun. 
 
 "My light car could make it now," said Larry, 
 "but we d better make a road for yours." 
 
 "The people who come for it could do that," 
 suggested Gardiner. 
 
 "Depends on how busy they are. I know 
 them. It won t hurt us to put in our time." 
 
 To this Grimstead agreed. In his younger 
 days he had been a good axeman, a fact which he 
 had proved sufficiently to Davenport to enable 
 him to coax the precious axe from that young 
 man s custody. Now he enjoyed chopping at 
 the light stuff and the soft-wood debris. At 
 noon, however, they laid off for the day. 
 
 "If you re going fishing again," suggested 
 Davenport, "and want to try the fly, you might 
 go upstream. The water will be clearer up 
 there. It s pretty rough and thick going if you 
 try to follow the stream, but look here 
 
 He squatted woodsman fashion on his heels in 
 front of Grimstead and proceeded to trace a map 
 on the smooth earth. 
 
 "Just north of here she makes a bend, this 
 
 184 
 
ON TIPTOE 185 
 
 way, around the hill that lies just back of us. 
 Now if you strike due east from here you ll run 
 into an old wood road, about half a mile. Fol 
 low that to the remains of an old clearing atop 
 the ridge. That s where we were yesterday," he 
 turned to Burton. "Now if you angle to the 
 north, and take the northerly swale out of a 
 clump of willows, you ll come to the stream again 
 and you can then fish it right to camp. Better 
 make up your mind to wade. It s about a mile 
 and a half over the hill, and it gives you some 
 where near five miles of fishing water." 
 
 "Big ones?" enquired Grimstead. 
 
 "Nothing like you caught yesterday. But 
 
 nice ones." 
 
 Grimstead considered. 
 
 "Upstream it is," he decided. "But to-mor 
 row, I warn you, I m going downstream again 
 and catch a whale." 
 
 "There s one thing: be sure you get the most 
 northerly swale. The country star-fishes up 
 there, and if you get to following the wrong 
 canon you ll end lost." 
 
 "You better come along, Ross," said Grim- 
 stead. "Go get your tackle." 
 
 Gardiner disappeared in the direction of the 
 car, and was gone so long that Grimstead be 
 came fidgetty. Gardiner seemed to have a great 
 deal of tackle to rig and clothes to put on. 
 
186 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "Here," said Grimstead at last, "I m going 
 to make a start. You follow along when you get 
 ready. I ll strike the stream and fish down, and 
 you keep going until you find me." 
 
 "I won t be a second," protested Gardiner. 
 
 "That s all right," growled Grimstead, "then 
 you won t have so far to catch up." 
 
 He tramped off sturdily, and was almost at 
 once struck small by the gigantic forest. Ten 
 minutes later, after vexatious delays having to 
 do with leaders and the disentangling thereof, 
 Gardiner followed. Simmins approached. 
 
 "There would seem to be no occasion for my 
 further presence, sir?" he suggested, indicating 
 with a turn of the head the direction of the pa 
 tiently labouring self-starter. 
 
 "We seem to be safe for the present," agreed 
 Davenport. "Why? What s on your mind?" 
 
 "I thought I would like to try my luck, sir." 
 
 "Sure. Go to it! Better go downstream, 
 though. Know anything about fishing?" 
 
 Simmins hesitated. Three days ago he would 
 have replied to the effect that he had invented 
 fishing. 
 
 "Very little, sir," he confessed. Simmins was 
 coming on. 
 
 Davenport arose. 
 
 "Well, you for the willow pole and split shot 
 combination," said he. 
 
ON TIPTOE 187 
 
 In five minutes Simmins departed bearing the 
 aforementioned willow pole rigged with a short 
 line, split shot sinker, and the hook of a number 
 six fly from which the feathers had been stripped. 
 In his side coat pocket were two tin cans, one of 
 which contained worms and the other white 
 grubs. 
 
 "Now," admonished Davenport, "when you 
 find a pool, or a smooth behind a rock or log, 
 sneak up on it very gently, and just drop your 
 bait in the middle of it. When you get a bite, 
 heave! Don t try to play your fish. Yank him 
 out before he can yank himself loose." 
 
 "Yes, sir," replied Simmins blissfully. Al 
 ready he had a complete drama in cold storage, 
 conversations and all, having to do with his re 
 turn at eventide carrying a long string of shining 
 beauties to find that Grimstead and Gardiner, 
 for all their fancy tackle, had succeeded in land 
 ing only four, and they rather small. Simmins 
 was at first inclined to bring them in with empty 
 creels, but reconsidered. He felt this was rather 
 handsome of him, and experienced a glow of 
 generosity. As a matter of fact, his subcon 
 scious, artistic sense taught him it would be more 
 effective if they had four small ones. Later he 
 added a telling touch. Gardiner met him just 
 out of sight of camp and tried to buy all or part 
 of his string from him. 
 
188 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "Simmins," he implored, his haughty, purse- 
 proud manner dropping from him in his earnest 
 ness, "to one of your known piscatorial reputa 
 tion this is a small matter, but to me it is every 
 thing. How can I appear before Miss Burton 
 empty handed? To win her bright regard it is 
 necessary that I come to her bearing the fruits 
 of success." 
 
 Simmins cast upon him a glance in which pity 
 and lofty contempt were admirably blended. 
 
 "I am sorry, Mr. Gardiner," he replied, "but 
 some things there are that gold cannot buy. My 
 honour is dear to me. I cannot be party to de 
 ception no matter what the guerdon. Out of 
 consideration for your station I will say nothing 
 of this episode; but do not so approach me 
 again." 
 
 Then came the entrance with the string of 
 fish. Curtain as before. 
 
 Simmins stored away his paraphernalia and 
 took his departure. Rapscallion rose to his fore 
 legs and looked after him, ears pricked. The or 
 dinary fishing excursion left Rapscallion rather 
 worse than cold. There was no interest in such 
 excursions; and some danger. You walked a 
 few steps at a time, and lay down, and yawned, 
 and slept, and waited some more while your mas 
 ter puttered and puttered and puttered in one 
 spot busy on his silly affairs. If you approached 
 
ON TIPTOE 189 
 
 near enough to experience a sense of companion 
 ship, you were ordered sternly to a distance. 
 Occasionally a curious and violent agitation took 
 place in the water, which evidently had merit as 
 an exciting agency. At least you got vibrations 
 from master to that effect. Row, turmoil, dash 
 ing about! It would seem a meet and sufficient 
 opportunity for a little contributory barking, 
 with alarums and short excursions in the direc 
 tion of the combat: not with any idea of grab 
 bing the thing, mind you, but by way of intelli 
 gent interest. You d think so, wouldn t you? 
 Not at all! Try it. You ll get pebbles heaved 
 at you, and be ordered harshly. And when you 
 are allowed or encouraged to approach and 
 examine the quarry after it is subdued, what do 
 you find? A slippery, cold and smelly fish! 
 Not for Rapscallion! He much preferred to 
 stay in camp. 
 
 But as he gazed after Simmins something ata 
 vistic stirred in his brain. Some of Rapscallion s 
 ancestors must have had happier experiences at 
 this type of field sport. The pictures were not 
 in Rapscallion s memory, but the inherited im 
 pressions were in his consciousness; impressions 
 dimly felt of ragged small boys with willow poles 
 like this and happy leaping barkings before, 
 behind, all around as a clover field was crossed 
 and snuggling bright-eyed and eager next a 
 
190 ON TIPTOE 
 
 small thinly clad form and a dark pool be 
 low : and then suddenly a wild yank, a spray 
 of water, a silvery form sailing through the air 
 in a wide arc overhead, and a wild dash of boy 
 and dog to fall with shouts on the leaping thing 
 in the grass fun! Rapscallion s eyes lighted. 
 He licked his chops. Then, with Punketty- 
 Snivvles slavishly at heel, he followed Simmins. 
 
 Burton, coming from her tent a few minutes 
 later, found Larry smoking his pipe alone. 
 
 "Deserted. Everybody. Even the dogs," he 
 answered her enquiry. "Like to go walking? 
 Different kind?" 
 
 "Surely!" she cried eagerly. 
 
 This time they headed straight up the stream, 
 keeping just outside the edge of the willow 
 thicket. The walking was not so good as in the 
 higher forest, but there were more flowers, birds 
 and sunshine. The creek shouted or muttered 
 behind the screen, or occasionally flashed at them 
 through an opening. After a quarter mile the 
 willows pinched out and the trees drew closer. 
 
 "Not much farther," promised Larry. "This 
 is pretty rough going." 
 
 "I thought you said this was to be a walk!" 
 she scorned. 
 
 "Not at all," he rejoined, unmoved. "I said 
 we d go walking, not take a walk. Vast dif 
 ference." 
 
ON TIPTOE 191 
 
 "That s a quibble. But then we re going some 
 where definite?" 
 
 "Very definite." 
 
 But he refused to be more explicit. After an 
 other half mile the hill, which had been lying to 
 their right, swung around as though to cross 
 their path. Here, evidently, the stream made 
 the bend back Larry had described to Grim- 
 stead, though as they approached Burton could 
 not for the life of her see where it could break 
 through what seemed to be a continuous rampart. 
 Indeed only at fairly touching distance did it be 
 come evident that two ranges in echelon made 
 between themselves a narrow gorge. Here at 
 the entrance stood detached a fragment of rock, 
 big as a summer cottage, square as a cube of 
 sugar. Its perpendicular sides were grown with 
 ferns, maidenhair, miner s lettuce and a half hun 
 dred other tiny plants and mosses. To the rear 
 of this Larry led the way. Here it lost its 
 apparent inaccessibility. A jagged heap of talus 
 and debris gave a rather rough passage to the 
 top. 
 
 "Pretty scrambly," said he. "Think you can 
 make it?" 
 
 She scorned reply, but began at once to scram 
 ble up over the rough and jagged talus. Daven 
 port watched the poise of her light and grace 
 ful figure for a moment, then followed. 
 
192 ON TIPTOE 
 
 The top of the rock was perfectly flat, but at 
 two elevations, one two feet higher than the other. 
 It was carpeted deep with moss. 
 
 "Hop down," advised Larry, himself descend 
 ing to the lower of the two elevations. "Now 
 sit down and lean your back. Can you beat 
 this?" 
 
 The natural seat thus formed and cushioned 
 commanded to the right a view up the stream 
 which at this point ran straight and wide for 
 some distance. Directly ahead was the slope of 
 the ridge, elusively sensed through the screen 
 of underbrush which here the slant of the ground 
 caused to rise. To the left the view was open, 
 above the brush, and down through the spaced 
 and tremendous distances between the redwood 
 trunks. A cool air breathed down the stream, 
 diluting the spiced, aromatic sun-warmth of the 
 forest. Sunlight played unweariedly dancing. 
 Birds flitted and midges hovered in the sun. 
 
 "I want to know more about this gift of 
 yours," demanded Burton after a time. "You 
 said, didn t you, that you thought everybody 
 ought to have it?" 
 
 "Yes, I do believe it belongs normally in the 
 
 race." 
 
 "Could I do it with practice?" 
 
 "I m certain of it." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
ON TIPTOE 193 
 
 "Well, you re young, and you haven t been 
 much spoiled yet by your kind of life." 
 
 "What do you mean by that?" she demanded, 
 a little hotly. 
 
 "Very rotten influence, your kind of a life, 
 after a certain age, on the average," said Daven 
 port without heed to her tone. "Doesn t do 
 much harm while you re in the A B C s of life, 
 except that it s likely to be bad preparation 
 for the D E F s. But no immediate harm." 
 
 "Thank you," she said drily. "I m young and 
 unspoiled probably good-hearted ! Anything 
 else? That hardly seems like adequate rea 
 
 son." 
 
 He turned to her with his disarmingly boyish 
 smile. 
 
 "No. You re right. That isn t much of a 
 reason, except after the fact. The truth is I 
 know you can do this the same way I knew 
 the tree was going to fall or what the ants were 
 going to do." 
 
 "Oh!" she cried, her resentment lost in eager 
 ness. "I want to try! How do you start?" 
 
 He smiled. 
 
 "This is no conjuring trick to be learned: it s 
 a good healthy faculty to be developed. You ve 
 got to relax utterly; and then, when you re all 
 relaxed so not a muscle is tensed anywhere in 
 your body, you ve got to relax something inside 
 
194 OX TIPTOE 
 
 of you that you hold tight together for every 
 day life something in your consciousness. Then 
 things just float in and you leave them alone 
 for future reference. If you start to think of 
 them or examine them or appraise them at the 
 time, then your inner relaxation is spoiled and 
 you don t get anything more. Is that sufficiently 
 vague for you?" 
 
 "I get a kind of idea," she said slowly. 
 
 "You ve got to grope until you feel it once," 
 he warned. 
 
 "I m going to begin now," she announced. 
 
 He leaned back in a comfortable position to 
 watch her. She had laid aside her hat, and the 
 cool air current was stirring the hair at her 
 temples. Little by little her form fell into the 
 simple, restful curves of relaxation; one by one 
 even the smaller muscles relinquished their guard. 
 Her face took on the dreamy and far-away 
 peacefulness of a sleeping child s. Then her eyes 
 became remote, and she sat there in the altar 
 rock in the ancient forest gazing into infinities. 
 Davenport watched her at first keenly, then with 
 satisfaction, and then, as his eyes continued to 
 rest on her wistful and childlike countenance a 
 great tenderness and longing crept from beneath 
 his customary repression and looked forth at her 
 unashamed. 
 
 Thus fifteen minutes passed. Then she stirred 
 
 
ON TIPTOE 195 
 
 slightly, and the ordinary animation of life 
 flowed slowly back into her attitude and expres 
 sion. 
 
 "Well?" asked Davenport at last. 
 
 "It was certainly very curious," she confessed. 
 "I can t make it out." 
 
 "What seemed to happen?" he urged. 
 
 "Why, nothing. That s the curious part. I 
 didn t go to sleep or anything. I saw the forest 
 all the time, and I felt you next me, but " 
 
 "Yes?" he encouraged. 
 
 "This is silly." She shook herself. "Now let s 
 see: I didn t seem to be all there. One part of 
 me wasn t there; the everyday part." 
 
 "That s what I mean by setting your work-a- 
 day mind aside," he explained. 
 
 "Yes, I gather that. But somehow the atmos 
 phere seemed different I mean the air that is 
 all around and through me. Oh, dear! I don t 
 know what I mean!" 
 
 "What about the air?" 
 
 "I don t know, but somehow it seemed alive. 
 It was like the difference between still water and 
 boiling water." 
 
 "You ve got it," he cried, "or at least a start 
 at it. I think it s wonderful to get all that the 
 first trial! It ought to take years!" 
 
 "It scared me a little," she confessed. "I 
 didn t know it was going to be so so active. I 
 
196 ON TIPTOE 
 
 thought you d just go blank in the mind and 
 thoughts would drift in." 
 
 "Why shouldn t it be active?" he pointed out. 
 "The whole universe is active." 
 
 "It scared me a little just the same," she re 
 peated. "Are you sure I won t go in a trance 
 or something if I do that?" 
 
 "Well, I m a pretty healthy specimen," said 
 Larry. "My own belief is that it s as normal a 
 process as when you focus your mind to add up 
 your accounts." 
 
 He hesitated, and the sunburn on his cheeks 
 seemed to deepen a little. 
 
 "Did did you get any well, thoughts?" he 
 enquired. 
 
 She looked straight ahead, and her colour too 
 deepened. 
 
 "Nothing nothing particular," she replied 
 steadily enough. "I really couldn t expect much 
 of anything the first trial, could I?" 
 
 "Are we going to waste time?" he asked gently. 
 
 She did not reply. After waiting a moment 
 he reached out and took her hand. She half 
 withdrew it; then abandoned it to him. 
 
 "You did see," he insisted. "You saw what 
 I saw yesterday when we were in the old orchard, 
 what I have felt from the very first instant I saw 
 you standing in the firelight, beautiful as the 
 night." 
 
ON TIPTOE 197 
 
 She struggled painfully. 
 
 "I don t know what to tell you!" she cried 
 in desperation at last. "Somehow I cannot help 
 but be honest." 
 
 "It would be no use otherwise; I know," he 
 told her. "I ll tell you what I saw. Part of it 
 I knew already; that I loved you, that the very 
 air you breathed was by that made radiant to 
 me, that where you stood was light and all other 
 places darkness. But I saw also that we were 
 mates. Those things run deeper than our fancies, 
 deeper than even the infatuation that may last 
 through a whole lifetime. I saw that, and I know 
 it is eternally true." 
 
 She turned on him troubled eyes. 
 
 "I don t know why I talk and act this way. 
 It seems almost shameless. I do not understand 
 it. But somehow I cannot hide and dodge and 
 retreat and flirt as I It is impossible. I do 
 not know what it is that has come to me, Larry, 
 and you must wait until I find out. I have been 
 made love to before and From the first I have 
 been attracted to you. Just now when I tried 
 to set my mind aside, as you call it, just one 
 idea, one impression, came to me, and that was 
 of nearness to you I don t mean physical near 
 ness I don t know what I mean or what I m 
 talking about " 
 
 "I do," he assured her. 
 
198 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "I am shaken, and I don t know; I can t tell 
 what it means." 
 
 "It is the answer to my love for you!" he 
 breathed. 
 
 She turned her clear eyes on him again. 
 
 "I do not know," she repeated, "and I must 
 know. I might allow you to keep my hand and 
 to and to go on, and there is something leap 
 ing within me that tells me I would be swept 
 away by your love. But I must not; and you 
 must not. If it were not so serious to me, that 
 might happen. I am talking in what my mother 
 would have called a most unmaidenly manner," 
 she ended with a wistful little smile. 
 
 He gently restored her hand to her lap. 
 
 "I understand," said he. "But it will come. 
 I am on air! It can no more help coming than 
 the poppy can help unfolding in the sun." 
 
 "I hope not," she breathed, but so low that he 
 did not catch the syllables. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 AT this moment, just when some obvious 
 change of subject seemed most desirable, 
 Grimstead appeared wading down the middle of 
 the stream. 
 
 "Keep quiet!" Burton adjured Larry. "Let s 
 surprise him!" 
 
 The fisherman was having a fine time, splash 
 ing down the long, straight vista, casting his fly 
 right, left and straight ahead as he advanced. 
 Larry watched him critically for a few moments. 
 
 "He knows the job," he told Burton. "Did 
 you see him make that flip cast to the pool be 
 hind the cedar root?" 
 
 The pool behind the cedar root yielded a rise 
 that immediately developed into an indignant 
 rainbow struggling to involve himself in under 
 water roots. For a time Grimstead managed to 
 foil this intention, but a sharp and unexpected 
 dash trailed the dropper fly across a part of the 
 snag, where it became firmly embedded. After 
 that Mr. Rainbow proceeded to pull himself 
 loose and depart. Grimstead, rather red in the 
 face, tried to disengage the drooper hook with 
 out getting near the pool, flipping the line, pull- 
 
 199 
 
200 ON TIPTOE 
 
 ing it down stream, poking the tip past it all 
 the angler s tricks known but in vain. At last 
 he had to wade out to the snag, roll up his sleeve, 
 and plunge his arm in nearly to the shoulder 
 before once more his leader swung clear. The 
 pool, and it was a promising one, was of course 
 completely ruined. 
 
 "You d be surprised at Dad s language," 
 chuckled Burton. 
 
 "He hasn t said a word," expostulated Larry. 
 "He s a good old sport." 
 
 "Just the same there s language. I know 
 Dad," whispered Burton. "He just hasn t used 
 it yet, that s all. This is not a propitious mo 
 ment to spring any surprises. In a minute he ll 
 pull out a cigar and bite it in two. I know the 
 symptoms. There! What did I tell you ! Now 
 when he s got that about half smoked he ll be 
 human again. Hush! Keep quiet!" 
 
 Grimstead, after lighting the mangled frag 
 ment of the cigar, had waded ashore opposite 
 the flat rock atop which the two were perched. 
 There he sat, concealed from view. Only the 
 curling smoke and the aroma of the excellent to 
 bacco betrayed his presence. 
 
 Davenport felt his arm seized tightly. Bur 
 ton, her eyes dancing with fun, was pointing 
 an ecstatic forefinger up stream. In the vista 
 Gardiner had appeared and was making his way 
 
ON TIPTOE 201 
 
 as fast as a reluctance to get in over his top boots 
 would let him. 
 
 "Just in time!" breathed Burton. "Now we ll 
 ;get the language!" 
 
 Grimstead also caught sight of the approach- 
 i ing figure, and his roaring voice exploded so vio 
 lently from beneath the rock that the young 
 ! people above him clutched each other delightedly. 
 
 "Where the blue hell you been!" was the open 
 ing. Burton, though a young and innocent 
 j maiden, had been brought up with the Pirate 
 Chief and had acquired moral immunity from 
 the said Chief s vocabulary; but you, gentle 
 reader, have not, and therefore I will judiciously 
 omit. The argument was that the Chief had 
 waited too long for his Second in Command to 
 catch up with him, as per original agreement, 
 and wanted to know why. Gardiner did not 
 appear to be disturbed. He hopped from rock 
 to rock until he too had gained the space be 
 neath the great boulder, and then, and then only, 
 made reply. 
 
 "I got into one of those starfish canons that 
 young fool told us about, and it took me some 
 time to find it out and to get back," he explained 
 calmly. 
 
 "Fine woodsman you are!" scorned Grimstead. 
 "Couldn t you see my plain trail?" 
 
 "I don t pretend to be a woodsman," dis- 
 
202 ON TIPTOE 
 
 claimed Gardiner, "and I did pretty well to get 
 here at all. I see you ve got some nice ones," 
 he went on, having evidently with great tact 
 looked into the creel before introducing the topic 
 of fish. 
 
 "Not bad," growled Grimstead; "just lost a 
 beauty at that pool up there." His thunderstorm 
 was evidently receding down over the horizon. 
 
 Burton now considered the time right for her 
 surprise, and she began to make moss balls to 
 toss over onto them. The next words, however, 
 arrested her. 
 
 "Now I ve caught up, chief," Gardiner was 
 saying, "for heaven s sake tell me why you gave 
 this fellow the right to limit sales for five years. 
 You heard him talk. You ll be making them for 
 row boats only, if you don t watch out." 
 
 "Suits me," returned Grimstead calmly. 
 
 "I don t believe I get your idea." 
 
 "Well, you asked me if I heard him talk. Yes, 
 I heard him talk, and I ve heard that kind of 
 talk all my life. It always comes from a half- 
 baked, impractical chump who is so full of im 
 possible ideals that he never gets anywhere, and 
 who couldn t see the main point if you wrapped 
 it in his breakfast napkin. You got to handle 
 that kind, and handle em right, or you ll never 
 get an inch." 
 
 "That s true enough," commented Gardiner. 
 
ON TIPTOE 203 
 
 It is probable that Davenport would have 
 broken in at this point in some spectacular fash 
 ion had not Burton held his arm and placed her 
 fingers over his lips. 
 
 "All he sees is that these batteries of his 
 will replace the world s power and that a lot 
 of high falutin things will happen for the benefit 
 of the human race and all that visionary rot that s 
 never worked out yet and never will." 
 
 "What do we care what he thinks as long as 
 we can sell the batteries?" queried Gardiner. 
 "It s going to take quite some few batteries of 
 any size you name to replace the world s power, 
 and that is the eventual market, if the thing 
 works." 
 
 "We re assuming that it works," growled the 
 older man, "otherwise there s nothing doing." 
 
 "Then why limit the sale to what this nut 
 thinks proper?" 
 
 "You re nearly as bad as he is, Ross," observed 
 Grimstead, a note of good humour creeping into 
 his voice. "I ll give you a demonstration that 
 will impress it on you." 
 
 "Shoot!" urged Gardiner. 
 
 "You asked me last night how many shares in 
 this thing you get. Well, you don t get any." 
 
 A blank silence of some seconds ensued. 
 
 "I don t believe I understand," then said Gar 
 diner in rather a strangled voice. 
 
204 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "Me and this young man will hold all the 
 stock," emphasised Grimstead. 
 
 "Then where do I come in!" demanded Gardi 
 ner with a note of rising indignation. 
 
 Grimstead chuckled. 
 
 "You wouldn t come in one cent s worth if 
 we should do as you seemed to think we would, 
 begin to manufacture and market these things 
 promiscuously." 
 
 Gardiner apparently had regained his equa 
 nimity. 
 
 "Well, chief, I don t get you yet; but I ve 
 been on the job long enough to know you have 
 some notion of taking care of me." 
 
 "I told you that; and that I am going to use 
 you." 
 
 "I think we ought to let them know we are 
 here," whispered Davenport uneasily. 
 
 But the girl s eyes were blazing. 
 
 "I don t like this," she whispered back. "It s 
 your business they re discussing and mine!" 
 
 Davenport s heart leaped at the last words, but 
 she was leaning forward again, eavesdropping 
 with all her might. 
 
 "If I can get one good working model I don t 
 care whether another of the things is made for 
 ten years, let alone five," stated Grimstead. 
 "My Lord, man! Think of the shake down! 
 This is going to put every hydroelectric com- 
 
ON TIPTOE 205 
 
 pany, every public utility outfit out of business! 
 Not to speak of all the oil and coal and such 
 things. The securities of those companies won t 
 be worth a red cent. The market, man! Think 
 of the market! There are a hundred dollars to 
 Tbe had there for every dollar out of the mere 
 sale of those things ! Why, you and I will have 
 the world by the tail!" 
 
 "You re right," Gardiner replied slowly, "with 
 capital " 
 
 "Which I supply. I ll smash Corbusier first 
 of all, blast his hide; and I ll twist the necks of 
 that Northwest Electric bunch; and I ll have 
 them in packs begging at my office door. They ll 
 see the point, don t worry; and those of them 
 who don t will go to the poorhouse. They ll be 
 crying to get aboard ; and you and I will sit there 
 and decide the terms. We can buy their stocks 
 and bonds for a song." 
 
 "And resell at the market," caught up Gardi 
 ner, "but that means secrecy as to this battery." 
 
 "That s one place where you come in. You 
 ought to be able to handle the publicity." 
 
 "I can if there aren t too many of the con 
 founded things attracting attention " 
 
 "I ll see to that. There won t be any of them. 
 The contract says manufacture must start in six 
 months; it doesn t say anything about market 
 ing." 
 
206 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "There are bound to be leaks." 
 
 "A thousand of them. But who would pay 
 any attention to the mere rumours of another 
 perpetual motion machine? That part s your 
 job." 
 
 A short pause ensued while the two men evi 
 dently envisaged the opportunity. 
 
 "Why, chief!" cried Gardiner at length, his 
 voice vibrant with excitement. "It s tremen 
 dous! It s half the money in the world! It s 
 all the power! You will rule the globe!" 
 
 "Just about that. Give me five years and 
 I ll be the richest man in the world; that much 
 is certain. But what is more I ll have the old 
 crowd down and out or taking my orders. 
 There ll be the biggest smash in history, and 
 you and I, Ross, my boy, will push the button 
 and take our pick of the prices. Then when 
 we ve got the whole situation in our hands we 
 can decide just how far we ll go with this bat 
 tery proposition. One thing certain: we ll be in 
 a position to do just as much or just as little with 
 it as we choose." Grimstead chuckled. "But 
 I m certainly going to make a good start by bust 
 ing Corbusier so high he never will come down!" 
 
 "This man Davenport, isn t he likely to upset 
 the apple cart?" enquired Gardiner. 
 
 "That s part of my job," answered Grimstead. 
 "I ll guarantee to handle that young man." 
 
ON TIPTOE 207 
 
 There were sounds of his rising. "So you better 
 string with me, Ross, and take orders, and not 
 ask too many questions." 
 
 "I intend to!" cried Gardiner fervently. 
 
 They moved off down stream, and were almost 
 immediately lost to sight around the lower bend. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 BURTON was aflame with indignation, and 
 was bursting out with comments suitable to 
 the occasion; but Davenport silenced her with a 
 gesture. 
 
 "Please," he begged, "let me think." 
 
 He was very grave. 
 
 "This is rather terrible," he said at length. 
 
 "It is atrocious! " she cried. "It is treacher 
 ous! That they should treat you so!" 
 
 "Me? Oh, I don t matter. But his ideas are 
 all destructive. He sees a chance to tear down 
 and to build up his own personal power from the 
 debris. That had not even occurred to me! I 
 saw only the releasing of pressure " 
 
 "To think that my father 
 
 "Yes, there is that; I had forgotten that for 
 a moment. It is very difficult. I am afraid I 
 have made a mistake. I see that now. It was 
 foolish of me to have jumped into an alliance 
 without giving more thought to it, without con 
 sidering But it seemed to fall so pat, our 
 all being here together, and Mr. Grimstead one 
 of the biggest men in just that line It was 
 an impulse, and I followed it." 
 
 208 
 
ON TIPTOE 209 
 
 "Why shouldn t you!" she cried. "Who 
 wouldn t? Who would have believed that any 
 one would do such a thing?" 
 
 "Well, it s done. The question is, what to 
 do next?" 
 
 "Fight, of course!" she answered promptly. 
 "I should think you d be just boiling!" 
 
 "I m sad, and a little frightened," he confessed. 
 "It is like holding a typhoon in my hand." 
 
 "You aren t going to lie down and let them 
 do this!" 
 
 "No; that must not be." 
 
 "What are you going to do, then?" 
 
 "I don t know." 
 
 He arose without further words, offered her 
 his hand, and the two descended the talus and 
 took their way in silence back to the camp. 
 Grimstead roared at them jovially as soon as 
 they came in sight. 
 
 "Come and look at em!" he shouted. 
 
 Davenport did not answer. He covered the 
 distance between them and stood gravely unsmil 
 ing before the older man. 
 
 "Mr. Grimstead," said he, "I have come to 
 tell you that I overheard your conversation with 
 Mr. Gardiner at the bend of the stream." 
 
 Grimstead s face flushed darkly, and the good 
 humour vanished from it. 
 
 "Well?" he challenged. 
 
210 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "I cannot be party to the programme I heard 
 outlined." 
 
 Grimstead considered a moment. 
 
 "Sit down," he invited. "Have a cigar. 
 There s plenty of time to talk this thing out, 
 so there s no excuse to go off half cock." 
 
 Davenport declined the cigar, but sat on the 
 log. 
 
 "Now what s the trouble?" demanded Grim- 
 stead. 
 
 "The trouble is your programme is destruc 
 tive," stated Davenport succinctly, "and aims 
 merely at personal power without a thought to 
 the welfare of other people. The thing is likely 
 to prove a curse rather than a benefit. I think 
 you are intelligent enough to understand my 
 point without going into it further." 
 
 "I understand your point all right. And I 
 understand your sort too well to argue with you. 
 Argument s the long suit of your kind. So I m 
 just telling you. It s too bad you don t like 
 my programme, but I play the cards I hold and 
 that is final." 
 
 "In those circumstances I shall refuse to enter 
 into this deal." 
 
 "In those circumstances it doesn t matter a 
 damn whether you do or not. You ve already 
 entered into it." 
 
 "I shall refuse to sign the contract." 
 
ON TIPTOE 211 
 
 "You ve already agreed to sign it," Grimstead 
 pointed out, "and if you don t sign it, a court 
 decree will put it into effect anyhow." 
 
 He eyed Davenport shrewdly. The young 
 man seemed more troubled than angry. 
 
 "You are thinking that you may be able in 
 some way to refuse to divulge your process," 
 he continued. "Eh? I thought so. No go. 
 You ll either have to produce it or be buried 
 for life. The thing exists ; I can prove it. You 
 have contracted to deliver it. If you don t do 
 it I shall enter suit first and collect every cent 
 you may have by way of damages. Then I ll 
 get a court order and if you don t pony up you ll 
 go to jail for contempt. And I ll keep it up. 
 I have a long arm, young man!" 
 
 Davenport s face flushed as this direct threat 
 kindled him to defiance. Before he could speak 
 Grimstead interposed. 
 
 "You re about to tell me to go to hell," said 
 he with a short laugh. "You re mad enough at 
 this moment to chuck the whole thing. That s 
 because you re young. But you ll get over it 
 when you think about it. It wouldn t do you 
 any good. Your battery would be buried along 
 with you. Nobody but me would be allowed 
 to touch it. It, as well as you, would be lost 
 to the world." 
 
 Grimstead paused a moment to allow this to 
 
212 ON TIPTOE 
 
 sink in. Then he went on in a more reassuring 
 tone. 
 
 "You re not a business man, Mr. Davenport, 
 and you don t realise that the business world is 
 a fight from start to finish. It will be to the 
 interests of every one affected to suppress this 
 battery; in fact it will be a matter of life and 
 death to them. And believe me, they ll fight 
 to do so! I don t believe you quite appreciate 
 what it means to have nearly the whole business 
 world solidly against you, nor what a tremen 
 dous power they wield to crush you. It is a 
 case of fight back harder than they fight, and 
 to get the jump on them first." 
 
 He went on developing his point, showing 
 that only by this early and unexpected raid into 
 the enemy s camp could the ultimate success of 
 the project be assured. Then he went on to 
 point the moral by drawing a contrasting picture 
 Davenport in jail, discredited, broke, and 
 above all inefficient; Davenport possessed of 
 practically untold wealth, with the opportunities, 
 if he so wished, of repairing damage inevitable 
 to the readjustment. It was a pretty good plea, 
 for a specious one. Grimstead himself was ad 
 miringly impressed by it, and reconvinced of the 
 entire justice and expediency of his course; Gar 
 diner too even arrived at a gentle glow of in 
 dignation that any one should even for a mo- 
 
ON TIPTOE 213 
 
 ment stand in the way of so obvious a procedure. 
 Davenport, however, did not seem impressed. 
 He stared at Grimstead with level gaze until the 
 Pirate Chief had finished; then he arose from 
 his log, remarked curtly that the situation was 
 perfectly clear, and strode away in the direction 
 of the creek crossing. Burton, after a moment, 
 followed him. 
 
 Grimstead laughed and relighted his cigar. 
 
 "That was a good talk, chief," observed Gar 
 diner, "and the whole thing is perfectly obvious. 
 Even a blind man could see that." 
 
 "Well, don t fool yourself," replied the older 
 man, "it was breath wasted as far as he is con 
 cerned. He s gone off mad, and don t you fool 
 yourself on that." 
 
 "What can he do about it?" 
 
 "Nothing. But he ll try. I know that age 
 and kind. And I don t doubt he ll find lawyers 
 enough to help him. But I know my business 
 and I have my wires to pull. Don t you fret!" 
 
 Burton overtook Davenport at the stream s 
 edge. She saw at once that he was furiously 
 angry, so angry that he could not permit him 
 self to utter a word. She took his hand. He 
 made a half effort as though to snatch it away, 
 but she resisted it firmly. For several minutes 
 they stood thus. Gradually the steady rush of 
 the waters loosened the tension. The rigidity 
 
214 ON TIPTOE 
 
 of his attitude relaxed slightly, and he sighed 
 deeply. Then Burton at last spoke. 
 
 "Larry," she said, drawing closer to him, "I 
 just want you to know that what you said was 
 true. We belong to each other. I know it now. 
 I don t care what happens, that much they can 
 never take from us." 
 
 He seized her hungrily, and they clung to 
 gether for several moments while the calming, 
 soothing influences swept through them. At 
 length he released her with an explosive sigh. 
 They had not kissed. 
 
 "Well, that is over!" he said. "Burton, oh, 
 blessed one, I am so thankful you were here! 
 If it had not been for you I should simply have 
 killed them both as they sat there. But I just 
 kept thinking that he was your father " 
 
 "I know," she soothed him. "I know it was 
 hard." 
 
 "I ve never taken such talk from a man in 
 my life! I ve never been dictated to in any such 
 manner! I ve never had my rights so coolly 
 trampled on! I ve never listened to such cold 
 blooded cynicism!" 
 
 "I know; I know," she repeated. "I feel with 
 you in every bit of it, whether he is my father 
 or not. But let s not talk about it or we shall 
 just be crazy angry again, and that will do us 
 no good." 
 
ON TIPTOE 215 
 
 He took her by the shoulders. 
 
 "Where do you get your wisdom, Burton?" he 
 asked her. 
 
 "Me, a useless, frivolous little social butterfly," 
 she mocked. "Is that it?" 
 
 He smiled, and at the smile she clapped her 
 hands. 
 
 "That s better!" she cried. "Now we can talk 
 about it. What are we to do?" 
 
 "There s one thing I m not going to do," 
 he stated with conviction, "no matter what the 
 price to pay; I m not going to permit this scheme 
 of destruction!" 
 
 "How can it be stopped?" she asked. "Let s 
 be practical." 
 
 "For one thing, I can refuse to give them my 
 formulae." 
 
 "And lose all you own and go to jail besides, as 
 father told you," she pointed out. 
 
 "Well, I ll do that, if necessary." 
 
 "Of course you would, and I d go with you 
 if necessary. But isn t there some other way?" 
 
 "Kill em off and drop em down a barranca, 
 I guess," replied Larry gloomily. "Then make 
 a new start. Dead men tell no tales." His eye 
 fired again. "And, by God," he swore, "if it 
 weren t for the fact that you happen to be mixed 
 in the situation that s exactly what I d do, in a 
 holy minute! I d just as soon shoot that pair 
 
216 ON TIPTOE 
 
 as I would a pair of mad dogs! They re more 
 of a menace to the world as things stand now." 
 
 "Well, I m glad I m here," she answered prac 
 tically, "but I m far from discouraging a certain 
 amount of violence, if it proves necessary. Lis 
 ten, Larry, dear. You re so boiling you re not 
 using your head. Wouldn t destroying that 
 agreement you signed be just as good as mur 
 dering somebody?" 
 
 He turned to her with the first appearance of 
 his boyish grin. 
 
 "Burton, you blessed damosel," he cried, 
 "you ve got more sense in your little finger than 
 I have in my whole body! Of course that s the 
 answer! I ll just go and take it away from 
 them." He laughed aloud. "Regular old melo 
 drama stuff. Why, here s even The Papers!" 
 
 He turned as if to put this new idea into im 
 mediate execution ; but again she stopped him. 
 
 "Larry, you poor infant!" she cried. "Do you 
 always act this way? It s time you had some 
 body to look after you! What do you think 
 you re going to do?" 
 
 "Get the agreement." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 "Well," said Davenport, his jaws shutting 
 grimly, "I think they ll hand it over all right!" 
 
 She made a little gesture of comic despair. 
 
 "My ero!" she burlesqued, clasping her hands. 
 
ON TIPTOE 217 
 
 "Well, what s the matter?" enquired Larry a 
 trifle sulkily. "You can t pull this melodrama 
 stuff without doing something! And don t you 
 worry about their handing over when I tell them 
 
 to!" 
 
 "I don t," she replied. "I have no doubt you ll 
 scare them into fits though Dad doesn t scare 
 very easily. Anyway, I have every confidence 
 you ll get the agreement. Then what?" 
 "Why, then we have it!" 
 "Yes; and they can swear that it existed, and 
 that it was taken from them by force." 
 "Well, what would you do then?" 
 "I d steal it." 
 "Steal it!" 
 
 "Yes. Snatch it unbeknownst-like, you 
 know!" she explained, her eyes sparkling with 
 excitement. "Then what proof have they, ex 
 cept each other s words! You could deny that. 
 Would you lie nicely in a good cause, do you 
 think?" she mocked him. 
 
 "I don t know; it wouldn t be necessary. I 
 think the burden of proof would be on them. 
 You re right, though. Your head is worth two 
 of mine. How will we do it?" 
 
 "Dissemble," she cried, vibrant with the eager 
 ness of the adventure. "Fool them to the limit! 
 Maybe I wouldn t want you to lie, but I d just 
 as soon you d dissemble. We want them to think 
 
218 ON TIPTOE 
 
 that your opposition has blown over; that you re 
 all ready to go ahead with the scheme. Then 
 father won t hang onto his bill fold too closely 
 and" 
 
 "How do you know it s in the bill fold?" 
 
 "I saw him put it there," she explained impa 
 tiently. 
 
 "And he carries it in his coat pocket," Larry 
 pointed out, "and his coat on his back! He s 
 either got to be held up, or else one of us has 
 got to turn pickpocket. I m not skilful enough 
 for that." 
 
 "We ll get hold of it, unless he gets suspi 
 cious," she brushed this aside impatiently. 
 "That s why I say we must dissemble." 
 
 ff Dissemblons!" cried Larry. "But how? I 
 do not, I confess, admire the methods and out 
 look of your parent, but I will hand it to him 
 on common sense. Such a sudden about face 
 on my part may not appeal to it." 
 
 "I ve thought of that," she said. A slow colour 
 was mounting to her cheeks. "First of all it 
 must become known who you are." 
 
 "Who I am?" echoed Larry, bewildered by 
 this apparent change of subject. 
 
 "He thinks you are a garage man, remem 
 ber." 
 
 "I forgot that," laughed Davenport. "All 
 right; I drop the disguise and appear in me 
 
ON TIPTOE 219 
 
 full royal regalia as the Celebrated Author. Do 
 you imagine that will impress him?" 
 
 "Then" she hesitated "then we give him the 
 plausible reason for your changing your mind." 
 
 "Which is?" 
 
 "The announcement of our engagement," she 
 said in a voice so low that he barely heard it. 
 
 At this most unpropitious moment there came 
 around the bend (a) Rapscallion raffish and 
 prancing, (b) Punketty-Snivvles, footsore, full 
 of burrs, but faithful, (c) Simmins, lugging two 
 drying and infinitesimal trout at the end of a 
 forked willow switch. 
 
 "Damn!" muttered Davenport fervently. 
 
 Simmins and his circus approached, fatuously 
 pleased with itself, and quite oblivious to Daven 
 port s glowering. 
 
 "A rare afternoon of sport, I calls it, sir," 
 he chirped. "Not what one would call a large 
 catch, but distinctly sporting in the taking." 
 
 As may be seen, Simmins original drama had 
 undergone some modification before production; 
 but that, I understand, is usual. The plot was 
 now less crudely obvious. It had to do with 
 quality versus quantity; with skill versus bull 
 luck; with aesthetic satisfaction versus brutal 
 slaughter. But Davenport cut in. 
 
 "Look here, Simmins," said he. "Do you want 
 to do me a favour?" 
 
220 ON TIPTOE 
 
 Simmins sensitive, artistic nature sensed im 
 portance here. 
 
 "Yes, sir, indeed, yes, sir," he answered, mean 
 ing, "to the death, oh, comrade of my soul!" 
 
 Burton touched Larry s sleeve. 
 
 " Do you think it wise?" she murmured. 
 
 "Absolutely!" he replied with conviction. 
 
 "I am going to entrust you with a secret, Sim 
 mins," went on Davenport with all the impres- 
 siveness he could muster, "in fact, two secrets." 
 
 "Yes, sir!" cried Simmins a little breathlessly. 
 
 "Simmins," confided Davenport, dropping his 
 voice and, looking right and left, "I am not 
 what I seem." 
 
 Simmins drew nearer. 
 
 "No, sir!" said he. 
 
 "No. You have taken me for a humble garage 
 mechanic, one who toils amid wheels and wires 
 and grease ; one who sits in grimy overalls on the 
 light upholstery of limousines ; a common rough 
 neck. You have been mistaken." 
 
 Larry glanced sideways and caught the round- 
 eyed, eager expression of Simmins face. He 
 turned aside as though to hide his emotion. 
 
 "You tell him," he asked Burton in a chok 
 ing voice. "It is more seemly that he hear the 
 truth from other lips than mine." 
 
 Burton cast a look of contempt for Larry s 
 weakness. 
 
ON TIPTOE 221 
 
 "This is Mr. Lawrence Davenport, the au 
 thor, Simmins," she stated drily. 
 
 Simmins face lighted in triumph. 
 
 "I knew as how you were a sportsman, sir; 
 you remember my telling you. My instincts, sir, 
 are very keen, sir, though often my brain is a 
 bit puzzled." 
 
 "That, Simmins," said Davenport gravely, 
 having mastered his emotion enough to turn a 
 straight face, "is exactly what I was telling Miss 
 Burton no later than yesterday." 
 
 "Yes, sir. I knew from the first somehow 
 that you were a gentleman, sir; but there were 
 many little things, if you will pardon my saying 
 so, sir, that puzzled me. But a literary gentle 
 man! That explains them." 
 
 "I am very dense, Simmins," said Davenport 
 courteously. "Would you mind a further eluci 
 dation?" 
 
 This request seemed to embarrass Simmins. 
 He floundered; but the delighted Larry was able 
 at last to elicit something to the effect that lit 
 erary people were always notably eccentric. 
 
 "Exactly. I shall bring up that point later," 
 Davenport became serious. "The other secret, 
 Simmins, is one that is purely personal, and I 
 should certainly not confide it to you did I not 
 feel that you are a friend of my own and a de 
 voted servant to Miss Burton, and that you will 
 
222 ON TIPTOE 
 
 without hesitation assist us in what is a real 
 crisis. The secret is that Miss Burton has prom 
 ised to marry me." 
 
 "Oh, sir, thank you, sir!" cried Simmins, over 
 whelmed. "I esteem this an honour, sir; and I 
 congratulate you." 
 
 "Unfortunately," went on Davenport, "as 
 often happens in the business world, certain in 
 terests of Mr. Grimstead s clash with my inter 
 ests. Unfortunately, again, it is a question of 
 my complete ruin; but only a matfer of minor 
 importance to Mr. Grimstead. The whole affair 
 depends on a certain paper which Mr. Grimstead 
 carries in his bill book. The paper belongs to 
 me, and it is vitally necessary I get it back. Will 
 you help?" 
 
 "It will affect all our future happiness," put 
 in Burton. 
 
 "It is only fair to say that if you are caught, 
 I should of course do my best, but it is probable 
 I could help very little. If you succeed my wife 
 and I" Davenport glanced triumphantly to 
 ward Burton "will take care of you." 
 
 "It s a sporting chance, sir," said Simmins 
 stoutly. "You have treated me like a gentleman 
 and humble though the heart of Charles Sim 
 mins may be, it can never be said that it beats 
 in an ungrateful bosom !" 
 
 The internal Simmins at once began a wild 
 
ON TIPTOE 223 
 
 can-can of triumph. The above speech was de 
 livered, as written, in the open air. At last one 
 of Simmins private dramas had been produced! 
 
 "The sentiment does you credit," Davenport 
 was replying. "I turned to you because I be 
 lieved I could rely on you. The affair is simple. 
 We want you to steal that paper. In your serv 
 ice you can quite naturally make an occasion in 
 handling the garments. But be cautious. It 
 will have to be done very naturally indeed. The 
 slightest suspicion and all is lost!" 
 
 Simmins swelled visibly. Davenport was 
 playing up in wonderful style. To be sure Sim 
 mins could have rewritten the above speech to 
 more telling effect, but the sentiment was per 
 fect and the rendition not bad. That last sen 
 tence was good! "The slightest suspicion and 
 all is lost!" The internal Simmins gave that 
 quite a hand. 
 
 "Have no fear," he assured them grandly, 
 "ere moonrise The Papers shall be in our power!" 
 
 This time Burton choked and turned away, 
 and Larry cast upon her the reproachful eye. 
 
 "Now, Simmins, listen," he impressed the 
 point. "There are two papers, and they both 
 begin about as follows." He recited the open 
 ing sentences of an agreement. "You will know 
 them, if there should be others, because my name 
 appears. One of these papers is on a single 
 
224. ON TIPTOE 
 
 sheet of paper; the other is on several. I want 
 the one on the single sheet. The other doesn t 
 matter. But if you should be in any doubt what 
 ever, bring them both. All set?" 
 
 He watched Simmins depart like an army with 
 banners. 
 
 Tunny little beggar/ said he. "Full of ro 
 mance and drama suppressed under his correct 
 butler manner. Kind of pathetic, I think." 
 
 "He is so unreliable," doubted Burton. 
 
 "In little matters. In this case, for personal 
 reasons, he will be faithful to the limit. I know 
 the type." 
 
 And then Simmins was dismissed from the 
 scene, and matters were taken up at the point 
 of interruption. They would not interest us. 
 At least they interested Rapscallion so little that 
 after a time he deserted them for camp; and 
 Rapscallion is a very intelligent dog. 
 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE campaign of dissembling went off with a 
 bang. Grimstead s hostility melted easily. 
 The impact of Davenport s identity was tremen 
 dous. Like many practical men who have done 
 really big things, Grimstead had an almost super 
 stitious respect for the man who writes. He had 
 read and liked some of Davenport s books. So 
 far, so good. Then they got him with the second 
 barrel. The engagement finished him. In his 
 knockabout life most of the conventional had 
 been rubbed off, so he reacted more quickly than 
 would have his wife, had she been alive. It was 
 sudden, but Grimstead was himself accustomed 
 to doing things suddenly. It was unexpected, 
 but in Grimstead s life the unexpected so often 
 happened that it had ended by losing effect. It 
 upset certain plans as to Gardiner; but those 
 plans seemed to have a good many missing cyl 
 inders, anyhow. Davenport was an excellent 
 match, he was a manly chap, and if Grimstead 
 could arrange it he was going to be immensely 
 wealthy, and he was not Willie Smeed. Of 
 course he had a lot of damn-fool notions, but 
 Grimstead had a good deal of Simmins idea 
 
 225 
 
226 ON TIPTOE 
 
 there; an author was supposed to be eccentric. 
 What as to hats or ideas in an ordinary citizen 
 would be plain impossibilities, in an author were 
 pleasing idiosyncrasies. The causes of dissension 
 were not alluded to. In fact things went so 
 well that Burton and Larry could not forbear 
 exchanging a glance of congratulation. 
 
 Gardiner, as usual, stayed unobtrusively in the 
 background. The loss of his chance with Bur 
 ton, it must be confessed, affected him very little. 
 He would have married that young lady, had 
 the cards happened to fall that way, and would 
 have been proud of her as an adequate head to 
 his household, and fond of her as an attractive 
 woman; but his real satisfaction with the ar 
 rangement would have sprung from his added 
 business opportunities. Now that the latter 
 seemed to be in his hands anyway, he was rather 
 relieved than otherwise that they had come with 
 out feminine complications. Indeed, he went 
 even further, and reflected with satisfaction on 
 what he had seen of Burton. This puppy, Dav 
 enport, didn t know yet what he was up against. 
 Little wildcat! 
 
 Supper passed jovially enough. The camp 
 fire was lighted. Then Grimstead caused the 
 hearts of three of the party to skip a beat. 
 
 "Simmins," he commanded, "when you get 
 through those dishes I ll give you my coat to 
 
ON TIPTOE 227 
 
 clean up a little; it s got an ungodly fish smell 
 about it." 
 
 As he spoke he took off the garment and hung 
 it on a stub, replacing it with a sweater. He 
 removed nothing from the pockets, and all three 
 of the conspirators could distinctly make out a 
 corner of the bill fold showing from the inside 
 pocket. 
 
 Simmins went on with the dishes, but his 
 hands trembled so with excitement and eagerness 
 to be done that the dishpan clattered like a milk 
 wagon. In ten minutes, however, the job was 
 finished. He dried his hands, picked up the coat, 
 and with it started toward the creek. 
 
 "Hey, Simmins!" called Grimstead after him. 
 "Where you going? I don t want that thing 
 washed!" 
 
 "No, sir; of course not, sir. Merely a trifle 
 of sponging, fresh running water, you know, sir," 
 stammered Simmins at a loss. 
 
 "Well, go ahead. But there s some things in 
 the pockets; look out you don t lose them. 
 There s a tobacco pouch and a note book in the 
 side pocket, and my pocketbook in the inside 
 pocket." 
 
 "Never fear, sir; I ll take the best of care," 
 chattered Simmins, beating a hasty retreat. 
 
 "You re not afraid to trust him with a pocket- 
 book?" Larry ventured to suggest. 
 
228 ON TIPTOE 
 
 Grimstead laughed. 
 
 "I wouldn t trust him with my roll," he agreed, 
 "nor any other servant. Simmins is as honest 
 as the average when he hasn t been gambling, 
 and can get his share of cigars and booze. But 
 that pocketbook contains nothing but papers; 
 and they can all be replaced. There s nothing 
 there to interest Simmins." 
 
 Burton and Larry exchanged another glance. 
 It was almost too good to be true. The stars 
 in their courses were fighting for them. 
 
 After ten minutes Simmins glided unobtru 
 sively into the firelight and hung the coat again 
 on the stub. 
 
 "Here," Grimstead commanded at once, 
 bring me that pocketbook out of the inside 
 pocket." 
 
 A bolt from heaven could not have crumpled 
 Simmins interior economy as did that order. 
 For a moment his limbs refused to work; but 
 at last, after some fumbling, he succeeded in ex 
 tracting the pocketbook and bringing it to his 
 master. Contrary to expectation, Grimstead 
 did not open it. He examined Simmins curi 
 ously. 
 
 "You re trembling like a leaf," he said. 
 "What s the matter with you?" 
 
 Simmins muttered something about its being 
 chilly by the stream. 
 
ON TIPTOE 229 
 
 "Well, get up to the fire!" commanded Grim- 
 stead impatiently. He looked at the pocketbook 
 in his hands as though perplexed. 
 
 "I ll lose that confounded thing yet," he grum 
 bled. "It s too long for that pocket, and some 
 day when I stoop over it s going to fall out 
 plunk into the stream. Simmins, bring me my 
 small leather kit bag." 
 
 He opened the kit bag, burrowed down to the 
 bottom, and tucked the bill book beneath a flap. 
 
 "There! She ll stick safe enough there until 
 we go. Take it back, Simmins." 
 
 "Yes, sir," said Simmins, "and if there is noth 
 ing more, sir, I ask permission to return to my 
 camp to turn in." 
 
 "Well, take a drink before you go," offered 
 Grimstead. "Here s the key. Your teeth are 
 chattering." 
 
 Simmins gratefully swallowed the whiskey 
 which, however, Grimstead prepared returned 
 the key and disappeared. 
 
 Larry arose to his feet. 
 
 "Poor old Simmins," he laughed. "The stren 
 uous life seems too much for him. I think I ll 
 just step down to the car and see whether he 
 remembered to attend to the lubrication. Come 
 along, Burton? Fine moon coming up shortly." 
 She arose with an alacrity that made Grim- 
 stead laugh. Gardiner, too, stirred. 
 
230 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "Sit still, Ross," said Grimstead; "don t you 
 know better than to act gooseberry?" 
 
 Gardiner looked his enquiry. 
 
 "Hang the engine," Grimstead told him in low 
 tones aside. "Stay here." 
 
 The two young people hastened down the 
 meadow. Simmins was waiting for them. 
 
 "Here, sir; here it is," he burst out, thrusting 
 a paper into Larry s hands. "I never was in 
 such a funk in my life! If he had suspected me 
 of rifling his pocketbook he would have killed 
 me on the spot, I do believe. And what is to 
 happen when he discovers his loss, sir, I cannot 
 for the life of me imagine." 
 
 "Nothing. Don t worry, Simmins. If he finds 
 it out, I will take the blame. But I don t think 
 he will look for it until we leave here." 
 
 "I sincerely hope not, sir." 
 
 "And you have acted very nobly in this mat 
 ter, Simmins. Neither Miss Burton nor myself 
 will ever forget it." 
 
 "Indeed we shall not, Simmins," added Bur 
 ton; "you are a true knight!" 
 
 Simmins retired, his heart glowing. As the 
 moments had passed and still no explosion had 
 come from the main camp, he had lost little by 
 little his deadly fear. He crawled between the 
 blankets at last with another drama full-fledged 
 and ready to take wing. It was cast into a dis- 
 
ON TIPTOE 231 
 
 tant future. Simmins appeared in white wig 
 and old-man make-up. There were two or three 
 or four number indeterminate golden-haired 
 prattlers gathered about his knee. He was an 
 swering their clamouring demand to retell for 
 the hundredth time how forty years agone, come 
 Michaelmas, he had saved the happiness of their 
 grandparents exact details would await inspi 
 ration and development. 
 
 The two young people made their way to the 
 bank of the little stream, where they would be 
 screened from the camp. There Larry lighted 
 a match and cast a hasty glance of inspection 
 at the document. 
 
 "It s all right," he assured Burton relievedly. 
 "This is it! Blessed be Simmins!" 
 
 He tore it into small pieces and cast them 
 into the current. 
 
 "I feel as though the weight of worlds had 
 been lifted!" he cried. 
 
 "It does seem as though some one or some 
 thing was helping us," said Burton soberly. "I 
 think that we should be very thankful that things 
 came about so easily." 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 r 11 HE moment the young people were out of 
 JL hearing Grimstead turned on Gardiner with 
 an almost savage intensity of manner. 
 
 "Listen here, Ross," he said rapidly. "The 
 time has come for action, and we must get busy. 
 Things are at touch and go with us and the 
 stakes are the biggest ever played." 
 
 Gardiner looked at him blankly. 
 
 "Never mind figuring it out. Listen to me, 
 and take your orders. This man Davenport is 
 a fool, but he has brains. It was perfectly evi 
 dent that if it did not occur to him immediately, 
 the thought would soon suggest itself that if 
 he could once get hold of the agreement he had 
 signed, he could tell us to go whistle." 
 
 "But since he and Miss Burton " 
 
 "Poppycock! Do you think it reasonable he d 
 change his attitude inside of an hour? Do you 
 think that type of fanaticism ever becomes rea 
 sonable? Even if Burton were to use all her 
 influence she could not have changed him that 
 soon. It was too easy; much too easy." 
 
 "Then why" 
 
 "A blind. It wouldn t fool a mudhen, let 
 
 232 
 
ON TIPTOE 233 
 
 alone a wise old coot like me. Between the time 
 he went away too mad to spit and the time he 
 came back here, something happened. What?" 
 
 "He and Miss Burton " repeated Gardiner. 
 
 "Little or nothing to do with the main issue. 
 What happened was that the idea of the agree 
 ment had come to him. He had made up his 
 mind to get it." 
 
 Grimstead puffed on his characteristic cigar. 
 
 "I m an old bird; I can put two and two to 
 gether. The first thing to try was obviously to 
 get hold of it peaceably, by stealing it. If that 
 didn t work, he was going to get it somehow, if 
 he had to hold us up or sandbag us." 
 
 Gardiner whistled incredulously. 
 
 "No; I haven t been going to the movies too 
 much," disclaimed Grimstead. "I know the type. 
 He s a fanatic, and the most dangerous kind. 
 I m no alarmist, and I m no coward; but I know 
 enough to face facts and discount them. I 
 watched that young man very closely when I 
 was telling him where to get off a while back. 
 His mind is set; just as mine is set. He d com 
 mit murder before he d give in." 
 
 Gardiner shook his head. 
 
 "That s pretty steep!" he commented. 
 
 "It s steep ; but it s true. And he s the more 
 dangerous because he s acting from conviction, 
 and not because he is fighting mad. I don t want 
 
234 ON TIPTOE 
 
 to be too serious, but there s no use dodging the 
 fact that here we are with something in our pos 
 session that some one else wants badly enough 
 to commit a crime to get. I m not saying this 
 as an alarmist; I want merely to have it under 
 stood that the situation is serious." 
 
 Gardiner was excited. 
 
 "Get him before he gets us!" he suggested. 
 
 "I began to take my measures at once," Grim- 
 stead went on. "Obviously if the first thing he 
 would try would be theft, then we must not make 
 theft seem impossible. Every one in this party 
 saw me put the contract and the agreement in my 
 bill fold, and knew that I carried my papers 
 there. He d try first of all to steal the biU fold. 
 So I made it easy for him." 
 
 Grimstead raised his hand to prevent inter 
 ruption. 
 
 "That s why I took off my coat, and why I 
 told Simmins to clean it." 
 
 "Did you think that Simmins?" 
 
 "Not at that time. But I figured that if I 
 was correct in my reasoning and there was al 
 ways a faint chance this change of heart might 
 be real, remember Davenport would begin to 
 manoeuvre to get hold of the coat or near it." 
 
 "A test," murmured Gardiner. 
 
 "Precisely. Well, when he did not, I began 
 to think I might be wrong. Then Simmins came 
 
ON TIPTOE 235 
 
 back scared as a rabbit, and I realised he was in 
 it. I ll settle with him later!" 
 
 "But the agreement " 
 
 "Was not there, of course. I substituted the 
 carbon copy." 
 
 "They ll detect the difference; it isn t signed." 
 
 "I signed it for him," grinned the elder man. 
 "It isn t a very good forgery, but all he ll do 
 to-night will be to examine it with a match to 
 see if it s what he wants. I have the flashlight 
 here. To-morrow morning he ll get onto it, of 
 course." 
 
 "Clever work, chief," cried Gardiner; then 
 after a moment, "But I don t see that it gets us 
 far." 
 
 "It gets us until morning. And it corrobo 
 rates my suspicions. 
 
 "Now listen carefully, Ross," continued Grim- 
 stead, "for this is what you must do. You ve 
 got to get out of here, and you ve got to take this 
 agreement with you to the nearest recorder s, and 
 get it entered. That means you start to-night; 
 just as soon as everybody has turned in." 
 
 Gardiner nodded. 
 
 "So far, so good. But there s another thing. 
 This man is absolutely capable of lying down on 
 us, no matter what agreements we may have." 
 
 "What do you mean?" 
 
 "Refuse his formula." 
 
236 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "But you can ruin him." 
 
 "He ll stand that. He ll stand for anything 
 now he s got his head set. That s the sort they 
 used to use the thumb rack on without much 
 
 success." 
 
 "I ll bet after he s had a good dose for a little 
 while he ll began Gardiner confidently. 
 
 "You re wrong. Don t argue. I know what 
 I am talking about." 
 
 "All right; what s your plan? I see you ve 
 got one." 
 
 "Of course I have one. What do you think 
 I ve gone this far for?" said Grimstead impa 
 tiently. "But I want to ask you one question 
 first: could you analyse this battery, if you had 
 it, and reproduce the formula?" 
 
 "Certainly, if what he says is true, that the 
 plates are a simple alloy, and there is no further 
 secret. It will only be necessary to analyse them, 
 measure their exact proportions, determine their 
 specific gravity, and observe carefully any pecu 
 liarities of their shape and position." 
 
 "Remember, their distance from each other 
 is important." 
 
 "That, of course. I see your idea. We are 
 to steal the battery." 
 
 "That s it." 
 
 "It must weigh forty pounds," objected Gar 
 diner. "Do we hide it out somewhere?" 
 
ON TIPTOE 237 
 
 "No, you ll drive it out. The roads will carry 
 you; I ve been watching them. Put the battery 
 back in that rattletrap of his and drive it out." 
 
 Gardiner pondered. 
 
 "When we stop that self-starter it will be 
 noticed," he objected, "and there ll be a lot of 
 noise getting away. Simmins sleeps right next 
 door. What do I do with him?" 
 
 "Simmins is already taken care of," said the 
 Pirate Chief calmly. "He will continue to sleep. 
 That drink I gave him will fix that." 
 
 "Doped?" surmised Gardiner. 
 
 "Just that. Morphine from the medicine case. 
 And we ll feed Davenport a little of the same." 
 
 "Chief, you re a wonder! You think of every 
 thing!" cried Gardiner admiringly. "I d suggest 
 you tie him up after he goes under or he ll likely 
 raise hell when he comes to." 
 
 "I expect to," said Grimstead. "Look out; 
 here they come! You understand your job, and 
 remember it s the biggest stake in the world!" 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 NOW in this microcosm amid the redwoods all 
 the elements of the laboratory experiment 
 were present and had acted. The solution had 
 precipitated ; the crystals had formed. From an 
 average group of people this Pressure had been 
 lifted, and the reactions could be examined. 
 With the results our great Invisible Intelligences 
 were not content. New impetuses had been born, 
 commensurate with new desires, that fully 
 equalled those set in motion by the old Pressure, 
 to be sure; but they were in the main destruc 
 tive. Greed, the ruthless use of power, revenge, 
 lying, anger, even the possibility of murder, had 
 been unloosed among these peaceful trees. The 
 original impulses of construction had been over 
 whelmed. 
 
 The results of premature lifting of any pres 
 sure that has been useful in generating desire are 
 always those of degeneration and decay. Men 
 who know no hunger stir not from beneath the 
 breadfruit tree. 
 
 So here the great Invisible Intelligences knew 
 that the time was not yet. 
 
 238 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 EVENTS ran smoothly along the plan laid 
 out for them by the Pirate Chief. Burton 
 and Davenport returned shortly to the campfire. 
 At a suitable time a night-cap was proposed and 
 drunk. Soon after, with Burton in her tent and 
 Davenport deep in stupor, the conspirators had 
 the place to themselves. When the light of 
 Burton s tent had been for some time replaced 
 with a silhouette of blackness, Gardiner arose, 
 hunted out his overcoat, buttoned the agreement 
 on his inside pocket, shook hands with Grimstead, 
 and took his departure down the meadow. He 
 carried the pocket flashlight, and by its aid he 
 soon disconnected the self-starter. Silence 
 rushed in upon the dying clatter as into a vac 
 uum. Gardiner paused long enough to look 
 in on Simmins. That worthy had not stirred. 
 
 It was the work of but a few moments more 
 to reinstall the battery in the other car, as it was 
 an affair only of four bolts and two wire con 
 nections. Gardiner turned the light switch. Im 
 mediately the long pencils of the headlights 
 pierced the darkness. By the dashlights he 
 studied and mastered the control. Then, after 
 
 239 
 
240 ON TIPTOE 
 
 storing his valise under the rear deck, he stepped 
 aboard and threw over the lever. The car moved 
 slowly ahead on the corduroy! 
 
 Gardiner drove very slowly and carefully, eas 
 ing her over the inequalities of the improvised 
 road. Even at that it seemed to him that the 
 whole glade was filled with enough rattles, 
 squeaks, impacts and hoarse, tinny vibrations to 
 awaken the dead. As a matter of fact there was 
 very little noise, all things considered, and Grim- 
 stead, seated before the dying fire, nodded with 
 satisfaction as he heard the faint sounds of prog 
 ress. 
 
 The passage across the new laid poles was 
 successfully accomplished, and the tortuous way 
 through the brush. Once on the soft damp road 
 Gardiner relaxed and leaned back. As there had 
 been no traffic while the mud was in the semi- 
 liquid state, there were now no ruts. A mo 
 ment s trial convinced him that the surface would 
 bear. He settled down comfortably. Ahead the 
 shafts of light threw into hard, theatrical promi 
 nence the trunks of trees, the tracery of leaves, 
 the lacery of bracken and brush. These were 
 flat, on one plane, as though cut from cardboard. 
 Then one by one they passed into the penumbra 
 on either side, and glided by as dim ghosts. The 
 road wound and twisted, rose and fell, and the 
 light shafts swept from right to left and up 
 
ON TIPTOE 241 
 
 and down to reveal momentarily new things. An 
 owl, surprised by the sudden glare, flapped heav 
 ily across. 
 
 Gardiner experimented cautiously with the 
 control. The mechanism was wonderfully re 
 sponsive. He found the engine much more flexi 
 ble than any gasoline car he had ever driven. 
 For a few minutes he amused himself bringing 
 it almost to a stop, and then picking up smoothly 
 and positively by merely opening the throttle. 
 The throttle was very sensitive. Under its im 
 pulse, when Gardiner for the first time stepped 
 on it incautiously, the light car almost jumped 
 from under him. 
 
 The mechanism was silent except for a faint 
 hum of the differential gear, although, of course, 
 there were plenty of body squeaks and rattles. 
 This absence of the regular busy rhythm of the 
 gasoline motor made it extremely difficult to es 
 timate speed. Gardiner s glance at the speed 
 ometer dial showed him a pace he had not re 
 alised. However, the car itself was so light that 
 he found it could be checked easily by the brakes. 
 Gardiner settled down to the sheer pleasure of 
 driving as fast as his skill would permit. He 
 was a good driver, and he understood well how 
 to pick up on the straightaways and just how 
 much to check at the curves. And he was a safe 
 driver, as genuine skill is usually safe. 
 
242 ON TIPTOE 
 
 Now we begin to see the great, sweeping curve 
 of events, the curve that had seemed to us a 
 straight line. 
 
 For Gardiner was not alone in the car. No 
 less a personage than Punketty-Snivvles occu 
 pied the seat next him, though the Second in 
 Command was as yet ignorant of that fact. 
 
 Punketty-Snivvles did not belong there. He 
 had fallen from his erstwhile high estate of be 
 ing tucked in by mistress in a pink-lined basket ; 
 but he had not yet arrived at the degradation 
 of caring for himself. Simmins had lately done 
 the tuck in. None better than Punketty-Snivvles 
 knew this was a come-down; but he accepted it, 
 and placed against it the belief that he was now 
 a Rough Rude Dog, like Rapscallion. But to 
 night Simmins, through no fault of his own, had 
 passed out, and our hero, sub-one, had missed 
 his usual attention. To be sure there the basket 
 stood, and Punketty-Snivvles could quite well 
 have hopped into it. But his sense of the pro 
 prieties was outraged, and he simply would not 
 do it! He much preferred to be uncomfortable 
 and retain the right to have his feelings hurt. 
 So he climbed into the seat of the little car where 
 his protective coloration had concealed him from 
 Gardiner s notice. 
 
 The obvious thing to have done in so delicate 
 a situation was to have called attention to him- 
 
ON TIPTOE 243 
 
 self; but Punketty-Snivvles was exasperated be 
 yond obedience to convention. He preferred to 
 sulk and glower and brood on his wrongs. It 
 must be recalled to your mind that Gardiner 
 had cuffed Punketty-Snivvles soundly when that 
 personage had been left in his charge. You re 
 member I asked you to file that away for future 
 reference. So now he crouched in his place, and 
 fixed his beady eyes in malevolence on his enemy, 
 and worked up a fine big Teutonic hate. 
 
 The road wound between the great redwoods, 
 steadily descending. It had no abrupt curves, 
 but one could never see more than a hundred 
 feet or so ahead. As the bottom of the declivity 
 was neared the noise of another, and evidently 
 larger stream could be heard, flowing at the bot 
 tom of the canon. Gardiner flashed around a last 
 corner to see ahead of him a straight bridge. 
 The lights showed him its approach on a slight 
 rise, and that it was built on a high trestle. Then 
 the nose of the car touched the slight rise and 
 the lights lifted. At the same instant Punketty- 
 Snivvles, whose hate had worked up to the point 
 of action, reached out and bit Gardiner in the 
 wrist ! 
 
 Gardiner, who had not known of the dog s 
 presence, jumped in surprise and alarm. The 
 car swerved, but he was too cool a driver to per 
 mit it to leave the road. However, for three sec- 
 
244 ON TIPTOE 
 
 onds his attention was deflected, and that time 
 was sufficient to shoot the car onto the planking 
 of the bridge. Gardiner saw all this with the 
 corner of his eye and steered straight and true, 
 while at the same time his direct vision was oc 
 cupied in identifying the cowering little dog. 
 Then he looked back to the front. Before him 
 yawned an abyss. The bridge had been carried 
 away by the flood. 
 
 Even while he reached for the brake his brain 
 photographed clearly the jagged edges of the 
 bridge, the opposite bank picked out clearly by 
 the lights, and dimly far below a white and phos 
 phorescent tumble of waters hastening to the 
 sea. The brakes checked the momentum almost 
 but not quite enough. The car slowed, ran off 
 the edge, seemed for an instant to hover right 
 side up like a bird. Then down it plunged and 
 the foaming, turbulent waters seized it and bore 
 it shouting away. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 BY the campfire Grimstead strained his ears 
 to catch the last sounds of departure. 
 Things were going very well. They always did 
 go well, he had found, when directed masterfully. 
 Burton, as he had foreseen, did not stir in her 
 tent. She was young and slept soundly, especially 
 in the first part of the night. After a while he 
 threw away his cigar, stretched and arose. First 
 he leaned over Davenport for a moment, listen 
 ing to his rather stertorous breathing. Then he 
 sauntered to the big redwood at whose base the 
 kitchen had been made. Here he deliberately 
 unknotted a short piece of line that had been used 
 to suspend a shading bit of canvas, and with 
 it returned toward the sleeper. He was thor 
 oughly satisfied, and was humming a little tune. 
 In his brief absence another had added him 
 self to the scene. Rapscallion had continued to 
 share the tent with Burton. Now, however, 
 urged by some vague restlessness, some tele 
 pathic uneasiness, some trickle from the current 
 searching out a channel of his doggy mind, he 
 had deserted the warm and grateful nest and 
 had come forth to sit by his master. 
 
 245 
 
246 ON TIPTOE 
 
 Grimstead paid him no attention; but, cord 
 in hand, advanced upon the sleeper. Now the 
 queer thing happened. Rapscallion was the most 
 friendly of dogs, ever polite and eager, whose 
 experiences with humans had always been courte 
 ous. Also he was, of course, thoroughly familiar 
 with Grimstead. Now, however, he arose to 
 stiff legs, his eyes blazing, the coarse hair of his 
 back and neck erect, his lips snarled back. Grim- 
 stead paused. 
 
 "Here, Rap, you old fool!" he admonished in 
 a low voice. "What ails you?" 
 
 And again stepped forward. 
 
 Instantly Rapscallion uttered two sharp and 
 challenging barks. 
 
 The sleeper did not stir; no sound came from 
 the tent. Grimstead stepped forward again. 
 
 Now Rapscallion did not know what it was 
 all about. Only his simple dog mind had re 
 ceived the impression that, unexplainedly and for 
 the first time, the proximity of this large human 
 meant trouble to Master; and his simple dog 
 code told him to stick tight, say as much as he 
 could about it, and in extremity to do his ut 
 most. If he had a private thought apart, which 
 is improbable, it was a fleeting one of despair 
 at relative sizes and powers ; but it did not aif ect 
 his course of conduct. He began again to bark 
 rapidly and warningly. As Grimstead continued 
 
ON TIPTOE 247 
 
 to advance he deployed all his available horrific 
 camouflage to the job of concealing or distract 
 ing attention from his size and weakness; he 
 added an under-growl in his throat; he snarled 
 back his lips to show all his teeth; he threw in 
 a sharp staccato to his remarks; with each bark 
 he bobbed forward and back a few inches as 
 though propelled by a spring. These things im 
 pressed Grimstead just so far as to cause him 
 to pick up a heavy, club-shaped billet of wood, 
 a weapon that plainly outgunned the armament 
 of a little red-dog who fought at fifteen pounds ! 
 
 At this moment Burton appeared from the 
 tent. 
 
 "Dad," she cried, "what are you doing with 
 that club and that rope? I ll keep him quiet!" 
 
 Her first sleepy thought was that the dog s 
 barking had awakened Grimstead and exasper 
 ated him to the point of canicide. As her mind 
 cleared and focussed, however, her eyes widened 
 with terror. Davenport s immobility amid all 
 this noise, Grimstead s day attire; what did it 
 mean? She dashed forward to the young man 
 and, undeterred by Rapscallion, fell on her knees 
 at his side. 
 
 "What have you done? What have you 
 done?" she cried, terror-stricken. 
 
 "Nothing nothing at all he s perfectly all 
 right!" cried Grimstead, whose one idea was to 
 
248 ON TIPTOE 
 
 reassure her before she lost control of herself. 
 "He s not hurt. He ll be as well as ever in the 
 morning." 
 
 But by this time Burton had assured herself 
 that he was living and unhurt, and she rose 
 slowly to her feet. Her brow was puckered in 
 thought. 
 
 "You ve drugged him," she decided at last. 
 She pondered for a moment more, then raised 
 her head. 
 
 "The engine has stopped you have stolen the 
 car!" she cried in sudden enlightenment. A deep 
 scorn rose to the surface of her eyes. "And now 
 you were going to tie him! You re afraid of 
 what he might do!" 
 
 On the passing of the danger of hysterics 
 Grimstead became himself again. This was too 
 big a matter to permit of sentiment. He spoke 
 brusquely. 
 
 "This is not woman s business, Burton," said 
 he, "and you must not interfere. No harm is 
 intended to your young man. Indeed I am 
 saving him from himself; and in the future he 
 will thank me for making him a rich man instead 
 of permitting him to ruin himself by foolish 
 
 ness." 
 
 "He will never thank you; and I will never 
 forgive you!" she cried passionately. 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders. Women always 
 
ON TIPTOE 249 
 
 got over these things. Still a slight change in 
 minor tactics seemed desirable. It would no 
 longer be possible or desirable to restrain the 
 young man by force. There remained then for 
 Grimstead himself to withdraw until the first 
 passions at discovery should simmer down nearer 
 common sense. He turned aside and picked up 
 J/is blankets. 
 
 "I ll leave him to you," he told Burton. "Try 
 to get some common sense into him if it s pos 
 sible. But be sure to tell him one thing: that 
 his interests are going to be scrupulously pro 
 tected. He ll get every cent that is coming to 
 him." 
 
 He disappeared down the meadow. Burton 
 looked after him, her bosom heaving with emo 
 tions too deep for reply. Then in a passion of 
 mingled loyalty and anger she fell on her knees 
 again beside the unconscious young man. 
 
 Rapscallion yawned and stretched. The trou 
 ble, whatever it was, seemed to be happily over. 
 After a moment he wandered carelessly away, as 
 though on an aimless saunter. Once out of sight, 
 however, he pattered rapidly into the tent, leaped 
 upon Burton s cot and curled himself into a lux 
 urious ball. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 NOTHING further happened now until 
 shortly after sunrise the next morning. 
 Then Burton, who had fallen into an uneasy slum 
 ber after some hours of futile watching to see that 
 dear Larry did not die of an overdose without her 
 knowing it, shivered and awoke. For a moment 
 she stared about her vacantly. Then recollection 
 too awoke, and she reached out to shake Daven 
 port by the shoulder. The young man continued 
 to sleep, but he half roused himself, and he 
 turned and muttered before settling himself 
 again. This was distinctly encouraging. At 
 least the first deadening effects of the morphine 
 must have worked themselves off. Burton tried 
 again, and yet again, until at length he opened 
 a sleepy eye. The first expression of the said 
 eye was vacant, but when recognition entered, its 
 owner sat up broad awake. 
 
 "What is it, dear?" he cried. "What are you 
 doing here? 5 
 
 "I m all right," she assured him, "but I ve 
 something to tell you. Wake up first." 
 
 He made a powerful effort for control of his 
 faculties. 
 
 250 
 
ON TIPTOE 251 
 
 "Lord, I ve got a head!" he confessed. "And 
 all on one little drink! I can t think!" He 
 shook the said head gingerly from side to side, 
 then took it in his hands. 
 
 "I m going now to get dressed," she told him. 
 "You d better go down to the creek and try cold 
 water." 
 
 "Where s your father?" he enquired, looking 
 around. 
 
 "That s part of it. Get dressed quickly. 
 Hurry!" 
 
 She disappeared into the tent whence came 
 the sound of a light body hitting the ground, 
 succeeded by the sight of Rapscallion sauntering 
 forth, trying, with only partial success, to look 
 like a dog who had not slept in a bed. 
 
 Larry drew on his clothes and stumbled to 
 the creek, where the cold water soon removed the 
 last effects of the narcotic. He returned to camp 
 to find Burton awaiting him. Her story did not 
 take long in the telling. Davenport listened at 
 tentively, with but a single comment, but the 
 weathered red of his face darkened, and the boy 
 ishness drained from his eyes, leaving them steely. 
 The one comment came when Burton described 
 Rapscallion s brave stand. 
 
 "It s as well he slept out," said Davenport 
 grimly, his hand groping for the red-dog s head. 
 
 The narrative finished, he rose to his feet, 
 
252 ON TIPTOE 
 
 fumbled in his pack, drew forth a revolver and 
 holster, which he strapped to his belt. 
 
 "What are you going to do?" she asked anx 
 iously. 
 
 "I m going to follow the car." 
 
 "You can t hope to catch it afoot!" 
 
 "The chance is very slim," he acknowledged, 
 "but it s the only chance, and it should be taken. 
 Luck might play with us. The car might get 
 stalled. Who knows? And in any case I ve 
 got to get on the wires to the lawyers right 
 away." 
 
 He was methodically bestowing small neces 
 saries in a rucksack. 
 
 "Please have Simmins take care of my other 
 things," he requested. "Good-bye, dear." 
 
 He opened his arms and she crept into them. 
 They clung together for a moment. 
 
 "Be careful," she begged. "You must come 
 back to me. Don t don t be rash, will you?" 
 
 He laughed. 
 
 "You mean the gun ? No ; I m not going forth 
 to slay. That s just in the remote case I need 
 a convincing argument. This is a lawyer game 
 now, and a game of get there first." He laughed 
 again. "And, dearest, we re going to lick them! 
 I have a hunch! It just came to me with the 
 most overpowering force. It s coming out all 
 right!" 
 
ON TIPTOE 253 
 
 He kissed her again and strode away. 
 
 "Come back to me soon!" she called after him. 
 
 "The soonest ever!" he cried back. 
 
 After his departure Burton, whose education 
 had been coming on, made herself some coffee. 
 About two hours later Simmins appeared, very 
 apologetic over his tardiness, but more aston 
 ished at the disappearance of personnel and ma 
 teriel. The absence of the little car Burton had 
 expected; but she was at first puzzled to hear 
 that the extra cooking utensils, which had been 
 taken to the lower camp for the use of the 
 watchers in making their breakfast, had disap 
 peared; as also a small quantity of provisions. 
 This did not impress Simmins much, for he 
 thought naturally that whoever had taken the 
 car must also have carried off the supplies; but 
 Burton knew better. Then enlightenment caused 
 her lips to curve in a slightly scornful smile. 
 The Pirate Chief, of course! He had taken not 
 only his blankets, but his provision. He was hid 
 ing out, and Burton had a shrewd suspicion that 
 he would continue hiding out. Even a Pirate 
 Chief has, if not tender feelings, at least love 
 of mental ease; and Burton realised that even 
 this stern parent might be just as well satisfied 
 if he did not have to face his child while things 
 were too fresh in her mind ! 
 
 "Simmins, see if Mr. Grimstead s fishing tackle 
 
254 ON TIPTOE 
 
 is here," she ordered at this stage in her reason 
 ing. 
 
 Simmins report that the fishing tackle had 
 been taken confirmed her opinion. 
 
 "You and I will probably have to wait here 
 some days," she interrupted Simmins excited 
 conjectures. "Mr. Gardiner and Mr. Davenport 
 have gone away in the car, probably to get help 
 or on business. Father has undoubtedly gone 
 for a day or two s fishing down stream; I be 
 lieve he mentioned it." 
 
 She spoke with elaborate appearance of indif 
 ference. But for once Simmins broke through 
 of his own volition. 
 
 "Oh, Miss !" he implored. "Do not longer keep 
 me in the dark. I know well that dark deeds 
 are afoot. Can you not accept me as a faithful 
 servitor of your interests and confide in me the 
 truth?" 
 
 Simmins was as well satisfied with the diction 
 and delivery of that speech as with anything he 
 had ever done. The substitution of "proud 
 beauty" for "Miss" would have made it perfect; 
 but the exigencies of his audience precluded that. 
 You have, to some extent, to give the public what 
 it wants. 
 
 The appeal, however, was genuine and irre 
 sistible. While they cooked breakfast the two 
 talked eagerly. The situation was thrilling, and 
 
 
ON TIPTOE 255 
 
 they young. They thrilled, and speculated, and 
 wondered, and worked each other up mutually 
 to a high state of romance. Simmins dramatic 
 sense soared. He shook his toasting fork, he 
 declaimed, he dropped his veneer and talked nat 
 ural language. That is, natural language for 
 Simmins; not for you nor me nor anybody else 
 hut the splendid heroes of G. P. R. James. Sud 
 denly Burton checked herself and laughed. 
 
 "Simmins!" she cried. "I knew you could do 
 it! You ve become human!" 
 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 SHORTLY after noon they were astonished to 
 see Davenport returning. Burton ran to 
 meet him with a cry of mingled gladness and 
 curiosity. He replied curtly. His eye was sav 
 age, his lips compressed. She looked at him, then 
 fell silent. As they entered camp she made an 
 imperative gesture to Simmins of warning that 
 he should not speak. 
 
 Larry strode to the fireside and threw down 
 the rucksack with a slam, then turned to Burton. 
 
 "Well, they ve done it now!" he snarled. "I d 
 like to wring some one s neck." 
 
 He looked slowly around, and the innocent 
 Simmins shrank visibly. 
 
 "Gone! Completely gone!" he cried. "Not a 
 stick or hide or hair left ; and try as I can I can t 
 remember the first thing about it, the very first 
 step!" 
 
 Burton stepped to his side. 
 
 "Dear, remember we don t know what you 
 are talking about," she said. "Can t you try 
 to tell us what has happened? Did he get away 
 completely?" 
 
 Davenport laughed savagely. 
 
 256 
 
ON TIPTOE 257 
 
 "Got away! That s it, got away!" he rejoined. 
 "Got away so far nobody will ever be able to 
 follow and bring the secret back from him ! The 
 biggest thing the world has ever seen! Gone!" 
 
 She drew him by gentle force to her side on 
 the log. Simmins was watching with wide, awe- 
 stricken eyes. 
 
 "Now," she said sensibly, "tell me about it. I 
 can t make head or tail out of such hysterics." 
 
 He jerked back as though the word had been 
 a whip with which he had been hit in the face. 
 Which was to Burton an intended and satisfac 
 tory reaction. 
 
 "I followed the car for six or eight miles to 
 the place the road crossed the Deep Barranca 
 on a trestle. Part of the trestle had been car 
 ried out by the flood. Gardiner had driven the 
 car off into the abyss." 
 
 "Killed?" cried Burton, horrified. 
 
 "Gone; swept away, disappeared completely. 
 The stream is wide and swift and fast. I climbed 
 down, of course, but no trace whatever remained 
 except one seat cushion that had been thrown 
 clear. I followed down the stream on the chance 
 that the car might have stranded; but in that 
 force of water it probably broke to pieces almost 
 at once. It was of very light construction." 
 
 "What a tragedy !" cried Burton. "Poor Ross 
 Gardiner!" 
 
258 ON TIPTOE 
 
 Davenport shut his lips grimly and let this 
 pass. After a decent moment or so Burton ven 
 tured a comment. 
 
 "But there is this to say: the present problem 
 is solved. The agreement is gone, the whole 
 scheme headed off. You can build another bat 
 tery." 
 
 "That s just it!" cried Davenport, his excite 
 ment returning. "I m not sure I can do any 
 thing of the sort." 
 
 "What do you mean?" she demanded sharply. 
 
 "I mean just this," he replied with bitter de 
 liberation; "all my notebooks of formulas were 
 in that car, every scrap of paper I had in the 
 world that had anything to do with this." 
 
 She stared at him, taking this in. 
 
 "I was a fool, of course," he went on, "but I 
 wanted to keep things by me." 
 
 She was recovering a little. 
 
 "You can copy your other battery," she 
 pointed out. 
 
 "Other battery?" 
 
 "Didn t you say you d built two?" 
 
 "Oh! the first was crude. I used it only a 
 little while. It was dismantled long ago." 
 
 "You will work it out again," she comforted. 
 "It may be a slow task, but you ll get it." 
 
 He looked at her with something like fright 
 in his eyes. 
 
ON TIPTOE 259 
 
 "I do not know!" he almost whispered. "I 
 thought that at first, and I did not really care 
 very much. But then all at once when I sat 
 down to think about it I discovered that I had 
 not one shred of memory of how to make a start 
 at it. It s gone!" 
 
 "But when you get in your workshop " 
 "You don t understand; it s all gone! I can t 
 even remember what a single one of the metals 
 in my alloys were! And they were common 
 metals, too. I can t recollect whether there was 
 lead in them, or iron, or copper; and yet I know 
 that the metals were some of them as common 
 as that! And as for temperatures and such 
 things all gone; wiped out!" 
 
 She looked at him in slight bewilderment. 
 "Why, Larry!" she cried. "I hardly know 
 you. It isn t like you to be discouraged. This 
 mood will pass. It is sheer nonsense. Of course 
 you will work it out again, as you did at first. 
 What does it matter if it does take time? You ll 
 get it." 
 
 He shook his head. 
 
 "No, I m not a quitter," he disclaimed. "I 
 know it sounds like it. But this has become a 
 certainty to me. It has come to me in the same 
 way that all these other things have come to me. 
 Perhaps it is the last of these beautiful certainties 
 from the current of wisdom. It was given to 
 
260 ON TIPTOE 
 
 me, and now I feel that it has been taken 
 away. I never was more sure of anything in 
 my life." 
 
 She stared at him, aghast. A slow conviction 
 was entering her too, a conviction she tried to 
 stifle, an unreasonable conviction that could not 
 be explained. Some mighty and beautiful Vision 
 that had touched them with its presence was un 
 folding its wings for flight. 
 
 "Such things cannot happen!" she cried, all 
 aflame. 
 
 He shook his head. In his uplifted face was 
 no discouragement, only the sorrow of regret. 
 
 Unnoticed a lank figure had crossed the 
 meadow from the road and now appeared among 
 them. 
 
 "Hullo, folks," said he, casting a curious eye 
 about him. "Campin for fun, or get stuck yere 
 by the storm?" 
 
 "Caught by the storm," replied Burton, who 
 had the better command of herself. 
 
 The stranger spat carefully out of camp. 
 
 "I m the stage driver between Eureka and 
 Tecolote," he volunteered, "but I don t see no 
 way of gettin through now. That there red 
 wood tree s got the road blocked for keeps. Say, 
 she must have made some crash when she come 
 down!" 
 
 "She did," replied Burton. An idea was form- 
 
ON TIPTOE 261 
 
 ing in her brain. "Are you going back to Eu 
 reka?" she enquired. 
 
 "Sure. Only place to go." 
 
 "Have you got room for two?" 
 
 "I got only the U. S. mails aboard. What s 
 
 the idea?" 
 
 "Our car is broken," she explained rapidly. 
 
 "If you will wait ten minutes, we ll be ready." 
 
 "Lots of time," rejoined the stage driver, and 
 
 sauntered over to engage the excellent Simmins. 
 
 "It is the only thing!" she urged Larry, as 
 
 soon as the other was out of hearing. "Can t 
 
 you see it is? We cannot stay here. Don t you 
 
 see it?" she implored. 
 
 "I want to get out before he gets back," re 
 plied Larry bluntly. "You re right; I ll go." 
 "I m going with you," she said steadily. 
 "What! You cannot do that!" 
 "You are going to need me; I know," she in 
 sisted, "it is part of my wisdom, as you call it." 
 The hunted, hurt look in his face softened. 
 "Come," he cried almost exultantly. "There 
 must be people who marry people up here! The 
 world and its power and its troubles can go 
 hang!" 
 
 She was at once a-wing, flitting like a bird 
 as she gathered the few things she wanted to take 
 with her, carolling little snatches of song under 
 her breath. In a moment she was ready. 
 
262 ON TIPTOE 
 
 "All aboard!" called Davenport to the stage 
 driver. "Ready when you are." 
 
 "Simmins," ordered Burton, "you take care 
 of things. We will send some one out from a 
 garage." 
 
 But Simmins, at the thought of being left 
 alone with a marooned and exasperated Pirate 
 Chief, lost all his pose and poise and became 
 thoroughly human. 
 
 "Oh, Miss Burton!" he cried. "Don t do that 
 to me! Let me go with you! We can send a 
 man out to-night to Mr. Grimstead; I ll gladly 
 make up a bonus from my own pocket what 
 ever is necessary. Don t leave me here all 
 alone!" 
 
 "Afraid of the woods, Simmins?" asked Larry 
 mischievously. 
 
 "Yes, sir," rejoined Simmins with unexampled 
 candour, "I am afraid of the woods; and I am 
 afraid of Mr. Grimstead. Remember, sir, he 
 might at any moment discover that paper is gone 
 unless Mr. Gardiner had it I don*t know 
 what I am saying, but don t leave me here." 
 
 Larry glanced at Burton, who nodded. 
 
 "All right ; come along," he agreed. "Get your 
 things together." 
 
 "They are all together," Simmins assured him 
 fervently, "since morning, sir." 
 
 "Well, come on then." 
 
ON TIPTOE 263 
 
 "One moment, sir," begged Simmins. 
 
 He produced a pad and pencil and wrote 
 thereon. The finished result he folded and 
 placed in a conspicuous position. 
 
 "I don t want to pry; but if that note is to 
 Mr. Grimstead " suggested Davenport. 
 
 "It is only my resignation, sir/ replied Sim 
 mins, humbly. "It would not be in any way 
 proper for me to leave Mr. Grimstead s employ 
 for another s without offering my resignation; 
 now would it, sir?" 
 
 Davenport surveyed the little man kindly. 
 
 "Certainly not, Simmins; you are quite right," 
 he answered. "What would you consider the 
 proper procedure for a young lady eloping " 
 He glanced after Burton to be sure she was out 
 of hearing. "Should she also leave some sort 
 of written communication? And in my own case, 
 as a sort of guest of the place, should I too leave 
 a note? The circumstances, I confess, are un 
 usual; and the conventions in my profession are 
 not so closely studied as in yours." 
 
 His voice and face betrayed nothing but the 
 deepest, gravest concern. Simmins, immensely 
 flattered, pondered deeply. 
 
 "It is usual, sir, for the young lady to leave 
 a note pinned on her pin-cushion, for the pur 
 pose of allaying anxiety over her disappearance. 
 I took the liberty of explaining in my note that 
 
264 ON TIPTOE 
 
 I was leaving to enter your service, sir, and that 
 of Miss Burton; and that it is intended to send 
 a garage man immediately." 
 
 "Then you consider a note from Miss Burton 
 unnecessary?" 
 
 "Quite, sir," replied Simmins firmly. 
 
 "And myself?" 
 
 "You, sir, I should have considered rather a 
 partner than a guest." 
 
 "You relieve my mind, Simmins," murmured 
 Larry, and hastened to join Burton and the stage 
 driver. She looked at him with pleased sur 
 prise. 
 
 "Good!" she cried. "You re more like your 
 self!" 
 
 "It s Simmins!" Larry exploded with sup 
 pressed laughter. "He s a joy and a jewel and 
 he s untwisted me from all my knots. Dear, 
 never must we lose Simmins! We ll pawn the 
 family jewels before we let him go." 
 
 The little party, carrying the few pieces of 
 baggage, and followed solemnly by Rapscallion, 
 crossed the meadow to where waited the stage. 
 
 Ten minutes later Grimstead, who had heard 
 the racket made when the long vehicle backed 
 and filled in turning around, came curiously to 
 see what was happening. He found himself alone 
 with the wrecks he had made. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 ACROSS the episode now slowly the dark 
 curtains closed. A great vision had been 
 given one man; a vision that in its due and proper 
 time will lift from mankind one of its greatest 
 Pressures. But that time had not yet arrived. 
 When thus it too evidently appeared that from 
 the gift would come strife, not freedom, then the 
 great Invisible Intelligences, whose Pressure is 
 the carrying on with wisdom of our little world, 
 in sadness reached forth their hands. From the 
 soul of that man the vision was erased. Of all its 
 breadth and greatness remained only one little 
 thing: an idea for this story. But some time, in 
 the remote future, somewhere, to some soul the 
 vision will come again. 
 
 THE END 
 

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