I'll send for him right off, but he could hardly get through before morning." The party broke up shortly afterward, and George rode home, wondering why he had allowed himself to become involved in what might prove to be a troublesome matter.

His ideas on the subject were not very clear, but he felt that Flora Grant had expected him to take a part.

Then he had been impressed in Hardie's favor; the man was in earnest, ready to court popular hostility, but he was nevertheless genial and free from dogmatic narrow-mindedness.

Behind all this, there was in George a detestation of vicious idleness and indulgence, and a respect for right and order.

Since he had been warned that the badly-kept hotel sheltered a gang of loafers plotting mischief and willing to prey upon men who toiled strenuously, he was ready for an attempt to turn them out.