get a bite of dinner and proceed to business."

Buck insisted on keeping an engagement to dine with Moira, and Bryce
agreed to call for him at the Bon Gusto restaurant. Then Bryce went
home to dine with his father. Old Cardigan was happier than his son
had seen him since the return of the latter to Sequoia.

"Well, sonny, I've had a mighty pleasant afternoon," he declared as
Bryce led him to the dinner-table. "I've been up to the Valley of the
Giants."

Bryce was amazed. "Why, how could you?" he demanded. "The old skid-
road is impassable, and after you leave the end of the skid-road, the
trail in to Mother's grave is so overgrown with buckthorn and wild
lilac I doubt if a rabbit could get through it comfortably."

"Not a bit of it," the old man replied. "Somebody has gone to work
and planked that old skid-road and put up a hand-railing on each
side, while the trail through the Giants has been grubbed out and
smoothed over. All that old logging-cable I abandoned in those
choppings has been strung from tree to tree alongside the path on
both sides. I can go up there alone now, once George sets me on the
old skid-road; I can't get lost."

"How did you discover this?" Bryce demanded.

"Judge Moore, representing the new owner, called round this morning
and took me in tow. He said his client knew the property held for me
a certain sentimental value which wasn't transferred in the deed, and
so the Judge had been instructed to have the skid-road planked and