"However I can."
"Well, you can't—not now," returned Wherry, laughing, "because I've worked that little scheme already without your backing. Honesty is going to be my policy from yesterday on. Did you, by the way," he added abruptly, "ever happen to run up against Jasper Trend?"
"Jasper Trend?" exclaimed Ordway, "why, yes, he owns the cotton mills."
"He makes a handsome little pile out of 'em too, I guess?"
"I believe he does. Are you looking for a job with him?"
At this Wherry burst again into his hilarious humour. "If I am," he asked jokingly, "will you promise to stand off and not spoil the game?"
"I have nothing to do with Trend," replied Ordway, "but the day you come here is my last in Tappahannock."
"Well, I'm sorry for that," remarked Wherry, pleasantly, "for it appears to be a dull enough place even with the addition of your presence." He put on his hat and held out his hand with a friendly gesture. "Are you ready to walk back now?" he inquired.
"When I am," answered Ordway, "I shall walk back alone."
Even this rebuff Wherry accepted with his invincible good temper.