“You mustn’t expect any sympathy from me,” he returned genially. “The proverb tells us specifically that the burnt child dreads the fire; but it doesn’t add the corollary, which is equally true, and as old as human nature—namely, that the burnt child experiences an unholy joy when his playmate attempts to pick up the same hot nail.”
“Ah?” said Tregarvon. And then: “I had forgotten, if, indeed, I ever knew. You were one of the original stockholders in the Ocoee?”
“To the extent of my entire savings account; which was a mere drop in the promoter’s bucket, after all. Nevertheless, I can still be magnanimous enough to wish you all success.” Then, abruptly: “You have a delightful night for your drive to Coalville. I could almost envy you.”
Tregarvon did not undeceive him about the destination of the drive; for good and sufficient reasons it did not seem necessary to tell Hartridge that the drilling plant would have two watchers that night, instead of none. With a word of leave-taking he joined Carfax in the tonneau seat, and the yellow car rolled away down the drive, with Rucker at the wheel.
It was less than an eighth of a mile from the college gates to the point where the glade road turned to the left out of the downward pike, and when Rucker would have taken the left-hand road, Tregarvon made him stop the car.
“We can walk in from here, Billy,” he explained, and the two volunteer watchers got out to do it while the car, lightened of two-thirds of its load, coasted noiselessly on down the steep mountain road and out of sight around the first curve.
On the short walk over to the drilling plant Tregarvon spoke but once, and that was to say: “Your guess about Hartridge was right, Poictiers. He was one of the native crowd which was pinched out in the first reorganization of the Ocoee.”
“Did Richardia tell you that?”
“No; he told me himself, just as we were leaving. And he is still sore about it, though he tried to turn it off as a joke.”
“Um,” said Carfax reflectively. “If he is the man who is putting a finger into your pie, we’ll be likely to see him within the next half-hour or so, don’t you think? He supposes we are on the road to Coalville, and he knows that Rucker is driving. Which presumably leaves the plant unguarded. What will you do if we should happen to catch him red-handed?”