"I have asked for two months. I told the Bishop this afternoon that only on that understanding would I take charge of Rixton."
"But you have just told me that you are going there to-morrow!" Garton exclaimed.
Douglas laughed.
"Look here, old man, I have a plan, and I want to tell it to you, if you will promise that you will not speak of it to any one except your wife. I know she will keep the secret."
"And I guess I can, too," Garton assented. "I keep a good many for my clients, and one more will not overburden me."
"I am going to spend my vacation in Rixton," Douglas explained. "What do you think of that?"
"What do you mean?" Garton asked in surprise.
"Simply that I am going there as an ordinary farmhand and work for my living for two months."
"Good heavens!" Garton was so astonished at this revelation that he knocked the ashes from his cigar over his clothes. "Are you going crazy, Stanton? What will the Bishop and the people of Rixton think of such a thing?"
"They are not to know anything about it until it is all over. You and Mrs. Garton will be the only ones who will be aware of this freak of mine, so if I get killed, you might give me a decent burial."