mother and father and Fred and Emily? I suppose Doctor Moorhouse still shoots his squirrels square in the eye, eh!"
"Mother died two years ago, and dad has almost given up his practice," she smiled, "So he'll have more time to shoot squirrels. Fred is in college, and Emily married Charlie Harrow, and they bought the old Melcher place out on the pike."
Brent hesitated a moment: "And—and—my father—have you seen him lately?"
"Yes, indeed! General Brent and Dad are still the greatest of cronies. He hasn't changed a bit since I can first remember him. Old Uncle Jake still drives him to the bank at nine o'clock each morning, he still eats his dinners at the Planter's Hotel, and then makes his rounds of the lumber yard, and the coal yard, and the tobacco warehouse, or else Uncle Jake drives him out to inspect some of his farms, and back home at four o'clock. No, to all appearances, the General hasn't changed—but, dad says there is a change in the last two or three years. He—he—would give everything he owns just to hear from—you."
Brent was silent for a moment: "But, he must not hear—yet. I'll make another strike, one of these days—and then——-"
"Did you make a strike?" asked Reeves.
Brent nodded. "Yes, I was on the very peak of the first stampede. Did you, by chance, ever hear of Ace-In-The-Hole?"
Reeves smiled: "Yes—notorious gambler, wasn't he? Were you here when he was? Made a big strike, somewhere, and then gambled away ten or twenty million, didn't he, and then—I never did hear what became of him."
Brent smiled: "Yes, he made a strike. Then, I suppose, he was just what you said—a notorious gambler—his losses were grossly exaggerated, they were not over two millions at the outside."
"A mere trifle," laughed Reeves, "What ever became of him."