Dean answered gravely, "I had to make a living in some way. It was an accident, my trying this way."
"Would you like to return to me—as my secretary?"
"Thank you, Mr. Kirby, I prefer to travel independently."
"Suppose I should tell why I discharged you? That might prove inconvenient to you."
"Then I should have a story to tell that might prove inconvenient to you, Mr. Kirby."
Dean looked Kirby straight in the face, and the latter saw that he no longer had an inexperienced country boy to deal with, but one who might prove dangerous to his plans.
"On the whole," he said, after a pause, "suppose we both keep silence as to the past."
"I will do so, unless I should have occasion to speak."
No one was near enough to listen to this conversation. Now Dr. Thorp came up, and Kirby said with an abrupt turn of the conversation, "I am glad to have met you again, my young friend. I wish you success."