“You were in the rebel army?” The words slipped out before the schoolmaster could stop them.
“In the Confederate army,” Chunn corrected quietly.
Webber flushed at the rebuke. “That is what I meant to say.”
“I leave to-morrow for Alaska. It would be pleasant to know before I go that Jeff is out of his trouble.”
“I'm afraid Jeff always will be in trouble. He is a most insubordinate boy,” the principal answered coldly.
“Are you sure you quite understand him?”
“He is not difficult to understand.” Webber, resenting the interference of the Southerner as an intrusion, disposed of the matter in a sentence. “I'll look into this matter carefully, Mr. Chunn.”
Webber called immediately at the office of Edward B. Merrill, president of the tramway company and of the First National Bank. It happened that the vice-president of the bank was a school director; also that the funds of the district were kept in the First National. The schoolteacher did not admit that he had come to ingratiate himself with the powers that ruled his future, but he was naturally pleased to come in direct touch with such a man as Merrill.
The financier was urbane and spent nearly half an hour of his valuable time with the principal. When the latter rose to go they shook hands. The two understood each other thoroughly.
“You may depend upon me to do my duty, Mr. Merrill, painful though such a course may be to me.”