What a fatality often attends small things! Jethro had no suspicion that the company in advance was the one from which the two visitors had come the night before. Alden did not aim to hide the fact from him, but simply omitted to mention it. Had Jethro known the meaning of this evening call, he would have forced his master to hear the momentous secret which the dusky youth had been carrying for weeks. And had that secret been revealed, Alden Payne would have made a most important change in his programme.