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diff --git a/old/wngpt10.txt b/old/wngpt10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e1b8cb9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/wngpt10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10030 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of When Egypt Went Broke, by Holman Day + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: When Egypt Went Broke + +Author: Holman Day + +Release Date: December, 2003 [Etext #4733] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 10, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT WHEN EGYPT WENT BROKE *** + + + + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnypg@yahoo.com + and John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz + + + + + WHEN EGYPT WENT BROKE + + A NOVEL + + BY + + HOLMAN DAY + + + + + + WHEN EGYPT WENT BROKE + + + + CHAPTER I + + T. BRITT STARTS TO COLLECT + +Tasper Britt arose in the gray dawn, as usual. + +Some fishermen, seeking bait, stay up late and "jack" angleworms with +a bull's-eye light. The big worms are abroad on the soil under cover +of the darkness. Other fishermen get up early and dig while the dew is +holding the smaller worms near the surface of the ground; in going +after worms the shrewd operator makes the job easy for himself. + +Tasper Britt--"Twelve-per-cent Britt"--trimmed his slumber at both +ends--was owl and early bird, both, in his pursuit of the pence of the +people, and got 'em coming and going. + +He was the money boss for the town of Egypt, and those who did not +give him his per cent nickname called him "Phay-ray-oh"--but behind +his back, of course. To his face his debt slaves bespoke his favor +obsequiously. Seeing that nearly every "Egyptian" with collateral owed +him money, Mr. Britt had no fault to find with his apparent +popularity. He did believe, complacently, that he was popular. A man +who was less sure of himself would not have dared to appear out, all +at once, with his beard dyed purple-black and with a scratch wig to +match. Men gasped when they came into his office in Britt Block, but +men held their faces measurably under control even though their +diaphragms fluttered; the need of renewing a note--paying a bonus for +the privilege--helped supplicants to hold in any bubbling hilarity. +Therefore, Mr. Britt continued to be assured that he was pretty +generally all right, so far as the folks of Egypt were concerned. + +Mr. Britt dyed after Hittie died. That was when he was past sixty- +five. + +It was only the familiar, oft-repeated instance of temperament being +jounced out of a lifelong rut by a break in wedlock relations. + +Hittie was his yoke-mate, pulling hard at his side with wages of food +and drink. The two of them kept plodding steadily in the dry and rocky +road all the years, never lifting their eyes to look over into +pastures forbidden. Perhaps if Hittie had been left with the money, +after the yoke had been sundered, she would have kicked up her heels +in a few final capers of consolation, in order to prove to herself, by +brief experience, how much better consistent sainthood was as a +settled state. + +In view of such a possibility--and widows are not altogether different +from widowers--it was hardly fair in the folks of Egypt to twist every +act of Widower Britt to his discredit and to make him out a renegade +of a relict. He did go through all the accepted motions as a mourner. +He took on "something dreadful" at the funeral. He placed in the +cemetery lot a granite statue of himself, in a frock coat of stone and +holding a stone plug hat in the hook of the elbow. That statue cost +Tasper Britt rising sixteen hundred dollars--and after he dyed his +beard and bought the top piece of hair, the satirists of Egypt were +unkind enough to say that he had set his stone image out in the +graveyard to scare Hittie if she tried to arise and spy on his new +carryings-on. + +Mr. Britt had continued to be a consistent mourner, according to the +old-fashioned conventions. + +When he arose in the dawn of the day with which the tale begins and +unwound a towel from his jowls--for the new Magnetic Hair Restorer had +an ambitious way of touching up the pillow-slip with color--he beheld +a memento, composed of assembled objects, "sacred to the memory of +Mehitable." In a frame, under glass, on black velvet were these items: +silver plate from casket, hair switch, tumbler and spoon with which +the last medicine had been administered, wedding ring and marriage +certificate; photograph in center. The satirists had their comment for +that memento--they averred that it was not complete without the two +dish towels to which Hittie had been limited. + +Mr. Britt inspected the memento and sighed; that was before he had +touched up his beard with a patent dye comb. + +After he had set the scratch wig on his glossy poll and had studied +himself in the mirror he looked more cheerful and pulled a snapshot +photograph from a bureau drawer, gazed on it and sighed again. It was +the picture of a girl, a full-length view of a mighty pretty girl +whose smiling face was backed by an open sunshade. She was in white +garb and wore no hat. + +"Vona," said Mr. Britt, talking out as if the sound of his voice +fortified his faith, "you're going to see this thing in the right way, +give you time. I'm starting late--but I'm blasted wide awake from now +on. I have gone after money, but money ain't everything. I reckon that +by to-night I can show you honors that you'll share with me--they've +been waiting for me, and now I'll reach out and take 'em for your +sake. Hittie didn't know what to do with money--honors would have +bothered her. But with a girl like you I can grab in and relish living +for the rest of this life." + +Then Mr. Britt went over to the tavern to get his breakfast. + +By eating his three meals per day at the tavern he was indulging his +new sense of liberty. He and Hittie always used to eat in the kitchen +--meals on the dot, as to time. The tavern was little and dingy, and +Egypt was off the railroad line, and there were few patrons, and old +Files cut his steak very close to the critter's horn. But after the +years of routine at a home table there was a sort of clubman, devil- +may-care suggestion about this new regime at the tavern; and after his +meals Britt sat in the tavern office and smoked a cigar. Furthermore, +he held a mortgage on the tavern and Files was behind on the interest +and was eagerly and humbly glad to pay his creditor with food. In +order to impress a peddler or other transient guest the creditor was +in the habit of calling in Files and ordering him to recook portions. + +In his new sense of expansion as a magnate, Tasper Britt took his time +about eating and allowed men with whom he had dealings to come into +the dining room and sit down opposite and state their cases. + +That morning Ossian Orne came in and sat at the table without asking +for permission to be admitted to such intimacy. He came with the air +of a man who was keeping an appointment, and Mr. Britt's manner of +greeting Orne showed that this was so. + +Mr. Orne did not remove the earlapper cap which the nippy February day +demanded; nor did he shuck off the buffalo coat whose baldness in the +rear below the waistline suggested the sedentary habits of Mr. Orne. +He selected a doughnut from the plate at Britt's elbow and munched +placidly. + +Landlord Files, who was bringing ham and eggs to a commercial drummer, +was amazed by this familiarity and stopped and showed that amazement. +He was more astonished by what he overheard. Mr. Orne was saying, "As +your manager, Britt--" + +Mr. Britt scowled at Mr. Files, and the latter slap-slupped on his +slippered way; it was certainly news that Britt had taken on a +manager. Such a personage must be permitted to be familiar. When Mr. +Files looked again, Mr. Orne was eating a second doughnut. He was +laying down the law to a nodding and assenting Mr. Britt on some +point, and then he took a third doughnut and rose to his feet. + +"I'll be back to-night, with full details and further instructions to +you, Britt," declared Mr. Orne, who was known in the county political +circles as "Sniffer" Orne. He combined politics with nursery-stock +canvassing and had a way of his own in getting under the skins of men +when he went in search of information. "If I ain't back to-night I'll +report to-morrow. I may have to take a run over into Norway, Vienna, +and Peru to make sure of how things stand generally." + +He trudged out, stooping forward and waddling with the gait of a +parrot ambling along on a pole; his projecting coat tail and his thin +beak gave him a sort of avian look. The commercial drummer, +overhearing his projected itinerary, glanced out of the window as if +he expected to see Mr. Orne spread wings and fly. But Mr. Orne tucked +himself into a high-backed sleigh and went jangling off along Egypt's +single street. + +The stranger, inquiring of Mr. Files, learned that Mr. Orne was not as +much of a globe-trotter as he sounded. + +"It's only the way the Old Sirs named the towns in the ranges about +here when the land was took up. In this range we have Egypt and them +other towns you heard him speak of. In the next range below are +Jerusalem and Damascus and Levant and Purgatory Mills. If them +unorganized townships to the north of us are ever took up and made +towns of, it would be just like some whifflehead to name 'em Heaven, +Hell, Hooray, and Hackmetack. But the name of Egypt fits this town all +right," stated Mr. Files, disconsolately, and in his perturbation +raising his voice. + +"Files, don't run down your home town," rasped Mr. Britt. + +"What has been run down as far's it can be run can't be run no +farther," said the landlord. "And I 'ain't said why the name Egypt +fits the town, for that matter." Britt's ugly stare was taking the +spirit out of the landlord's rebelliousness. + +"Suppose you do say!" counseled Mr. Britt, menace in his tones. "I've +got a new and special reason, right now, why I demand that every +citizen must uphold the good name of our town--especially a citizen in +your position, first to meet all arriving strangers. Why does the name +fit this town?" He banged the handle of his knife on the table. + +Mr. Britt had reason for the heat which he was displaying and which +caused the stranger to open his eyes more widely. Mr. Britt was fully +aware that men called him "Phay-ray-oh" and that his statue in the +cemetery was called "The Sphinx." He knew that since the town had gone +on the down grade through debt and the decay of industries the +inhabitants had begun to call themselves "The Children of Israel," and +to say they were trying to make bricks without straw. In face, an +itinerant evangelist who called himself "The Light of the World" had +come to town and was trying to exhort the inhabitants into rebellion +against conditions, and in his crack-brained hysteria was having some +success in exciting "The Children" to protest against the domination +by Tasper Britt. + +Mr. Files was not as handy with his tongue as he was with the mallet +with which he pounded steak. He struggled with an inept reply about an +old town having a dignified old name. He stuttered and stopped when +Britt came and stood in front of him, chewing savagely on a toothpick. + +"Files, I wasn't intending to make a formal announcement till my +political manager, Ossian Orne, gets back with reports from the field. +Not but what I expect that when it is known that I'm willing to accept +political honor it will be given to me. But when I sit in the next +legislature of this state as Representative Britt of Egypt, I propose +to represent a town that ain't slurred at home or abroad. Hereafter, +mind your tongue and advise others to do the same." + +He stamped out. Landlord Files was left standing with an open mouth +from which no speech issued. + +"Emperor, or only a plain king?" inquired the bagman. + +"You being a stranger, I can let out some of my feelings," returned +Mr. Files. "Emperor, you say? He might just as well try to be one as +to run for the legislature." + +The drummer showed interest. + +"That's what getting to be a widderer can do to some men," confided +the landlord. He placed a smutty hand on the table and leaned down. +"That legislature thing ain't the half of it, mister! He hasn't +blacked his whiskers and bought that false mane simply so as to get +into politics. He's trying to court the prettiest girl in this town." + +"Aha!" said the drummer. "The old story! Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, is +doing the job over again with the local Mark Antony!" + +"Mebbe," admitted Mr. Files, his fishy gaze revealing that he had no +personal knowledge of the parties mentioned. "It's the old story, all +right. Widdereritis, and a bad run of it." + +The bagman had a scarfpin in the shape of a horse shoe. His comment +was in line with his taste in adornment. "Files, old scout, if a colt +is put to harness so early that he can't get his natural fling in the +fields, he'll have it at the other end of his life, when he's let run +to pasture, spavin or no spavin. Why don't Egypt hold off and let +Uncle What's-his-name enjoy his new hair and hopes?" + +"He has known how to collect in the money that's due him," stated Mr. +Files, "compound interest and all! He was only getting back his +investments. But he has never put out any of the kind of capital that +earns liking or respect or love. He has woke up to what he has been +missing. He's trying to collect what he has never invested. And he +can't do it, mister! No, sir, he can't!" + +The drummer was a young man. He asked a natural question. "Isn't the +girl willing to be an old man's darling?" + +"You might go over to Britt's bank and ask her," suggested Mr. Files, +crisply. "She's bookkeeper there. But you'd better not let that young +fellow that's cashier overhear you." + +"So that's it? Say, events in Egypt in the near future may make some +of the mummies here sit up and take notice!" + +"Shouldn't wonder a mite," agreed Mr. Files, beginning to gather up +the dishes. + + + + CHAPTER II + + FIRST COLLECTIONS + +That morning Mr. Britt did not dawdle in the hotel office with his +cigar. He knew perfectly well that he merely had been making a +pretense of enjoying that sybaritism, putting on his new clubman airs +along with his dye and his toupee. + +Among other curios in the office was a dusty, stuffed alligator, +hanging from the ceiling over the desk. The jaws were widely agape and +Mr. Britt always felt an inclination to yawn when he looked +alligatorward. Therefore, the alligator offended Mr. Britt by +suggesting drowsiness in the morning; Mr. Britt, up early, and +strictly after any worm that showed itself along the financial path, +resented the feeling of daytime sleepiness as heresy. Furthermore, +that morning the gaping alligator also suggested the countenance of +the open-mouthed Files whom Britt had just left in the dining room, +and Files had been irritating. Britt scowled at the alligator, lighted +a cigar, and hustled outdoors; he had the feeling that the day was to +be an important one in his affairs. + +Egypt's Pharaoh was able to view considerable of the town from the +tavern porch. The tavern was an old stage-coach house and was boosted +high on a hill, according to the pioneer plan of location. The houses +of the little village straggled down the hill. + +The aspect was not uninviting, seen under the charitable cloak of +February's snow, sun-touched by the freshly risen luminary, the white +expanses glinting; all the rocks and ledges and the barren shapes were +covered. But under summer's frank sunlight Egypt was as disheartening +a spectacle as a racked old horse, ribs and hip bones outthrust, +waiting for the knacker's offices. + +There were men in Egypt--men whose reverses had put them in a +particularly ugly mood--who said out loud in places where Britt could +not hear them that the money-grabber could not get much more than +twelve-per-cent blood out of the nag he had ridden for so long, and +might as well set knife to neck and put the town out of its misery. + +Right behind Britt, as he stood on the porch, was a sheaf of yellowed +papers nailed to the side of the tavern. Nobody in Egypt bothered to +look at the papers; all the taxpayers knew what they were; the papers +were signed by the high sheriff of the county and represented that all +the real estate of Egypt had been sold over and over for taxes and had +been bid in by the town as a municipality--and there the matter +rested. Egypt, in other words, had been trying to lift itself by the +bootstraps and was not merely still standing on the ground, but was +considerably sunk in the hole that had been dug by the boot heels +while Egypt was jumping up and down. Mr. Britt was not troubled by the +sight of the yellowed papers; he owned mortgages and pulled in profit +by the legal curiosities known as "Holmes notes"--leeches of +particular drawing power. Mr. Britt did not own real estate. Egypt, in +its financial stress and snarl of litigation, was a wonderful +operating field for a man with loose money and a tight nature. + +From far swamps the whack of axes sounded. Mr. Britt knew that men +were cutting hoop poles and timber for shooks; Egypt earned ready +money with which to pay interest, getting out shooks and hoop poles. +That occupation had been the resource of the pioneers, and the +descendants stuck to the work, knowing how to do it better than +anything else. There was not enough soil for farming on a real money- +making scale. The old sheep, so cynics said, were trained to hold the +lambs by their tails and lower them head downward among the rocks to +graze. Poor men usually own dogs. But dogs would not live long in +Egypt, the cynics went on to assert; the dogs ran themselves to death +hustling over the town line to find dirt enough to bury a bone. + +Mr. Britt could see his statue in the cemetery. + +Down the street was a one-story brick building, the only brick +structure in the town. Set into the front of this building was a +replica of the statue in the cemetery. Britt had secured special rates +by ordering two statues from the stonecutter. Britt possessed vanity. +He had hidden it, begrudging the cost of gratifying it. The crust of +his nature, hardening through the years, had pressed upon that vanity. +The statues, his refurbished beard, and his rehaired head had relieved +the pressure somewhat, but the vanity was still sore. In his new mood +he was dreading a blow on that sore spot. He realized what kind of a +grudge he was carrying around. A vague sense of an unjust deal in life +is more dangerous to the possessor than an acute and concrete +knowledge of specific injury. The vagueness causes it to be correlated +to insanity. Britt, putting his belated aspirations to the test, hoped +that nobody would presume to hit on that sore spot. He knew that such +an adventure might be dangerous for the person or persons who went up +against him. + +He buttoned his overcoat, settled the cigar rigidly into one corner of +his mouth, stared with approval at the stone image of himself in the +facade of Britt Block, and walked to the edge of the porch. + +Across the street sat a little building above the door of which was a +sign inscribed, "Usial Britt, Shoemaker." That it was a dwelling as +well as a shop was indicated when a bare and hairy arm was thrust from +a side window and the refuse in a smoking iron spider was dumped upon +the snow. Simultaneously it was shown that more than one person +tenanted the building: a man, bareheaded, but with a shaggy mat of +roached hair that served in lieu of a hat, issued from the door. The +wanton luxuriance of the hair would have stirred envy in any +baldheaded man; but Tasper Britt exhibited a passion that was more +virulent than envy. + +The man who came forth was "Prophet Elias." It was the newcomer, the +religious fanatic, the exhorter against oppression of the people by +usury, the fearless declaimer who named Tasper Britt in diatribe and +was setting the folks by the ears. + +The Prophet's morning greeting did not make for amity. He stood +straight and pointed in turn to the visible statues and then to Tasper +Britt, in person. "Baal, and the images of Baal!" he shouted. "Stone, +all three!" + +Then he stepped from the door and spread a prodigiously big umbrella-- +an umbrella striped in dingy colors and of the size of the canopies +seen over the drivers of delivery wagons. The employment of such a +shield from the sun in midwinter indicated that the Prophet was rather +more than eccentric; his garb conveyed the same suggestion. He wore a +frayed purple robe that hung on his heels when he came striding across +the street. On a broad band of cloth that once had been white, +reaching from shoulder to waist, diagonally across his breast, were +the words, "The Light of the World." + +Tasper Britt surveyed him with venomous gaze as he advanced. But Britt +shifted his stare and put additional venom into the look he gave a man +who came to the door and stood there, leaning against the jamb and +surveying the scene with a satisfied grin. There was no need of the +name "Britt" above his head to proclaim his kinship with the man who +stood on the tavern porch. The beard of the Britt in the door was +gray, and his head was bald. But he was Tasper Britt, in looks, as +Britt unadorned ought to have been. There was something like subtle +reproach in his sticking to nature as nature had ordained. And the +folks of Egypt had been having much to say about Usial Britt putting +this new touch of malice into the long-enduring feud between twin +brothers--even though he merely went on as he had been going, bald and +gray. But because Usial had taken to going about in public places +wherever Tasper appeared, and unobtrusively got as near his brother as +possible on those occasions, and winked and pointed to himself and +suggested "Before using!" the malice was apparent. + +Usial, in the door, stroked his smooth poll complacently and grinned. + +Tasper, on the porch, shook his fist. + +Prophet Elias marched close to the porch and struck an attitude. "Hear +ye! Hath not Job said, 'The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the +joy of the hypocrite but for a moment'?" + +A man who was humped over a sawbuck in a nearby yard straightened up +and began to pay strict attention. A driver halted a sled loaded with +unshaved hoop poles, and listened. The commercial drummer came out on +the porch. + +"Look here, you crazy coot, haven't I given you fair warning about +tongue-whaling me in public?" demanded the man who was pilloried. + +"'Behold, all they that are incensed against thee shall be ashamed and +confounded,'" quoted the Prophet, pounding his fist against the +lettered breast. "'They shall be as nothing; and they that strive with +thee shall perish.'" + +Mr. Britt leaped off the porch, thrust the Prophet from his path, and +strode across the street toward the man in the door. The brother did +not lose his smile. He maintained his placid demeanor even when an +angry finger slashed through the air close under his nose. + +"I never intended to pass speech with you again, you renegade," +stormed Tasper. "But I'm talking to-day for a town that I propose to +represent in the legislature, and I won't have it shamed any longer by +a lunatic that you're harboring." + +Usial Britt lifted his eyebrows. "The legislature?" He puckered his +lips and whistled a few bars of "Hail to the Chief." + +Candidate Britt waggled the monitory finger more energetically. "You +are sheltering and ste'boying on a crazy man who is making the rest of +the people in this town crazy. If they hadn't grown loony they'd ride +him out over the line on a rail." + +The Prophet had arrived at Britt's shoulder. "'But God has chose the +foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen +the weak things of the world to confound the things which are +mighty.'" + +"I don't guarantee my guest's brains," said the Britt in the door, +"but I do vouch for the correctness of his memory when it comes to the +matter of Gospel quotations. And a cracked record doesn't always spoil +a good tune." + +"I'll have him in the lockup as a tramp, or on the poor farm as a +lunatic." + +"You mean, that's where you would have him if the shelter of my roof +didn't give him legal protection," returned Usial, calm in the face of +wrath. + +"'I was a stranger, and ye took me in,'" declaimed the Prophet. + +"And I'm keeping you on," stated the cynical Usial, speaking for his +brother's benefit, "because you're a self-operating, red-hot gad that +is helping me torment yon pirate with texts after I had run out of +cuss words. Go ahead, Prophet! Shoot anything. It's a poor text that +will not hit him some place." + +Obediently, the fanatic began to mouth Holy Writ in orotund. Tasper +Britt raised his fist. But the devil himself shrinks before The Word. +Britt did not strike. His face revealed his emotions; he could not +bring himself to assault this fountain of sacred aphorisms. + +He turned and marched away down the middle of the road, stamping hard +into the snow. + +One of the listeners was a man who came bearing a pair of shoes. Usial +Britt took them from the man's hand. "You can have 'em to-morrow +night." + +"But there's only a little patch needed--" + +"To-morrow night, I said. I've got other business for to-day." He went +into the house and slammed the door. + +The Prophet set his umbrella over his head and went away on the trail +of Egypt's Pharaoh. + + + + CHAPTER III + + MORE COLLECTIONS + +There was a door in the middle of the facade of the low brick +building; there were two windows on either side of the door. On the +left-hand windows was painted in black letters, "Egypt Trust Company." +On the right-hand windows was painted, "T. Britt." There was no legend +to indicate what the business of T. Britt might be. None was required. +The mere name carried full information for all Egypt. + +Mr. Britt glanced in at the left-hand windows as he approached the +door. Cashier Frank Vaniman was sweeping out. + +When President Britt of the new Egypt Trust company went down to a +business college in the city in search of a cashier, he quizzed +candidates in quest of what he termed "foolish notions." Young Mr. +Vaniman, who had supported himself ever since he was fourteen years +old, and had done about everything in the ten years since then in the +way of work, grabbing weeks or months for his schooling when he had a +bit of money ahead, passed the test very well, according to Mr. +Britt's notion. Young Mr. Vaniman had secured a business education +piecemeal, and was a bit late in getting it, but Mr. Britt promptly +perceived that the young man had not been hung up by stupidity or +sloth. So he hired Vaniman, finding him a strapping chap without +foolish notions. + +Vaniman was cashier, receiving teller, paying teller, swept out, +tended the furnace, and kept the books of the bank until Britt hired +Vona Harnden for that job. Vona had been teaching school to help out +her folks, in the prevailing Egyptian famine in finance. + +But folks stopped paying taxes, and the town orders by the school +committee on the treasurer were not honored; therefore, Vona +gratefully took a place in the bank when Mr. Britt called her into his +office one day and offered the job to her. He said that the work was +getting to be too much for Frank. That consideration for hired help +impressed Miss Harnden and she smiled very sweetly indeed, and Mr. +Britt beamed back at her in a fashion that entirely disarranged for +the rest of the day the set look that he creased into his features +before his mirror every morning. Several clients took advantage of his +blandness and renewed notes without paying the premium that Britt +exacted when he loaned his own money as a private venture. + +President Britt entered the door, but he did not go into the bank at +once. He marched along the corridor and unlocked his office and +toasted himself over the furnace register while he finished his cigar; +Vaniman was a good fireman and was always down early. Mr. Britt kept +his ear cocked; he knew well the tap of certain brisk boot heels that +sounded in the corridor every morning and he timed his movements +accordingly. + +By being on the alert for sounds, he heard what did not comport with +the comfort of his office. Prophet Elias was engaged in his regular +morning tour of duty, picketing T. Britt's domains, giving an hour to +deliverance of taunting texts before going abroad through the town on +his mission to the people with texts of comfort; the Prophet carried +plenty of penetrating, textual ammunition, but he carried poultices +for the spirit as well. + +Mr. Britt heard: "'Will he esteem thy riches? No, not gold, nor all +the forces of strength.'" + +The usurer commented under his breath with remarks that were not +scriptured. He threw away his cigar and went to a case where he kept +some law books which contained the statutes that were concerned with +money and debts and dependence; he had been hunting through the +legislative acts regarding vagrants and paupers and had been hoping to +light on some legal twist that would serve him. The Prophet kept on +proclaiming. But all at once he shifted from taunts about riches. His +voice was mellow with sincere feeling. + +Said the Prophet: "'Behold, thou art fair, my love; thou hast doves' +eyes within thy locks. Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep which came +up from the washing. Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy +speech is comely. Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in +thee.'" + +Mr. Britt did not wait in his office for the completion of the +panegyric. He knew well enough what arriving personage it heralded. He +hurried out into the corridor and faced the radiant girl who came in +from the sunshine. Even one who might question the Prophet's tact +would not have blamed his enthusiasm. + +"Vona, you swear out a warrant and I'll have him arrested," stammered +the employer. + +She checked a chirrup of laughter and her smile faded when she opened +her eyes on Britt's sourness. + +"There's a law about hectoring and insulting a female person on the +street--some kind of a law--and we'll invoke it in this case," Britt +insisted. + +"Why, Mr. Britt, he's only a harmless old man with extremely poor +judgment about most things, including a girl's looks," she protested. + +"Don't you call that gabble an insult to you, walking along and +minding your own business?" His heat was alarming; he shook his fist +to indicate the Prophet. + +She was unable to restrain her demure smile. "The specifications, sir, +are overflattering; but I'm sure I don't feel insulted." + +In the past Britt had purred paternally in her presence and had stared +at her in a way that often disconcerted her. Now his expression +alarmed her. His face grew red. At first she thought he was +embarrassed by the reflection that he had been terming the Prophet's +compliments an insult--intimating that she had no claim to such +compliments. But Mr. Britt did not bother to deal with that phase of +the matter. The flame was shifted from his face to his eyes; his +cheeks grew pale. He tried to put his arm about her. She set her +gloved hands against the arm and pushed it away, fright popping her +eyelids wide apart. + +"I want to protect you," Britt stuttered. "I don't want any harm or +trouble to come to you." + +He stepped back and gazed at her imploringly. His abashed obedience, +his promptness in desisting, restored her self-possession immediately. +She had the air of one who had misunderstood friendly interest. "Oh, +Mr. Britt, I know you have a kind heart underneath your--I mean that +folks don't realize how good you are unless they are near to you, as +Frank and I are. We often speak of it." She hurried on. She opened the +door admitting to the bank from the corridor and cheerily called her +"Good morning!" to the cashier as she crossed the threshold. + +Mr. Britt stood in his tracks in the corridor after she closed the +door. He stared at the floor with eyes that saw nothing. He slowly +raised his hand and set his right index finger upon the toupee and +scratched meditatively through the mesh--scratched carefully, having +accustomed himself to handling his boughten hair with cautious touch. +He had not liked her intonation when she said "Frank and I." He +muttered something about his feelings. He had never thought of Frank +as belonging in Vona's calculations. He had never considered even the +linking of their names, much less their interests. + +But Mr. Britt, having made money his idol, could not understand +worship directed to any other shrine. His face cleared while he +pondered. A girl who frankly declared at all times that she would do +'most anything to help her family out of their troubles was not of a +mind to hitch up with another pauper--a combination of choreman and +cashier--even though she had linked their names casually in speech. +And Mr. Britt mouthed mumblingly some of the sentiments he had put +into words that morning when he arose. He smoothed down the top piece +and looked more at ease. He smiled when he reflected on what he would +have to say to her after Emissary Orne had returned with something in +the line of fruits from the Promised Land. His self-assurance revived; +nevertheless, he tiptoed along the corridor and listened at the door +of the bank. + +The reassuring swish of a broom and their casual chatter--he heard +only those commonplace sounds! + +She was asking Vaniman if he had mislaid her dustcloth. + +Vaniman replied in a tone which indicated that the two were at some +distance from each other. There was no subdued conference--no +murmuring of mushiness such as a meeting in the morning might be +expected to elicit in case there was any sort of an understanding +between them. Mr. Britt tiptoed away from the door and braced back his +shoulders and gave himself a shake of satisfied confidence, and went +serenely into his office, plucking a cigar from his vest pocket. By +permitting himself to smoke again he was breaking the habit of +confining himself to one cigar after breakfast. But many men in +moments of exaltation seek tobacco or alcohol. + +Mr. Britt felt that he had broken the ice, at any rate. Mr. Britt +decided that the girl was heart-free and entertained sensible ideas +about the main chance--and she had had a good word to say about +Britt's kind heart. Mr. Britt was sure that Frank Vaniman knew his +place and was keeping it. Therefore, Mr. Britt lighted a fresh cigar +and blew visible smoke rings and inflated invisible mental bubbles and +did not pay any more attention to what Prophet Elias was saying +outside. And as if the Prophet had received a psychological hint that +his text shafts were no longer penetrating the money king's tough +hide, the diminuendo of his orotund marked the progress of his +departure. + +Usually Mr. Britt went across into the bank and hung around after the +girl arrived. On this morning he stayed in his office. According to +his notion, his advances to her in the corridor, though he had not +intended to be so precipitate in the matter, had given her something +to think about--and he decided to keep away and let her think. If she +saw him following the usual routine, her thoughts might drop back into +routine channels. + +He thrilled at the memory of her touch on his arm, even though the +touch had been a thrusting of her hands in self-defense and her eyes +had been big with fright. + +He sat down at his desk and tore the leaf off his pad calendar, +starting his business day as usual. He looked at the disclosed date +and his eyes became humid. It was February 14th, the day of St. +Valentine. An idea came to Mr. Britt. He had been wondering how to +approach the question with Vona without blurting the thing and making +a mess of it. He determined to do something that he had not attempted +since he had beaued Hittie; he set himself to compose a few verses for +a valentine--verses that would pave the way for a formal declaration +of his love and his hopes. + +The determination indicated that Mr. Britt was having a severe run of +a second attack of the same malady, and he acknowledged that much to +himself as he sat there and chewed the soggy end of an extinguished +cigar and gazed aloft raptly, seeking rhymes. + +He made slow progress; his pen trailed as sluggishly as a tracking +snail--a word at a time. He lost all notion of how the hours were +slipping past. + +A man walked in. He was Stickney, a cattle buyer, and a minor +stockholder in the bank. Mr. Britt, his eyes filmy with prolonged +abstraction, hooked his chin over his shoulder and scowled on the +intruder; a man bringing business into that office that day was an +intruder, according to Mr. Britt's opinion. + +Stickney walked close to the desk and displayed a flash of curiosity +when Britt laid his forearm over his writing. + +"Spring pome, or only a novel?" queried Stickney, genially, figuring +that such a question was the height of humor when put to a man of +Tasper Britt's flinty, practical nature. + +Mr. Britt, like a person touched smartly by a brad, twitched himself +in his chair and asked in chilly tone what he could do for Stickney. +The caller promptly became considerable of an icicle himself. He laid +down a little sheaf of papers beside the shielding forearm. + +"If you'll O. K. them notes for discount, I'll be much obliged, and +won't take up valuable time." + +"We're tightening up on discounts--calling in many loans, too," stated +President Britt, with financial frigidity. + +"I know all about your calling loans, Mr. Britt. Much obliged. It +makes a crackerjack market for me in the cattle business. They've got +to raise money, and I'm setting my own prices." Stickney thawed and +beamed on Britt with a show of fraternal spirit, as if the banker were +a co-conspirator in the job of shaking down the public. "However, my +notes there are all good butchers' paper--sound as a pennyroyal hymn! +I've got to have the cash so as to steal more cattle while the market +is as it is." + +Britt pushed away the notes and seized the opportunity to turn his own +papers upside down on the desk. "We can't accommodate you at present, +Stickney." + +The customer stepped back and propped his palms on his hips. "I reckon +I've got to call for an explanation." + +"We're not in the habit of explaining the details of our business to +individuals." + +Stickney slipped the leash on his indignation. "'We,' say you? All +right! 'We' it is. I'm in on that 'we.' I'm a stockholder in the bank. +What sort of investments are 'we' making that have caused money to be +so tight here that a regular customer is turned down--and after enough +loans have been called to make the vault bulge?" + +"The report will show," returned Britt, coldly. "I am not called on to +issue that report in installments every time a stockholder turns in +here." + +The especial stockholder stepped forward and tapped his finger on the +desk. "I don't say that you are. But now that this subject is opened +up--" + +"The subject is closed, Stickney." + +"Now that the subject is opened up," insisted the other man, "I'll +make mention of what you probably know--that I have regular business +'most every day down in Levant at the railroad terminus. And I'm +knowing to it that regular shipments of specie have been coming to the +bank. If that specie is in our vaults it ain't sweating off more gold +and silver, is it, or drawing interest? I know you're a shrewd +operator, Britt. I ain't doubting but what your plans may be good." + +"They are!" President Britt's retort was crisp. + +"But when those plans put a crimp into /my/ plans--and me a steady +customer--I'm opening my mouth to ask questions." + +"You--and all other stockholders--will be fully informed by the annual +report--and will be pleased." Britt's air was one of finality. + +"Let me tell you that the mouth I have opened to ask questions will +stay open in regard to hoarding that specie where it ain't drawing +interest." + +Britt jumped up and shook his fist under Stickney's snub nose. "Don't +you dare to go blabbing around the country! You might as well set off +a bomb under our bank as to circulate news that will attract robbers." + +"Bomb? Britt, I'm safe when I'm handled right, but if I'm handled +wrong--" Stickney did not finish his sentence; but his truculent air +was pregnant with suggestion. + +"Do you think you can blackmail me or this bank into making an +exception in your case against our present policy? Go ahead and talk, +Stickney, and I'll post the people of this town on your selfish +tactics--and you'll see where you get off!" + +Stickney did not argue the matter further. He looked like a man who +was disgusted because he had wasted so much time trying to get around +a Tasper Britt stony "No!" He picked up his papers, stamped out, and +slammed the door. + +Britt shook himself, like a spiritualist medium trying to induce the +trance state, and went back to his writing. + +After a time a dull, thrumming sound attracted his attention. It was +something like Files's dinner gong, whose summons Mr. Britt was wont +to obey on the instant. + +Mr. Britt was certain that it was not the gong; however, he glanced up +at the clock on the wall, then he leaped out of his chair. In his +amazement he rapped out, "Well, I'll be--" + +That clock was reliable; it marked the hour of twelve. + +Mr. Britt had received convincing evidence that the rhapsody of +composition makes morsels of hours and gulps days in two bites. + +But he had completed five stanzas. He concluded that they would do, +though he had planned on five more. Glancing over his composition, he +decided that it might be better to leave the matter a bit vague, just +as the poem left it at the end of the fifth stanza. In the corridor +that morning Vona had shown that too much precipitateness alarmed her; +he might go too far in five more stanzas. The five he had completed +would give her a hint--something to think of. He pondered on that +point while he stuck the paper into an envelope and sealed it. + +Mr. Britt hurried the rest of his movements; Files's kitchen +conveniences were archaic, and the guest who was not on time got cold +viands. + +The lover who had begun to stir Miss Harnden's thoughts into rather +unpleasant roiliness of doubts came hustling into the bank, hat and +coat on. + +The girl and young Vaniman were spreading their respective lunches on +the center table inside the grille. + +Britt called Vona to the wicket. He slipped the envelope through to +her. "There's no hurry, you understand! Take your time. Read it in a +slack moment--later! And"--he hesitated and gulped--"I want to see you +after bank hours. If you'll step in--I'll be much obliged." + +She did not assent orally, nor show especial willingness to respond to +his invitation. She took the envelope and turned toward the table +after Britt had left the wicket. + +She walked to the window and gazed at the retreating back of Mr. +Britt, and put the envelope into a velvet bag that was attached by +slender chains to her girdle. + +When she faced Vaniman, the young cashier was regarding her archly. + +"I wonder if congratulations are in order," he suggested. + +Her quick flush was followed by a pallor that gave her an appearance +of anger. "I don't relish that sort of humor." + +"My gracious, Vona, I wasn't trying to be especially humorous," he +protested, staring at her so ingenuously that his candor could not be +questioned. "I reckoned that the boss was raising your pay, and was +being a bit sly about it! What else can it be?" + +Then she was truly disconcerted; at a loss for a reply; ashamed of her +display of emotion. + +He stared hard at her. His face began to show that he was struggling +with an emotion of his own. "Vona," he faltered, after a time, "I +haven't any right to ask you--but do you have any--is that paper--" + +He was unable to go on under the straight and strange gaze she leveled +at him. She was plainly one who was taking counsel with herself. She +came to a sudden decision, and drew forth the envelope and tore it +open, unfolded the paper, and began to read. + +When her eyes were not on him Vaniman revealed much of what a +discerning person would have known to be love; love that had been +pursuing its way quietly, but was now alarmed and up in arms. He +narrowed his eyes and studied her face while she read. But she did not +reveal what she thought and he became more perturbed. She finished and +looked across at him and then she narrowed her eyes to match his +expression. Suddenly she leaned forward and gave him the paper. He +read it, amazement lifting his eyebrows. + +When he met her stare again they were moved by a common impulse-- +mirth; mirth that was born out of their mutual amazement and was +baptized by the tears that their merriment squeezed from their eyes. + +"I am not laughing at Tasper Britt," he gasped, checking his hilarity. +"I would not laugh at any man who falls in love with you, Vona. I am +laughing at the idea of Tasper Britt writing poetry. Let me look out +of the window! Has Burkett Hill tipped over? Has the sun turned in the +heavens at high noon and started back to the east?" + +"What does it mean?" she asked. Her expression excused the banality of +her query; her eyes told him that she knew, but her ears awaited his +indorsement of her woman's conviction. + +He pointed to the big calendar on the wall. "It's a valentine," he +said, gravely. But the twinkle reappeared in his eyes when he added, +"And valentines have always been used for prefaces in the volume of +Love." + +She did not reflect any of his amusement. She clasped her hands and +gazed down on them, and her forehead was wrinkled with honest +distress. + +"Of course, you have sort of been guessing," he ventured. "All the +renovating process--the way he has been tiptoeing around and squinting +at you!" + +She looked up suddenly and caught his gaze; his tone had been hard, +but his eyes were tender. + +Then it happened! + +They had been hiding their deeper feelings under the thin coating of +comradeship for a long time. As in the instance of other pent-up +explosives, only the right kind of a jar was needed to "trip" the +mass. + +The threat of a rival--even of such a preposterous rival as Tasper +Britt--served as detonator in the case of Frank Vaniman, and the +explosion of his emotions produced sympathetic results in the girl +across the table from him. He leaped up, strode around to her and put +out his arms, and she rushed into the embrace he offered. + +But their mutual consolations were denied them--he was obliged to dam +back his choking speech and she her blessed tears. + +A depositor came stamping in. + +They were calm, with their customary check on emotions, when they were +free to talk after the man had gone away. + +"Vona, I did not mean to speak out to you so soon," he told her. "Not +but what it was in here"--he patted his breast--"and fairly boiling +all the time!" + +She assured him, with a timid look, that her own emotions had not been +different from his. + +"But I have respected your obligations," he went on, with earnest +candor. "And this is the first real job I've ever had. It's best to be +honest with each other." + +She agreed fervently. + +"I wish we could be just as honest with Britt. But we both know what +kind of a man he is. The sentiment of 'Love, and the world well lost' +is better in a book than it is in this bank just now, as matters stand +with us. I have had so many hard knocks in life that I know what they +mean, and I want to save you from them. Isn't it best to go along as +we are for a little while, till I can see my way to get my feet placed +somewhere else?" + +"We must do so, Frank--for the time being." Her candor matched his. "I +do need this employment for the sake of my folks. Both of us must be +fair to ourselves--not silly. Only--" + +Her forehead wrinkled again. + +"I know, Vona! Britt's attentions! I'll take it on myself--" + +"No," she broke in, with dignity. "I must make that my own affair. It +can be easily settled. It's pure folly on his part. I'll make him +understand it when I talk with him this afternoon." + +"But I'll feel like a coward," he protested, passionately. + +She put up her hand and smiled. "You're not a coward, dear! Nor am I a +hypocrite. We're just two poor toilers who must do the best we can +till the clouds clear away." + +She went to him, and when her hands caressed his cheeks he bent down +and kissed her. + +Then they applied themselves to their tasks in Mr. Britt's bank. + + + + CHAPTER IV + + THE ACHE OF RAPPED KNUCKLES + +Landlord Files set forth a boiled dinner that day; he skinched on +corned beef and made up on cabbage; but he economized on fuel, and the +cabbage was underdone. + +Mr. Britt, back in his office, allowing his various affairs to be +digested--his dinner, his political project, the valentine--his hopes +in general--found that soggy cabbage to be a particularly tough +proposition. He was not sufficiently imaginative to view his +punishment by the intractable cabbage as a premonitory hint that he +was destined to suffer as much in his pride as he did in his stomach. +His pangs took his mind off the other affairs. He was pallid and his +lips were blue when Emissary Orne came waddling into the office. + +Mr. Orne, in addition to other characteristics that suggested a fowl, +had a sagging dewlap, and the February nip had colored it into +resemblance to a rooster's wattles. When he came in Mr. Orne's face +was sagging, in general. It was a countenance that was already ridged +into an expression of sympathy. When he set eyes on Britt the +expression of woe was touched up with alarm. But that the alarm had to +do with the personal affairs of Mr. Orne was shown when he inquired +apprehensively whether Mr. Britt would settle then and there for the +day's work. + +The candidate looked up at the office timepiece. "It ain't three +o'clock. I don't call it a day." + +"You call it a day in banking. I've got the same right to call it a +day in politics." + +"What infernal notion is afoul of you, Orne, grabbing for my money +before you report?" + +"I do business with a man according to his own rules--and then he's +suited, or ought to be. You collect sharp on the dot after service has +been rendered. So do I." Mr. Orne was displaying more acute nervous +apprehension. "And the understanding was that you'd leave it to me as +your manager, and wouldn't go banging around, yourself." + +Britt found the agent's manner puzzling. "I haven't been out of this +office, except to go to my dinner. I haven't talked politics with +anybody." + +"Oh!" remarked Orne, showing relief. "Perhaps, then, it was the way +the light fell on your face." He peered closely at his client. Mr. +Britt's color was coming back. Orne's cryptic speeches and his haste +to collect had warmed the banker's wrath. "It'll be ten dollars, as we +agreed." + +Britt yanked a big wallet from his breast pocket, plucked out a bill, +and shoved it at Orne. The latter set the bill carefully into a big +wallet of his own, "sunk" the calfskin, and buttoned up his buffalo +coat. + +"It does beat blazes," stated "Sniffer" Orne, "what a messed up state +all politics is in since this prim'ry business has put the blinko onto +caucuses and conventions. Caucuses was sensible, Mr. Britt. Needn't +tell me! Voters liked to have the wear and tear off 'em. Now a voter +gets into that booth and has to caucus by himself, and he's either so +puffed up by importance that he thinks he's the whole party or else--" + +Mr. Britt's patience was ground between the millstones of anger and +indigestion. He smacked the flat of his hand on his desk. "When I want +a stump speech out of you, Orne, I'll drop you a postcard and give you +thirty days' notice so that you can get up a good one. You have made a +short day of it, as I said, but you needn't feel called on to fill it +up with a lecture." Mr. Britt continued on pompously and revealed that +he placed his own favorable construction on the emissary's early +return from the field. "You didn't have to go very far, hey, to find +out how I stand for that nomination?" + +"I went far enough so that you can depend on what I tell you." + +"Go ahead and tell, then." + +Mr. Orne slowly fished a quill toothpick from the pocket of his +overcoat, set the end of the quill in his mouth, and "sipped" the air +sibilantly, gazing over Britt's head with professional gravity. "Of +course, you're the doctor in this case and are paying the money, and +if you don't want any soothing facts, like I was intending to throw in +free of charge and for good measure, showing how the best of +politicians--" + +There were ominous sounds from the direction of Britt. Orne checked +his discourse, but he did not look at the candidate. "But no matter," +said the agent. "That may be neither here nor there. You're the +doctor, I say! When I first came in here I thought you had been +disobeying my orders and had dabbled into the thing. Your face looked +like you was posted." + +"I'm paying for the goods, not for gobbling, you infernal old turkey! +Come out with the facts!" + +"Facts is that the whole thing is completely gooly-washed up," stated +Mr. Orne, with an oracle's decisiveness. + +But that declaration in Mr. Orne's political terminology did not +convey much information to the candidate. Britt, thoroughly incensed +by what seemed to be evasion, leaped up, twitched the toothpick from +Orne's lips, and flung it away. "I've paid for the English language, +and I want it straight and in short words, and not trigged by a +toothpick." + +"All right! You're licked before you start." + +It was a bit too straight from the shoulder--that piece of news! Britt +blinked as if he had received a blow between the eyes. He sat down and +stared at Orne, elbows on the arms of the chair, hands limply hanging +from lax wrists. + +"It's this way!" Mr. Orne started, briskly, with upraised forefinger; +but he shook his head and put down his hand. He turned away. "I +forgot. You ordered plain facts." + +"You hold on!" Britt thundered. "How do you dare to tell me that you +can go out and in fifteen minutes come back with information of that +sort?" + +Mr. Orne glanced reproachfully from his detractor to the clock; he had +not the same reasons as Mr. Britt had for finding the hours of the day +fleeting. "Mr. Britt, a man doesn't need to make a hoss of himself and +eat a whole head of cabbage by way of sampling it." Britt winced at +the random simile. "It's the same way with me in sampling politics, +being an expert. Your case, to start with, had me gy-poogled and--" + +"English language, I tell you!" Britt emphasized his stand as a +stickler by a tremendous thump of his fist on the desk. + +Orne jabbed his finger back and forth from his breast to the direction +of Britt, with the motions of the "eeny, meeny" game. "I was mistook. +You was mistook. I figgered on your money. So did you. I figgered +you'd go strong in politics like you had in /finance/. So did you." +Mr. Orne put his hand up sidewise and sliced the air. "Nothing doing +in politics, Mr. Britt! You can cash in on straight capital, but there +ain't a cent in the dollar for you when you try to collect in what you +'ain't ever invested. A man don't have to be so blamed popular after +he is well settled in politics; but you've got to have some real +human-nature assets to get a start with. You've got to depend on given +votes--not the boughten ones." + +"Orne, you're rasping me mighty hard." + +"You demanded facts--not hair-oil talk." + +"Then the facts are--" Britt hesitated. + +"Facts is that, by the usual arrangement in the legislative class of +towns, Egypt had the choice this year. You won't get a vote in Egypt." + +"But the men who come in here--" Again Britt halted in a sentence. + +"The men who come in here and sit down at that desk and pick up a pen +to sign a note have fixed on their grins before they open your door. +But the men who get into a voting booth alone with God and a lead +pencil, they'll jab down on to that ballot a cross for t'other +candidate that'll look like a dent in a tin dipper. Somebody else +might lie to you about the situation, Mr. Britt. I've done consid'able +lying in politics, too. But when I'm hired by a man to deliver goods-- +and same has been paid for--my word can be depended on." + +Britt turned around and looked into the depths of his desk, staring +vacantly. His rounded shoulders suggested grief. Orne settled his +wallet more firmly, pressing on the outside of the buffalo coat. His +face again sagged with sympathy. "Mr. Britt, it's only like what most +of us do in this life--take smiles without testing 'em with acid--take +words-current for what they seem to be worth, and then we do test 'em +out and--" + +Britt whirled and broke on this fatuous preachment with an oath. Mr. +Orne thriftily withheld further sympathy; it was plainly wasted. + +"Orne, I hope it's about due to revise the New Testament again. I want +to send in some footnotes for that page where Judas Iscariot is +mentioned. I want a full roster of his descendants to appear; I'll +furnish the voting list of this town. Get out of here and pass that +word." + +But a yelp from the candidate halted the departing Orne at the door. +"Seeing that you have my ten dollars and are full of political +information, perhaps you'll throw in free of charge who it is this +town is going to send to the legislature!" + +"Only one thing has been decided on so far," returned the politician. +"And, having no desire to rub it in, I'll let you draw your own +conclusions." Mr. Orne had the door open; he dodged out and slammed +the door shut. + +It was promptly opened--so promptly that Mr. Britt was fairly caught +at what he was about. He was standing up, shaking both fists at the +door and cursing roundly. Vona was gazing at him in alarm. + +"I was waiting in the corridor, sir, till you--till your business-- +till Mr. Orne went away," she stammered. + +"Come in!" muttered Britt, even more disconcerted than the girl. + +Then he wished that he had told her to go away. He realized that he +was in no mood or condition to woo; the cabbage had tortured him, but +this new sort of indigestion in the very soul of him had left him +without poise or courage. + +He slumped down in his chair and waved a limp hand in invitation for +her to take a seat near him. But she merely came and stood in the +middle of the room and surveyed him with an uncompromising air of +business. From the velvet toque, with just a suggestion of a +coquettish cant on her brown curls, down her healthily round cheeks, a +bit flushed, above the fur neckpiece that clasped her throat, Britt's +fervent eyes strayed. And some of the words of the Prophet's singsong +monotone echoed in the empty chambers of Britt's consciousness, "'Thou +hast dove's eyes within thy locks--thy lips are like a thread of +scarlet.'" + +But she was aloof. She held herself rigidly erect. Her eyes were +coldly inquiring. Those lips were set tightly. Mr. Britt had just been +reaching out for honors, and his knuckles had been rapped cruelly. He +wanted to reach out for love--and he dared not. The girl, as she stood +there, was so patently among the things he was not able to possess! + +She had come into his presence with expectation keenly alert, with her +fears putting her into a mental posture of defense. She felt that she +knew just what was going to happen, and she was assuring herself that +she would be able to meet the situation. But she was not prepared for +what did happen. She did not understand Britt's mental state of that +moment. Mr. Britt, himself, did not understand. He had never been up +against conditions of that sort. He had not had time to fix his face +and his mood, as he did daily before the mirror in his bedroom. He did +what nobody had ever seen him do--what neither he nor the girl would +have predicted one minute before as among human probabilities--he +broke down and blubbered like a whipped urchin. + +And after he had recovered some of his composure and was gazing up at +her again, sniffling and scrubbing his reddened eyes with the bulge at +the base of his thumb, knowing that he must say something by way of +legitimate excuse, dreading the ridicule that a girl's gossip might +bring upon him, a notion that was characteristic of Mr. Britt came to +him: he grimly weighed the idea of telling her that Files's boiled +dinner was the cause of his breakdown. However, in his weakness, his +love flamed more hotly than ever before. + +"Vona, I'm so lonesome!" he gulped. + +Miss Harnden had entered behind her shield, nerved like a battling +Amazon. She promptly lowered that shield and became all woman, with a +woman's instinctive sympathetic understanding, but womanlike, she took +the opportunity to introduce for her own defense a bit of guile with +her sympathy. "I quite understand how you feel about the loss of Mrs. +Britt, sir. And I'm glad because you remain so loyal to her memory." + +Mr. Britt, like a man who had received a dipperful of cold water in +the face, backed away from anything like a proposal at that +unpropitious moment. But in all his arid nature he felt the need of +some sort of consolation from a feminine source. "Vona, I've just had +a terrible setback," he mourned. "There's only one other +disappointment that could be any worse--and I don't dare to think of +that right now." + +Miss Harnden apprehensively proceeded to keep him away from the +prospective disappointment, dwelling on the present, asking him +solicitously what had happened. + +He told her of his ambition and of what Ossian Orne had reported. + +"But why should that be so very important for a man like you--to go to +the legislature--Mr. Britt?" + +He opened his mouth, hankering to blurt out what he had been +treasuring as dreams whose realization would serve as an inducement to +her. He had been picturing to himself their honeymoon at the state +capital, away from the captious tongues of Egypt--how he would stalk +with his handsome bride into the dining room of the capital's biggest +hotel; how she would attract the eyes of jealous men, in her finery +and with her jewels; how she would sit in the gallery at the State +House and survey him making his bigness among the lawmakers; for some +weeks he had been laboring on the composition of a speech that he +intended to deliver. But her second dash of cold water kept him from +the disclosure of his feelings. He went on so far as to ask her if she +did not think a session at the state capital would be interesting. + +"I have never thought anything about such a matter, of course, Mr. +Britt, being only a girl and not a politician." + +"But women who are there get into high society and wear fine clothes +and have a grand time, Vona." + +"It must be a tedious life," she replied, indifferently. + +"Wouldn't you like to try it?" Now that he could not offer her the +grand inducement he had planned as an essential part of his campaign +of love he sought consolation in her assurance that the prospect did +not tempt her. His hopes revived. He was reflecting that his money +could buy railroad tickets, even if he had not the popularity with +which to win votes. She shook her head promptly when he asked the +question, and he went on with his new idea. "I suppose what a girl +really enjoys is to see the world, after she has been penned up all +her life in a town like this." + +"I don't waste my time in foolish longings, Mr. Britt. In fact, I have +no time to waste on anything." She gave him a bit of a smile. "In that +connection I'll confess that I must hurry home and help mother with +some sewing. Did you want anything especial of me?" Her smile had +vanished, and in her tone there was a clink of the metallic that was +as subtly suggestive of "On guard" as the click of a trigger. + +Mr. Britt had planned upon a radiant disclosing of his projects-- +expecting to be spurred in his advances by the assurance of what he +could offer her as the consort of a legislator--as high an honor as +his narrow vision could compass. She had found him cursing, had kept +him at bay, and he had already had evidence of the danger of +precipitateness in her case. And his tears made him feel foolish. His +ardor had been wet down; it took a back seat. His natural good +judgment was again boss of the situation. + +"I had something on my mind--but it can wait till you're in less of a +hurry, Vona. Never neglect a mother. That's my attitude toward women. +I'm always considerate where they're concerned. It's my nature. I hope +you'll hold that in mind." + +"Yes, Mr. Britt." She turned and hurried to the door, getting away +from a fire that was showing signs of breaking out of its smoldering +brands once more. + +Britt recovered some of his courage when her back was turned. "You +haven't said anything about those verses," he stammered. + +"I think it's a beautiful way of putting aside your business cares for +a time. I'm taking them home to read to mother." + +He marched to the window and watched her as long as she was in sight. + +Then he glowered on such of the Egyptians as passed to and fro along +the street on their affairs. He muttered, spicing his comments with +profanity. The girl's disclaimer of personal interest in Britt's +ambitions did not soften his rancorous determination to make the +voters of Egypt suffer for the stand they had taken--suffer to the +bitter limit to which unrelenting persecution could drive them. He +gritted his teeth and raved aloud. "From now on! From now on! Anything +short of murder to show 'em! And as for that girl--if there's +somebody--" + +Britt stopped short of what that rival might expect, but his +expression indicated that the matter was of even more moment than his +affair with the voters of the town. + + + + CHAPTER V + + "AND PHARAOH'S HEART WAS HARDENED" + +When Vona left him that afternoon, Vaniman paced the floor. + +She had gone bravely to her meeting with Britt, bearing Frank's kiss +on her cheek--a caress of encouragement when he had walked with her to +the door in order to lock it after her. + +It was not worry that caused him to tramp to and fro, frowning. Vona's +demeanor of self-reliance had helped his feelings a great deal. But +the corollary of devoted love is chivalry, and he felt that he was +allowing her to do something that belonged to him to so, somehow. The +policy which they had so sanely discussed did not seem to be such a +comfortable course when he was alone, wondering what was going on +across the corridor. + +At last the sound of a door and the click of her heels signaled the +end of the interview. He hoped that she would come back into the bank, +making an excuse of something forgotten, in order to give him a +soothing bulletin. He ran to the door and opened it. But the slam of +the outside door informed him that she had gone on her way. Her prompt +departure indicated that she was consistently pursuing the level- +headed policy they had adopted; but the young man, impatient and +wondering, was wishing she had taken a change, for once, even to the +prejudice of policy. He shut his door and hurried to the window. + +Though two men were watching her going-away, and though she must have +been conscious of the fact, she did not turn her head to glance behind +her. + +At any rate, the thing was over, whatever had happened, the cashier +reflected with relief. Nevertheless, curiosity was nagging at him; he +felt an impulse to go in and inspect the condition of Tasper Britt by +way of securing a hint. + +Vaniman, however, shook his head and dropped into the routine of his +duties. The ruts of life in Egypt, especially in the winter, were deep +ones. The cashier had become contented with his little circle of +occupation and recreation. + +He carried the books into the vault. He wound the clock that +controlled the mechanism of bolts and bars, and pushed the big outer +door shut and made certain that it was secure. + +Having finished as cashier, he became janitor. + +Egypt had no electric lights. Vaniman trimmed the kerosene reflector +lamp and set it on the table so that the front of the safe would be +illuminated for the benefit of the village's night watchman. + +Then he put on his cap and overcoat and locked the grille door and the +bank door after he had passed each portal. His last chore of the day +was always a trip into the basement to make sure that the dying fire +in the wood furnace was carefully closed in for the night. + +The basement stairs led from the rear of the corridor. When Vaniman +returned up the stairs he had settled on a small matter of business +which would serve as a valid excuse for entering the presence of +President Britt. But he did not need to employ the excuse. Britt stood +in his open door and called to the cashier and walked back to his +chair, leaving Vaniman to follow, and the employee obeyed the summons +with alacrity; he was consumed with desire to get a line on the +situation that had been troubling him. + +An observer would have called the contest of mutual inspection a +fifty-fifty break--perhaps with a shade in favor of Britt, for the +usurer's face was like leather and his goggling marbles of eyes under +the lids that resembled little tents did not flicker. + +"What can I do for you?" Britt demanded, and the query made for the +young man's discomposure. + +"Why, you called me in, sir!" + +"Uh-huh!" the president admitted, "but somehow I had the impression +that you said you wanted to see me after the bank closed." He was +taking account of stock of Vaniman's personality, his eyes going up +and down the stalwart figure and dwelling finally and persistently on +the young man's hair; it was copper-bronze in hue, it had an +attractive wave, there was plenty of it, and it seemed to be very +firmly rooted. + +"I don't remember that I mentioned it, Mr. Britt, but I do have an +errand with you." + +"All right! What is it?" Mr. Britt was not revealing any emotions that +Vaniman found illuminating in regard to his particular quest. + +"I am being tongue-lashed terribly through the wicket. Men won't +believe that I'm obeying the orders of you and the board when +accommodation is refused. Won't you take the matter off my hands--let +me refer all to you?" + +"I don't keep a dog and do my own barking," rasped the president. He +brought his eyes down from the young man's hair and noted that Vaniman +stiffened and was displaying resentment. + +"That's only a Yankee motto--you needn't take it as personal, Vaniman. +I have turned over to you the running of the bank. I say to all that +you're running it. You ought to feel pretty well set up!" + +"I obey your orders, sir," returned the cashier, not warming. + +"That's all right for an understanding between us two. But I let the +public think you're the whole thing. I tell 'em I've got full +confidence in you. You don't want the public to think you're only a +rubber stamp, do you?" + +"The general opinion right now seems to be that I'm either a first- +class liar or Shylock sentenced to a second term on earth," retorted +Vaniman, with bitterness. + +There was a long silence in the room, where the early dusk was +deepening. The two men regarded each other with expressions that did +not soften. + +After a time Britt turned to his desk, unlocked a compartment, and +produced a letter, which he unfolded slowly, again staring hard at the +cashier. + +"Speaking of being sentenced!" There was something ominous in his +drawl. "You told me a whole lot about yourself, Vaniman, when I was +talking of hiring you. But there was one important thing you didn't +mention--mighty important, seeing that you wanted a job as boss of a +bank." He tapped the open letter. "I've had this letter for a good +many weeks, not saying anything about it to you or anybody else. I'm +not sure just why I'm saying anything now." + +Vaniman flushed. His face worked with emotion. He put up his hand and +started to speak, but Britt put up a more compelling hand and went on. +"I reckon I'm bringing this matter up so that you'll know just where +you stand--so that you'll mind your eye and look out for my interests +in every way from now on--so that--" He hesitated a moment. His eyes +flamed. "So that you'll know your place! That's it! Know your place-- +and be mighty careful how you go against me in anything--anything +where I'm interested." Britt had whipped himself into anger. That +anger, fanned by a flame of jealousy after it had been touched off by +his inspection of youth and good looks, had carried Mr. Britt far. He +shook the letter at the young man. "There's a reliable name signed to +this letter; he is a friend of mine, one of the big financiers in the +city, and this was in the way of friendly warning." + +"I understand, Mr. Britt." The cashier had recovered his self- +possession. "You are warned that my father was sentenced to the +penitentiary for embezzlement. No, I did not mention that to you. It +concerned a man who is dead. It has nothing to do with my honesty." + +"Well, there's another motto about 'blood will tell,'" sneered Britt. + +Vaniman stepped forward, honestly indignant, manfully resolute. "Let +me tell you, sir, that the letter you hold there--no matter who wrote +it--concerns a /good/ man who is dead. He was the scapegoat of one of +those big financiers." Vaniman's lip curled. "My father was railroaded +to jail on a track greased with lies--and died because the heart had +been ripped out of him and--" + +"Hold on! It won't get us anywhere to try that case all over, Vaniman. +Let the letter stand as it is--it was probably meant in the right +spirit. But I didn't write it. You and I better not fight over it. +I've shown, by laying it away and saying nothing, that I have a decent +nature in me. I hope I'll never have any need to take it out of this +desk again." He turned and shoved the paper back and locked the +compartment. + +"I think it is best for me to resign, Mr. Britt." + +"Don't be a fool, young man. Now that this thing is off our minds +there's a better understanding between us than ever. I don't think--I +hope"--he surveyed Vaniman with leisure in which there was the +suggestion of a threat--"I'll never have any occasion to take that +letter out again. Er--ah--" Britt joggled a watch charm and inquired, +casually, "Would you plan on getting married if I boost your wages a +little?" + +In spite of an effort to control himself under Britt's basilisk stare, +Vaniman showed how much the query had jumped him. + +"Of course, a chap like you has had his sweetheart down in the city," +pursued the inquisitor when the young man failed to answer. "Must be +one there now." + +"I have no sweetheart in the city, Mr. Britt." + +Then there was a longer silence in the room. The cashier was not +enduring inspection with an air that did credit to his promise to keep +a secret. Britt had made a breach in the wall of Vaniman's mental +defense by the means of that letter and its implied accusation; Britt +was taking advantage of that breach. Right then the young man was in a +mood that would have prompted him to fling the truth and his defiance +at Britt if the latter had kept on to the logical conclusion of his +interrogation and had asked whether there was a sweetheart elsewhere; +Vaniman had the feeling that by denying his love at that moment--to +that man of all others--he would be dealing insult to Vona Harnden, as +well as taking from her the protection that his affection gave her. + +The attention of Britt was diverted from the quarry he was pursuing. + +Outside Britt Block, Prophet Elias raised his voice in his regular +"vesper service." It was his practice, on his way to Usial Britt's +cottage from his daily domiciliary visits, to halt in front of the +bank and deliver a few texts. The first one--and the two men in the +office listened--was of the general tenor of those addressed to +"Pharaoh." Said the Prophet, in resounding tones, "'As a roaring lion +and a ranging bear, so is a wicked ruler over the poor people.'" + +"Vaniman, go out and tell that old hoot owl to move on! I'm in a +dangerous frame of mind to-day." Britt's lips were pulled tightly +against his yellow teeth. + +The Prophet's next deliverance was more concretely to the point-- +indicating that the exhorter was not so much wrapped up in religion +that he had no ear out for the political news current in Egypt that +day, "'Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a +fall.'" + +There was a fireplace in the office and Britt leaped to it and grabbed +a poker. The cashier was moved to interfere, urged by two compelling +motives. He wanted to get away from his own dangerous situation of the +moment in that office--and he wanted to protect the old man outside +from assault. "I'll attend to him, sir!" But he halted at the door and +turned. "Mr. Britt, our talk has driven an important matter from my +mind. The men who bellow at me through the wicket have considerable to +say about our hoarding specie. It makes me uneasy to have that sort of +gossip going the rounds." + +"We'll have the money out of here in a short time, Vaniman, as I have +told you. That broker says that foreign money is going lower yet--and +seeing that we've taken all this trouble to get the hard cash ready +for the deal, we may as well make the clean-up as big as we can." + +"Don't you think we'd better hire a couple of good men with rifles and +put 'em in the bank nights, sir?" + +President Britt declared with scorn that the expense was not +necessary, that putting guards in the bank would only start more talk, +and that it also would be essential to hire old Ike Jones to sit in +front of the vault and play all night on his trombone to keep awake +any two men picked from Egypt. While Britt was expressing his opinion +of inefficiency and expense, the Prophet was furnishing this obbligato +outside, "'He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, +he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.'" + +Vaniman closed the door on Britt's objurgations. + +The young man did not find it necessary to prevail upon the Prophet to +give over his discourse. As soon as the emissary appeared Elias folded +his ample umbrella, tucked it under his arm, gave Vaniman a friendly +greeting, and winked at him. The twilight dimmed the seamed face and +the young man wondered whether he had been mistaken about the sly +suggestiveness of that wink. + +"Joseph, how doth Pharaoh rest on his throne? Doth he sit easy?" + +Always in their brief but good-natured interviews the evangelist +called the young man "Joseph." Elias took Vaniman's arm and walked +along with him. + +"I'm afraid, Prophet Elias, that you'll provoke Mr. Britt too far. +Take my advice. Keep away from him for a time." + +"'There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yeah, four +which I know not: the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent +upon a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of +a man with a maid,'" said the Prophet, placidly. "Furthermore, 'The +proud have digged pits for me.' Joseph, the pitfalls encompass thee." + +Vaniman refrained from making a reply; the Prophet was displaying an +embarrassing amount of sapience as to conditions. + +In front of Usial Britt's cot they halted and the eccentric leaned +close to Vaniman's ear. "Joseph, my son, keep thine eye peeled." He +released the cashier's arm and strode to the door of Usial's house. + +Vaniman, delaying his departure, noted that the door did not give way +when the Prophet wrenched at the knob. The guest banged his fist +against a panel. "Let it be opened unto me!" he shouted. + +His voice served as his guaranty; Usial Britt opened the door and +slammed it shut so suddenly after the Prophet had entered that it was +necessary to reopen the portal and release the tail of Elias's robe. + + + + CHAPTER VI + + "THE HORNET" GOES TO PRESS + +Vaniman did not go on his way at once, though, by his daily routine, +he was headed toward his bit of recreation which cheered the end of +his day of occupation. Every afternoon he dropped in at the office of +Notary Amos Hexter--"Squire" Hexter, the folks of Egypt called him-- +and played euchre with the amiable old chap. After the euchre, the +Squire and Frank trudged over to the Hexter home; the cashier boarded +with the Squire and his wife, Xoa. + +In his general uneasiness, in his hankering for any sort of +information that would help his affairs, the young man was tempted to +follow the provocative Elias and pin him down to something definite; +the flashes of shrewd sanity in the fanatic's mouthings had encouraged +Frank to believe that the Prophet was not quite as much of an +ingenuous lunatic as his gab and garb suggested. + +Right away, curiosity of another sort added its impulse. + +Usial's windows were uncurtained, though the grime on them helped to +conceal activities within by a sort of ground-glass effect. But +Vaniman could see well enough to understand what was going on. Every +once in a while a canvas flap came over in a half circle across +Vaniman's line of vision through one of the windows. Then a hairy arm +turned a crank briskly; a moment later the arm pulled at a horizontal +bar with vigor. + +It was plain that Usial Britt was printing. + +Vaniman had seen the shoemaker's printing equipment in common with +everybody else who dropped into the shop. There were a few cases of +worn type; there was a venerable Washington hand press. Vaniman had +even been down on his knees, by Usial's invitation, and had peered up +at the under surface of the imposing stone. + +When Tasper Britt wanted a burial lot in the Egypt cemetery of a size +sufficient to set off his statue in good shape, he secured a hillock +in which some of the patriarchs of the pioneers had been interred. +There was no known descendants to say him nay. A fallen slate slab +that had been long concealed in the tangled grass was tossed over the +cemetery fence by the men who cleared up the hillock. Usial Britt +considered the slab a legitimate find and with it replaced a marble +imposing stone that had become gouged and cracked. Vaniman had found +the inscription interesting when he knelt and peered up: + + + Here Lies the Body of THOSPIT WAGG, + In Politics a Whig. + By Occupation a Cooper in a Hoop-pole Town. + Now Food for Worms. + Here I Lie, Like an Old Rum Puncheon, + Marked, Numbered and Shooked, + To be Raised at Last and Finished by the Hand of My Maker. + + +As Egypt knew, Usial Britt did not print for profit. He accepted no +pay of any sort for the product of his press. When the spirit moved, +or he felt that the occasion demanded comment in print, he "stuck" the +worn type, composing directly from the case without first putting his +thoughts on paper, and printed and issued a sheet which he titled /The +Hornet/. Sometimes /The Hornet/ buzzed blandly--more often it stung +savagely. + +Vaniman obeyed his impulse; he went to the door and knocked. He had +always found Usial Britt in a sociable mood. + +"Who is it?" inquired the shoemaker. + +"Vaniman of the bank." + +"Leave your job, whatever it is, on the threshold, sir." + +"I am not bringing you any work, Mr. Britt." + +"Then kindly pass on; I'm in executive session, sir." + +The grumble of the cogs and the squeak of the press went on. + +So did Vaniman, after he had waited at the door for a few moments. + +Squire Hexter had a corner of his table cleaned of paper litter, in +readiness for the euchre game. + +He was tilted back in his chair, smoking his blackened T. D. pipe, and +a swinging boot was scraping to and fro along the spine of a fuzzy old +dog whose head was meditatively lowered while he enjoyed the +scratching. The Squire called the old dog "Eli"; that name gave Hexter +a frequent opportunity to turn his little joke about having owned +another dog that he called "Uli" and presented to a brother lawyer as +an appropriate gift. + +The Squire had little dabs of whiskers on his cheeks like fluffs of +cotton batting, and his wide mouth linked those dabs when he smiled. + +He came forward promptly in his chair, slapped his palm on the waiting +pack of cards, and cut for the deal while Vaniman was throwing off his +coat. + +"Judging by signs, as I came past Britt's shop, /The Hornet/ is +getting ready to buzz again," said the cashier. + +"Aye! I reckoned as much. I have looked across there from time to time +to-day and have seen customers knocking in vain on the door. It's your +deal, boy!" + +Vaniman shuffled obediently. + +"And there was a run-in this morning between your boss and his +brother," observed the Squire, scratching a match. "And Eli, here, +called my attention to the fact that two sun dogs, strangers to him, +were chasing along with the sun all the forenoon. Signs of trouble, +boy--sure signs!" He sorted his cards. It was more of the Squire's +regular line of humor to ascribe to Eli various sorts of comment and +counsel. + +"How crazy do you think Prophet Elias is?" inquired the young man, +avoiding further reference to his employer. + +"After listening many times to the testimony of expert alienists in +court trials I have come to the conclusion that all the folks in the +world are crazy, son, or else nobody is ever crazy. I don't think I'll +express any opinion on the Prophet. I might find myself qualifying as +an alienist expert. I'd hate to!" + +After that mild rebuff Vaniman gave all his mind to the game--for when +the Squire played euchre he wanted to attend strictly to the business +in hand. And in the span of time between dusk and supper the two were +rarely interrupted. + +But on this afternoon they were out of luck. + +Men came tramping up the screaking outside stairs that conducted to +the office; the Squire had a room over Ward's general store. + +The men were led into the office by Isaac Jones--"Gid-dap Ike," he was +named--the driver of the mail stage between Egypt and the railroad at +Levant. + +For a moment Squire Hexter looked really alarmed. There were half a +dozen men in the party and he was not accustomed to irruptions of +numbers. Then his greeting smile linked his whisker tufts. Mr. Jones +and his party pulled off their hats and by their demeanor of awkward +dignity stood convicted as being members of a delegation formally +presenting themselves. + +"Hullo, boys! Have chairs. Excuse the momentary hesitation. I was +afraid you had come after me with a soaped rope." + +"I reckon we won't set," stated Mr. Jones. "And we'll be straight and +to the point, seeing that a game is on. Squire Hexter, me and these +gents represent the voters of Egypt. We ask you to accept the +nomination to the legislature from this town for next session. So say +I." + +"So say we all!" chorused the other men. + +The Squire set the thumb and forefinger of each hand into a whisker +fluff and twisted a couple of spills, squinting at them. "The +compliment is esteemed, boys. But the previousness is perplexing. This +is February, and the primaries are not till June." + +"Squire Hexter, it ain't too early to show a man in this town where he +gets off. That man is Tasper Britt. He has had ten dollars' worth of +telling to-day by 'Sniffer' Orne. But telling ain't showing. What do +you say?" + +The Squire gave Jones a whimsical wink and indicated the attentive +Vaniman with a jab of the thumb. "S-s-sh! Look out, or the rate of +interest will go up." + +Jones and his associates scowled at the cashier, and Vaniman +understood with added bitterness the extent of his vicarious atonement +as Britt's mouthpiece at the wicket of the bank. + +"The interest-payers of this town have been well dreened. But the +voters--the /voters/, understand, still have assets. The voters have +got to the point where they ain't afraid of Tasper Britt. The cashier +of his bank can so report to him, if the said cashier so chooses--and, +as cashier, probably will." + +"The cashier will attend strictly and exclusively to his bank duties, +and to nothing else," declared Vaniman, with heat. + +"Hope you're enjoying 'em, such as they are of late," Jones retorted. +"But once again, what say, Squire Hexter?" + +"Boys, you'd better get somebody else to sandpaper Tasper Britt with. +I'm not gritty enough." + +"I'll come across with our full idea, Squire. It ain't simply to +sandpaper Britt with that we want you to go. But we need some kind of +legislation to help this town out of the hole. We don't know where we +are. We can't raise money to pay state taxes, and we ain't getting our +school money from the state, nor any share of the roads appropriation, +nor--" + +"I know, Ike," broke in the Squire, not requiring any legal posting +from a layman. "But it's the lobbyist, instead of the legislator, who +really counts at the state capital. I've been planning to do a little +lobbying at the next session. I'll tell you now that I'll go, and, by +hooking a clean collar around each ankle under my socks, I'll be +prepared for a two weeks' stay. Send somebody else to work for the +state and I'll go and work for Egypt." + +"The voters want you," Jones insisted. + +The Squire rapped his toe against the old dog at his feet. "What say, +Eli?" + +"Wuff!" the dog replied, emphatically. + +"Can't go as a legislator, boys! Eli says 'No.'" + +"This ain't no time for joking," growled the spokesman. + +"Certainly not!" The Squire snapped back his retort briskly. He was +serious. "I agree with you that this poor old town needs help and a +hearing. But when I go to the State House I propose to wear out shoe +leather instead of pants cloth. If you must rasp Britt, go get a real +file!" + +"Who in the blazes can we get?" demanded Jones, helplessly. + +The Squire laid down the hand of cards which he had just picked up, +thus signaling the end of the interview, impatiently motioning to +Vaniman to play; then the notary narrowed his eyes and pondered. + +The silence was broken by more screaking of the outside stairs. + +Prophet Elias stalked into the office. He carried limp, damp sheets +across a forearm--papers that had been well wet down in order to take +impressions from the Washington press. The men in the room waited for +one of his sonorous promulgations of biblical truth. But he said no +word, and his silence was more impressive because it was unwonted. He +marched straight to the Squire and gave him one of the sheets. Then +the Prophet turned and strode toward the door. Jones put out his hand, +asking for one of the papers. Elias shook his head. "Yon scribe has a +voice. Let him read aloud. I have but few papers--they must be spent +thriftily." He passed on and went out. + +"One of the city newspapers ought to hire him for a newsboy," remarked +Mr. Jones, acridly. "He could scare up a big circulation." + +The only light in the dim room was afforded by the big lamp at the +Squire's elbow. He spread the sheet on the table in the lamp's circle +of radiance. "Boys, /The Hornet/ is out and it looks as if it has a +barb in its stinger," he stated, and then paused while he fixed his +spectacles upon his nose. + +Vaniman, sitting close by, felt that a glance at a public sheet was +not invading privacy. + +A smutted heading in wood type was smeared across the top of the page. +It counseled: + + + VOTE FOR BRITT. GIVE PHARAOH HIS KINGLY CROWN + + +There was a broad, blank space in one of the upper corners of the +sheet. Under the space was this explanation: + + + Portrait of Tasper Britt, with his latest improvements. But, on + second thought, out of regard for the feelings of our readers, + we omit the portrait. + + +The Squire, getting control of emotions which the observing Jones and +his associates noted with rising interest, demurely explained to them +the layout of the page after he had carefully inspected the sheet. + +Then Squire Hexter began to read aloud, in a tone whose twist of +satire gave the text its full flavor: + + + "We hasten to proclaim in the land of Egypt that Pharaoh Britt has + reached for the scepter, though he had not loosed his grip on the + gouge. You will know him here and hereafter by his everlasting + grip on the gouge. He will take that gouge to Tophet with him. + Then it will be heated red-hot and he will prance around hell + astraddle of it. But in the meantime he is hot after the honors of + this world. Give him his crown, say we. He has prepared a nice, + new hair mattress on his brow where the diadem will rest easy. + Under his coat of arms--to wit, a yellow he-goat rampant in a + field of purple thistles--let him write the word 'Victory.'" + + +The men in that room were Yankees, with a sense of humor as keen as a +new bush scythe. + +The Squire sat back and wiped his spectacles and beamed on their +laughter. Then he read on down the column, through the biting satire +to the bitter end, having an audience whose hilarity would have +delighted a vaudeville performer's soul. + +Therefore, it was with inspired unction that the reader delivered the +"tag lines" of the screed. + + + "We confess that we have a selfish purpose in paying this + affectionate, brotherly tribute to Pharaoh. When he has deigned to + refer to us in the past he has called us 'Useless' Britt. Now, if + this tribute has the effect that we devoutly hope for, Pharaoh may + be of a mind to give us back our right name. We ask nothing else + in the way of recompense." + + +The Squire folded the paper carefully and put it away in his breast +pocket with the manner of one caching a treasure. "Boys, what are you +waiting for?" he inquired, with an affectation of surprise. + +Their wide grins narrowed into the creases of wonderment of their own. + +Hexter patted his breast where he had stowed away the paper. "Egypt +has a literary light, a journalist who wields a pen of power, a +shoemaker philosopher. And modest--not grasping! See how little he +asks for himself. Why not give him a real present? Why not--" + +Spokesman Jones perceived what the counsel was aiming at and +ecstatically shouted, "Gid-dap!" + +"Why not use real sandpaper?" urged the squire, with innocent +mildness. + +Jones whirled and drove his delegation ahead of him from the room, +both hands upraised, fingers and thumbs snapping loud cracks as if he +were urging his horses up Burkett Hill with snapping whip. The men +went tramping down the outside stairs, bellowing the first honest-to- +goodness laughter that Egypt had heard for many a day. + +Squire Hexter leaped up and grabbed his hat and coat from their hooks. +"Come on, boy! It looks as if there's going to be a nominating bee at +/The Hornet/ office--and we mustn't miss any of the buzzing." + +The two followed close on the heels of the noisy delegation. + +Usial Britt opened his door and stood in the frame of light after +Jones had halted his clamorous crowd. The amateur publicist rolled his +inky hands in his apron and showed doubt that was growing into alarm. + +"Hold your nippety pucket, Usial," counseled Hexter, calling over the +heads of the men. "The boys had me guessing, too, a few minutes ago. +But this isn't a lynching bee." + +However, while the crowd laughed and others came hastening to the +scene, and while Spokesman Jones was trying to make himself heard +above the uproar, an element was added which seemed to discount the +Squire's reassuring words. + +Tasper Britt rushed out from Files's tavern and stood on the porch. He +had one of the papers in his hand. He ripped the paper to tatters and +strewed about him the bits and stamped on the litter. He shrieked +profanity. Then he leaped off the porch. + +In the tavern yard was "Gid-dap" Jones's stage pung. Britt yanked the +big whip from its socket and bounced across the street, untangling the +lash. + +"No, you don't!" bellowed Jones, getting in the way and making grabs +at the whip. "Not with my own private persuader! Get aholt of him, +men! Down him. Don't let him whale the representative we're going to +send from the town of Egypt!" + +That declared hint of what was afoot put the last touch on Tasper +Britt's fury. He fought savagely to force his way through the men. + +The voice of Usial checked the melee. He shouted with a compelling +quality in his tone. As the man on whom they proposed to bestow the +town's highest honor, he had already acquired new authority. The men +loosed Tasper Britt. + +"This is between brothers," said Usial. He had stepped from his +doorway. He stood alone. "What outsider dares to interfere?" + +Tasper Britt employed his freedom promptly and brutally; he leaped +along the avenue the men left for him and began to lash Usial with the +whip. The stolid townsfolk of Egypt stood in their tracks. + +"That's the best way--let 'em fight it out," counseled Spokesman +Jones. "Tasp Britt will get his, and it'll be in the family!" + +But Usial merely tossed his big apron over his head and crouched and +took the lashing. + +"Isn't somebody going to stop that?" Vaniman demanded. + +Nobody moved. Egypt had its own ideas about interference in family +matters, it seemed, and had been tartly reminded of those ideas by +Usial Britt himself. + +But Vaniman was an outlander. He saw his employer disgracing himself; +he beheld an unresisting victim cruelly maltreated. + +The young man jumped on Tasper Britt and tried to hold his arms. When +Britt whirled and broke loose by the twist of his quick turn and +struck the cashier with the whip, Vaniman wrested away the weapon, +using all his vigorous strength, and threw it far. Then he seized the +frothing assailant and forced him back toward the tavern. "Mr. Britt, +remember what you are--the president of our bank--a prominent man--" +Vaniman gasped, protesting. "When you're yourself you'll thank me!" + +But there was no sign of gratitude in Britt's countenance just then. +His crazed rage was shifted to this presumptuous person who had +interfered and was manhandling him; at that moment the liveliest +emotion in Britt was the mordant jealousy that he had been trying to +stifle. It awoke and raged, finding real excuse for the venting of its +rancor on the man who had made him jealous. + +"You damnation spawn of a jailbird--" + +The young man had a rancor of his own that he had been holding in +leash ever since he had sent Vona to fight her own battle, with his +kiss on her cheek. He broke off that vitriolic taunt by dealing Britt +an open-handed slap across the mouth, a blow of such force that the +man went reeling backward. And when Britt beheld Vaniman's face, as +the young man came resolutely along, the magnate of Egypt kept going +backward of his own accord, flapping hands of protest. "Vaniman, here +and now I discharge you from the bank." + +"Mr. Britt, that's a matter for the vote of the directors--and I'll +wait to hear from them." + +Vaniman whirled from Britt, for the impulse was in him to smash his +doubled fist into that hateful visage; his palm still itched; the +open-handed buffet had not satisfied the tingling nerves of that hand. + +Usial Britt had not hurried about raising himself from his crouching +position. He was standing with his apron over his head and faced the +citizens. He was smiling--an irradiating, genial, triumphant sort of +smile! One might readily have taken him for the victor in a contest! + +Spokesman Jones gulped. "We came--we was intending--but this hoop-te- +doo--" + +Usial beamed blandly and helped out Mr. Jones's efforts to express his +intentions. "Yes, Brother Jones, it was quite a shower while it +lasted. What were you intending to do?" + +"Ask you to take the nomination for the legislature." + +The crowd indorsed the request with /viva-voce/ enthusiasm. + +"I certainly will. I am pleased and proud," declared Usial. + +Through the circle of men came Prophet Elias, his robe trailing on his +heels. He stood beside Usial and faced the bystanders. He proclaimed, +"'Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him +that loved us.'" + +Somebody handed to Mr. Jones his whip and he inspected it carefully. +"Of course, there's more than one way of fighting a man--and I have my +own notions--but maybe I'm wrong." + +"Eli has observed many a dog-fight," Squire Hexter remarked; "and, so +far as he sees, the attacking dog doesn't get much out of the fracas +except a ripped ear and a raw reputation in the neighborhood." He +marched to Vaniman, took that perturbed young man by the arm, and said +that Xoa would be waiting supper. + + + + CHAPTER VII + + SQUARED OFF AND ALL SET + +As Squire Hexter and Vaniman walked on together the notary deferred +comment on the recent happenings, as if he hoped that the cashier +would open up on the topic. But Frank was grimly silent. + +Therefore the Squire broke the ice. "What kind of a partner does Tasp +Britt make in a polka, son? I saw you and him going at it pretty +briskly." + +"I stopped him from making a fool of himself." + +"Quite a contract, boy! Quite a contract! And when you got to the +matter of his purple whiskers and his lamp-mat hair--" + +"I said nothing to Mr. Britt on such a ridiculous topic--certainly +not, sir!" + +"And yet you brag that you have stopped him from making a fool of +himself," purred the Squire. "Tut! Tut! He's worse than ever. I heard +him tell you that you're discharged from the bank." + +"Yes, I heard him, too!" + +"I didn't catch what you answered back." + +"I told him I should ask the directors to decide that matter." + +"Quite right! You're sure of one vote for your side--that's mine! And +I think that when President Britt considers that he has no other +charge against you except that you took away a horsewhip that he was +using not wisely but too well--" + +"I struck him across the mouth." + +"Oh, I missed that," said the Squire, regretfully. "Why the pat?" + +"I could not express my feelings in any other way. As to what those +feelings were and why he stirred them, I'll have to ask you to excuse +me, Squire Hexter. If I were going to stay in the bank I would explain +the matter to you and to the directors. But I'm going to resign. Under +these conditions, nobody has the right to tear the heart out of me and +stick it up for a topic of conversation." + +The Squire glanced sideways at the convulsed face of the cashier and +opened his eyes wide; but he promptly hid his wonderment and checked +an exclamation that sounded like a question. "I reckon all of us +better wait till morning, son--Tasper and you and I and all the rest." +He looked up at the bright stars in a hard sky. "A snappy night like +this will cool things off considerable." + +"I'll wait till morning, sir! Then I propose to resign," Frank +insisted. + +"Don't say anything like that in front of Xoa," pleaded Squire Hexter. +"I don't ever want to see again on her face the look she wore when she +followed our own Frank to the cemetery; now that she has sort of +adopted you, boy, I'm afraid she'll have the same look if she had to +follow you to Ike Jones's stage." + +The supper was waiting, as the Squire had predicted; but he took no +chances on sitting at table at once and having her keen woman's eyes +survey Vaniman's somber face; he feared that her solicitude would open +up a dangerous topic. + +"Leave your biscuits in for a few minutes, Mother," the Squire urged. +"Let's have some literature for an appetizer." + +So he sat down and read the brotherly tribute in the new issue of /The +Hornet/, and Xoa's eyes glistened behind her spectacles, though she +decorously deplored the heat of the sting dealt by Usial. Frank, +watching her efforts to hide mirth and display womanly concern at this +distressing affair between brothers, forgot some of his own troubles +in his amusement. Therefore the Squire's tactics were successful, and +the talk at the supper table over the hot biscuits and the cold +chicken and the damson preserves was concerned merely with the +characters of the brothers Britt. Squire Hexter did mention, casually, +that Frank had succeeded in inducing Tasper to stop whipping Usial. +Xoa reached and patted the young man's arm and blessed him with her +eyes. + +Frank, as usual, helped Xoa to clear away the supper things. Early in +his stay he had been obliged to beg for permission to do it, and she +had consented at last when he pleaded that it made him feel less like +a boarder in the Hexter home. + +While she finished her work in the kitchen Vaniman sat with the Squire +in front of the fireplace and smoked his pipe, but not with his +customary comfort; the tobacco seemed to be as bitter as his +ponderings; he was trying to stiffen his resolution to go away from +Egypt. + +Squire Hexter chatted. It was hard to keep off the Britt affair, but +the notary tactfully kept away from the sore center of it. + +"It has been going on a long time--the trouble between 'em, son. For +two men who look alike outside, they're about as different inside as +any two I've ever known. Tasper has been all for grab! He grabbed away +Usial's share of the home place and then he grabbed Mehitable Dole +while she was keeping company with Usial. I suppose Hittie reckoned +there was no choice in outside looks, but saw considerable inducement +in the home place. Plenty of other women for Usial! Yes! But I can't +help thinking that I might be keeping bach hall in my law office if I +hadn't got hold of Xoa in my young days. So there's Usial! Right in +his rut because he's the kind that stays in a rut. Pegs shoes days and +reads books nights. No telling how the legislature may develop him. +Glad he's going." + +The Squire rapped out his pipe ashes against an andiron. His posture +gave him an opportunity to say what he said next without meeting +Vaniman's gaze. "Vona Harnden was a mighty smart girl when she was +teaching school. I was superintendent and had a chance to know. Does +she take hold well in the bank?" + +Vaniman had hard work to make his affirmative sound casual. + +"Have you met Joe, her father, since you've been in town?" + +"No, sir." + +"Not surprising, and no great loss. Joe is on the jump a lot-- +geniusing around the country. Joe's a real genius." + +The young man looked straight into the fire and returned no comment. +He knew well the dry quality of Hexter's satirical humor and perceived +that the notary was indulging in that humor. + +"Yes, Joe Harnden is quite an operator, son. Jumps, as I have said. A +good optimist. Jumps up so high every day that he can see over all the +bothersome hills into the Promised Land of Plenty. Only trouble is +that Joe's jumping apparatus is so geared that he only jumps straight +up and lands back in the same place. Now, if only he could jump +ahead." + +Xoa had come in from the kitchen and was setting out a small table on +which the pachisi board was ready for the evening's regular +recreation. She broke in with protest. "Amos, you shouldn't make fun +of the neighbors!" + +"I'm complimenting Joe Harnden," the Squire went on, with serenity. +"I'm saying that when he uses that inventive genius of his on his own +jumping gear he'll leap ahead and make good. For instance, son, here's +an example. Joe invented an anti-stagger shoe--a star-shaped shoe--to +be let out at saloons and city clubs like they lend umbrellas for a +fee--and then the reformers went and passed that prohibition law. +Always a little behind with a grand notion--that's the trouble with +Joe!" + +"Amos, you're making up that yarn about a shoe!" declared Xoa. + +"Well, if it wasn't an anti-stagger shoe, it was--oh--something," +insisted the Squire. "At any rate, Joe was in my office to-day. He's +home again. He's all cheered up. He is taking town gossip for face +value." The notary looked away from Vaniman and gave his wife an +ingenuous glance. "Of course, I don't need to remind you, Xoa, +speaking of gossip, that the folks will have it that Tasp Britt has +put on that war paint so as to go on the trail of a Number Two. And +Joe says that, in picking Vona, Britt has picked right. Joe's a genius +in inventing. I'm expecting that he'll now invent a lie about himself +or Britt or somebody else to make that girl either sorry enough or mad +enough to carry out what gossip is predicting." + +Xoa had seated herself at the small table and was vigorously rattling +the dice in one of the boxes by way of a hint to the laggard menfolks. +"Women have a soft side, and men come up on that side and take +advantage--and Joe Harnden's mealy mouth has always served him well +with his womenfolks--but I do hope Vona Harnden has got done being +fool enough to galley-slave and sacrifice for the rest of her life," +sputtered the dame. "Britt for her? Fs-s-sh!" Her hiss of disgust was +prolonged. Then she rattled the dice more vigorously. + +"It's a mighty good imitation of a--diamond-backed rattler, mother! +But come on over to the table, son! She isn't as dangerous as she +sounds!" The Squire dragged along his chair. + +Vaniman leaped from his seat with a suddenness that was startling in +that interior where peace prevailed and composure marked all acts. For +the first time in his stay in the Hexter home his mood fought with the +serenity of the place. The prospect of that bland contest with disks +and dice was hateful, all of a sudden. His rioting feelings needed +room--air--somehow there seemed to be something outside that he ought +to attend to. + +"Dear folks, let me off for to-night," he pleaded. "It's been a hard +day for me--in the bank--I'm nervous--I think a walk will do me good." + +He rushed into the hallway without waiting for any reply. He put on +his cap and finished pulling on his overcoat when he was outside the +house. His first impulse was to stride away from the village--go out +along the country road to avoid the men who scowled at him as Britt's +right-hand servitor. + +But he noted that some kind of tumult seemed to be going on in the +village--and any kind of tumult fitted the state of his emotions right +then. He hurried toward the tavern. + +Up and down the street men were marching, to and fro before Usial's +shop. Vaniman saw tossing torches and the light revealed that some of +the marchers wore oilcloth capes, evidently relics of some past and +gone political campaign when parades were popular. + +There was music, of a sort. A trombone blatted--there was the staccato +tuck of a snare drum, and the boom of a bass drum came in with +isochronal beats. + +Vaniman went to the tavern porch and stood there with other onlookers. + +"Give Ike Jones half a chance with that old tramboon of his and he +ain't no slouch as a musicianer," remarked Landlord Files to the young +man. "I hope Egypt is waking up to stay so." + +"If we keep on, the town will get to be lively enough to suit even a +city chap like you are," said another citizen. "Hope you're going to +stay with us!" But there was no cordiality in that implied invitation; +that there was malice which hoped to start something was promptly +revealed. "In spite of what is reported about Tasp Britt firing you +out of your job!" sneered the man. + +The morrow held no promise for Vaniman, no matter what the Squire had +said in the way of reassurance. To stay with Britt in that bank would +be intolerable punishment. He decided that he might as well talk back +to Egypt as Egypt deserved to be talked to, considering what line of +contumely had been passed in through that bank wicket. He was obliged +to speak loudly in order to be heard over the trombone and the drums. +Therefore, everybody in the crowd got what he said; he was young, +deeply stirred, and he had held back his feelings for a long time. +"I'm going to leave this God-forsaken, cat-fight dump just as soon as +I can make my arrangements to get away. Good night!" + +He was ashamed of himself the moment that speech was out of his mouth. +He was so much ashamed that he immediately became afraid he would be +moved to apologize; and he was also ashamed to apologize. He was, +therefore, suffering from a peculiar mixture of emotions, and realized +that fact, and hurried off before his tongue could get him into any +worse scrape. + +He suddenly felt an impulse to get back to sanity by a talk with Vona. +He had never called at her home. He knew his Egypt all too well--short +as his stay had been! A call on a young woman by a young man was +always construed by gossip as a process of courtship--and until that +day Frank had been keeping his feelings hidden even from Vona herself. + +But, having definitely decided to leave the town, he was in a mood to +put aside considerations of caution in regard to their mutual affairs, +for one evening, at any rate. He was moved also by the reflection that +her father was at home--and the Squire and Xoa had dropped broad hints +as to that gentleman's methods of operation with his womenkind. +Vaniman possessed youth's confidence in his ability to make good in +the world. He wondered if it would not be well to have a general show- +down in the Harnden family, in order that when he went away from Egypt +he might go with the consolation of knowing that Vona was waiting for +him, her love sanctioned. + +Pondering, he arrived in front of Egypt's humble town hall. Young +folks were coming out of the door. He remembered then! For some weeks +they had been rehearsing a drama to be presented on the eve of +Washington's Birthday, and Vona had the leading role; she had employed +him at slack times in the bank to hold the script and prompt her in +her lines. + +He saw her and stopped, and she hastened to him. "I suppose a +political parade on Broadway wouldn't break up a rehearsal, Frank. But +that's what has happened in this case. Not one of us could keep our +minds on what we were saying." + +"I'm not surprised. Any noise of an evening in this place, except an +owl hooting, is a cause for hysterics." + +She walked on at his side. "You're disgusted with our poor old town," +she said, plaintively. + +"I'm going to leave. Do you blame me?" + +"I've heard about the--whatever it was!" + +"That's right! Leave it unnamed--whatever it was!" + +She touched his arm timidly. "Please be kind--to me--no matter how +much cause you have to dislike others here." + +He stopped, put his arms about her, and drew her into a close embrace. +There were shadows of buildings where they stood; no one was near. + +"I can't do my best here, Vona. You understand it. But I can't go away +and do the best that's in me unless I go with your pledge to me." + +"You have it, Frank! The pledge of all my love." + +"But your folks! They tell me your father is at home." + +"I have said nothing to father and mother--naturally." She smiled up +at him. "I have never had any occasion to say anything to them about +my loving anybody, because that matter has never come up till now." + +"I am going home with you," he said, grimly, and drew her along, his +arm linked in hers. + +"If you think it is advisable for me to talk with father and mother, +I'll do it--I'll do it to-night," she volunteered, courageously. + +"Vona, I never want to feel again as I did this afternoon when I +allowed you to go alone on an errand that concerned us both. After +this, I'm going to stand up, man fashion, and do the talking for the +two of us." + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + TWO AGAINST THE FIELD + +Mr. Harnden had not had a bit of trouble late that afternoon in +securing a promise from Tasper Britt to give him audience and view the +plans and specifications of Mr. Harnden's latest invention. In fact, +the consent had been secured so easily that Mr. Harnden, freshly +arrived in town on Ike Jones's stage, and having heard no Egypt gossip +during a prolonged absence from home, had blinked at Britt with the +air of a man who had expected to find a door held against him, had +pushed hard, and had tumbled head over heels when nothing opposed him. + +Mr. Harnden went out on the street and put himself in the way of +hearing some gossip. Then he went directly back into Britt's office +and shook hands with the money king, giving Mr. Britt an arch look +which suggested that Mr. Harnden knew a whole lot that he was not +going to talk about right then. He said, ascribing the idea to second +thought, that it might be cozier and handier to view the plans at the +Harnden home. Mr. Britt agreed with a heartiness that clinched the +hopes which gossip had given Mr. Harnden. The father causally said he +supposed, of course, that Vona had gone home long before from the +bank, and he watched Mr. Britt's expression when the banker replied to +a question as to how she was getting on with her work. + +"Yes, siree, she's a smart girl," corroborated the father, "and I have +always impressed on her mind that some day she was bound to rise high +and get what she deserves to have. Come early, Tasper, and we'll make +a pleasant evening of it." + +Mr. Britt went early, but not early enough to catch Vona before she +left for the rehearsal. + +Although it had been particularly easy to get Mr. Britt to come to the +house, Mr. Harnden was not finding it easy to hold his prospective +backer's attention. The patent project under consideration was what +the inventor called "a duplex door," designed to keep kitchen odors +from dining rooms. Mr. Harnden had a model of the apparatus. With his +forefinger he kept tripping the doors, showing how a person's weight +operated the contrivance, shutting the doors behind and simultaneously +opening the doors in front; but Mr. Harnden did not draw attention to +the palpable fact that a waiter would need to have the agility of a +flea to escape being swatted in the rear or banged in the face. + +Mr. Britt watched the model's operations with lackluster eyes; he +seemed to be looking through the little doors and at something else +that was not visible to the inventor. + +Mr. Harnden was short and roly-poly, with a little round mouth and big +round eyes, and a curlicue of topknot that he wagged in emphasis as a +unicorn might brandish his horn. Mr. Harnden considered that he was a +good talker. He was considerably piqued by Britt's apparent failure to +get interested, although the banker was making considerable of an +effort to return suitable replies when the inventor pinned him to +answers. + +"Suppose I go over the whole plan again, from the start," suggested +Harnden. + +"Joe, Mr. Britt looks real tired," protested Mrs. Harnden from the +chimney corner. Her querulous tone fitted her lackadaisical looks; her +house dress had too many flounces on it; she had a paper-covered novel +in her hand. + +"Yes, I /am/ tired," declared Britt, mournfully. "Sort of worn out and +all discouraged. I feel terribly alone in this world." + +"Too bad!" Mrs. Harnden cooed her sympathy, affectedly. + +"And I've been through hell's torments in the last few hours," +declared Britt; ire succeeded his dolor. + +"You must try and forget how those ingrates have abused you, Mr. +Britt. This is a beautiful story I have just finished. You must take +it with you and read it. The love sentiment is simply elegant. And it +speaks of the sheltering walls of the home making a haven for the +wounded heart. I hope you have found this home a haven to-night." She +rose and crossed to him and laid the novel in his hands. + +Mr. Harnden shoved his own hands into his trousers pockets, throwing +back his coat from his comfortable frontal convexity. He presented a +sort of full-rigged effect--giving the appearance of one of those +handy-Jack "Emergency Eddies" who make personal equipment a fad: the +upper pockets of his waistcoat bristled with pencils and showed the +end of a folded rule and some calipers. He had all sorts of chains +disappearing into various pockets--chains for keys and knife and cigar +cutter and patent light. "Tasper," he advised, briskly, "seeing that +you're now in a happy haven, as the wife says, why waste time and +temper on this town? The only reason why I have kept my home here is +because the town is solid rock and makes a good jumping-off place for +me; I can get a firm toe hold. Why do you bother with a dinky office +like the one you started out for? With your money and general eminence +you can be the Governor of our state. Sure! I know all the men in this +state. I've made it my business to know 'em. Let me be your manager +and I'll make you Governor like"--Mr. Harnden yanked out one hand and +tripped the doors of the model with a loud snap--"like that! Open goes +the door to honors--bang goes the door against enemies!" + +Mr. Britt glanced at the title of the story in his hands--/The Flowers +Along Life's Pathway/--and perked up a bit as if he saw an opportunity +to pluck some of those flowers. But when Mr. Harnden went on to say +that politics was not as expensive--with the right manager--as some +folks supposed, Mr. Britt exhibited gloomy doubt. "A home is about all +I have in mind right now," he declared. "A man has got to have a happy +home before his mind is free for big plans." + +"My experience exactly!" stated Mr. Harnden, graciously indicating +with a wave of the hand the happy home which he rarely graced. "And +knowing what I do about the help a good home gives an enterprising +man, you've got my full co-operation in your efforts, Tasper." + +They heard the hall door open. + +"It's Vona," announced Mrs. Harnden. She beamed on Britt. "I wonder +why the dear girl is coming home so early." + +The caller's face lighted up with the effect of an arc lamp going into +action. + +But when the sitting-room door opened and Vona escorted Vaniman in +ahead of her, Britt's illuminated expression instantly became the red +glare of rage instead of the white light of hope. He leaped to his +feet. + +The situation made for embarrassment of overwhelming intensity; there +was no detail of the affair in front of Usial's cot that had not been +canvassed by every mouth in Egypt, including the mouths of the Harnden +home. + +Vaniman made the first move. He bowed to Mrs. Harnden; he knew the +mother; she had called on Vona in the bank. "May I meet your father?" +he asked the girl. + +Vona presented him, recovering her composure by the aid of Frank's +steadiness. + +"How-de-do!" said Mr. Harnden, stiffly. He did not ask the caller to +be seated. Vona gave the invitation. While Vaniman hesitated, the +master of the household had a word to say, putting on his best +business air. "Ordinarily, young man, the latchstring of my home is +out and the boys and the girls are welcome here to make merry in a +sociable way." Mr. Harnden was distinctly patronizing, with an air +that put Frank into the intruding-urchin class. "But it so happens +that this evening Banker Britt has seized the opportunity of my being +in town and he and I are in close conference regarding an important +matter in the investment line. You'll excuse us, I'm sure." + +It was certainly no moment to go tilting in the field of Love, and +Frank, though undaunted, was deferential; and he was compelled to +recognize the father's rights as master of the household. He bowed and +turned to leave, carefully keeping his eyes off Britt. + +But Vona had her word to say then; her foot was on the hearth of home; +she had that advantage over Frank. Moreover, she was moved by the +instinct of self-protection; she did not relish the notion of being +left alone with that trio. + +"We can kindle a fire in the front room, father!" + +"There hasn't been a fire in that room all winter, dear girl." Mrs. +Harnden's protest was sweetly firm. "No one shall run the chance of +catching a cold." + +"Exactly! It's tricky weather, and we must be careful of our guests," +agreed Mr. Harnden. "Call again, young sir!" + +"I will," stated Vaniman. He turned and addressed Vona. "The little +matter will take no harm if it's postponed till to-morrow," he told +her. His gaze was tender--and the girl looked up at him with an +expression which even a careless observer would have found telltale. +Britt's vision was sharpened by such jealous venom that he would have +misconstrued even innocent familiarity. He had been struggling with +his passion ever since Vaniman had appeared, escorting the girl in +from the night where the two had been alone together. Age's ugly +resentment at being supplanted by youth was sufficiently provocative +in this case where Britt ardently longed, and had promised himself +what he desired; but to that provocation was added the stinging memory +of the blow dealt that day by Youth's hand across Age's withered +mouth; he licked the swollen lips with a rabid tongue. He beheld the +two young folks exchanging looks that gave to their simple words an +import which roused all his fury. Britt shook himself free from all +restraint. He had been assured by the Harndens that their home was his +haven; he took advantage of that assurance and of the young man's more +dubious standing in the household. + +Britt was holding to the paper-covered novel--it was doubled in his +ireful grip and its title showed plainly above his ridged hand--a +particularly infelicitous title it seemed to be under the +circumstances, because Britt was shaking the book like a cudgel and +his demeanor was that of a man who was clutching thorns instead of +flowers. He advanced on Frank and his voice made harsh clamor in the +little room. "You'd better not take on any more engagements for +to-morrow, Vaniman. You'll be mighty busy with me, winding up our +business together." + +"Very well, sir. And suppose we leave off all matters between us until +then!" + +But Britt had started to run wild and was galloping under the whip of +fury. He had been doing some amazing things that day--he had written +verse, he had blubbered foolishly with a girl looking on, and he had +horsewhipped his twin brother before the eyes of the populace--but +what he did next was more amazing than all the rest. Having sourly +admitted to himself that he was a coward when he was alone with the +girl, he took advantage of this moment when his choleric desperation +gave him fictitious courage. He slashed into the situation with what +weapons he had at hand--and he held a reserve weapon, so he thought, +in the big wallet that thrust its bulk reassuringly against his +breast. "This thing seems to have come to a climax; and it ain't +through any fault of mine. I've never yet been afraid to talk for +myself, in a climax, and I ain't afraid now. The time to do business +is when you've got your interested parties assembled--and the five +folks in this room--the whole five--may not be collected together +again," he stated, with vengeful significance, looking hard at +Vaniman. Then he whirled on the girl. "Vona, I want to marry you. You +know it. Your folks know it. It's all understood, even if it hasn't +been put into words. I'll give you everything that money will buy. +When you get me you know what you're getting. I put the question to +you right here and now, before your home folks, and that shows you +what kind of a square man I am. I don't sneak in dark corners." He +accused her escort with a glowering side-glance. + +Mrs. Harnden simpered. + +Vona had never found her mother an especially stable support in times +of stress, but the girl did feel that the maternal spirit might arise +and help in an emergency as vital as that one! Mrs. Harnden, however, +was gazing into the arena and was blandly indicating by her demeanor, +"Thumbs down!" + +Then the girl appealed to her father, mutely eager; denied sympathy, +she was asking for protection. But Mr. Harnden was distinctly not +extending protection. He was looking at Mr. Britt. By avoiding what he +knew the girl was asking for with all her soul in her eyes, Mr. +Harnden was indulging his consistent selfishness; he hated to be +worried by the troubles of others; others' woes placed brambles on the +pathway of his optimism. + +"Tasper, you have certainly jumped the Harnden family--jumped us +complete! You can't expect a girl to get her voice back right away. +But I suppose it's up to me to speak for the family." + +Vaniman stepped into the center of the room. "I suppose so, too, Mr. +Harnden. I'll confess that I came into your house this evening with +that idea in my mind." + +Now the girl had eyes only for the one whom she recognized as her real +champion; those eyes would have inspired a knight to any sort of +derring-do, Frank was telling himself. + +"That being agreed, I'll speak," stated Mr. Harnden, throwing back his +coat lapels and displaying all his pencil quills. + +"Just one moment, sir, till I have shown that Mr. Britt has no +monopoly on courage--seeing that he has put invasion of a quiet home +on that plane. I love your daughter. I want her for my wife. I came +here to tell you so; but I was putting politeness ahead of my anxiety +after you told me that you were engaged." + +"Harnden, that man hasn't a cent in the world," Britt declared. "He +sends away every sou markee he can spare from his salary. He buys +checks from me. I can show 'em." Out came Britt's big wallet; he threw +down the paper-covered novel. + +"I support my mother and I'm putting my young sister through school," +admitted the cashier. "Mr. Britt is right. But every time I buy one of +his checks I buy a lot of honest comfort for myself." + +"I think, young man, that the Harnden family better not interfere with +the comfort of the Vaniman family," averred the father, loftily. "I'd +hate to think I was a party to taking bread from the mouths of a +mother and a sister. I'm sure Vona feels the same way." + +"Certainly!" supplemented Mrs. Harnden. "I understand a woman's +feelings in such a matter." + +"Furthermore, I have discharged Vaniman for good and sufficient +reasons," said President Britt. "He stands there busted and without a +job." + +"That is quite true," Vaniman admitted. "I cannot remain with the +Egypt Trust Company, but that's a matter quite of my own choice." + +"Oh, it is, is it?" scoffed the president. + +"Yes, sir! I've had quite enough of your society." + +"Therefore, it seems to me that there isn't much more to be said--not +here--in a home that we try to make peaceful and happy at all times," +said Mr. Harnden, pompously. + +"But there's something more I'm going to say!" Britt was proceeding +with malice in tones and mien. He had been waving the canceled checks. +He pulled another paper from the wallet. "You think the directors +would keep you on in that job, do you, Vaniman, if you forced the +issue?" + +"I do! Jealousy and petty spite would not show up very strong in a +board meeting, Mr. Britt." + +Britt shook the paper. "How would this show up?" + +Vaniman did not lose his composure. "Why don't you read it aloud? You +have stirred curiosity in Mr. and Mrs. Harnden, I see." + +"And I'll stir something else in a girl you're trying to fool! But I'm +gong to save this letter for that board meeting; I'll have you fired +by a regular vote--and I'll send the record of that vote to every bank +in this part of the country. Then see how far you'll get with your +lies about my jealousy!" Britt was plainly determined to allow +guesswork to deal in the blackest construction regarding the letter. + +Vaniman turned his back on the others. He talked directly to Vona. The +agonized query in her eyes demanded a reply from him. "Mr. Britt has +in his hand a letter from some banking friend of his. The letter says +that my father was sentenced to the penitentiary, charged with +embezzlement. That is so. My father died there. But it was wicked +injustice. You and your father and mother are entitled to know that an +honest man was made a scapegoat." + +"Excuse me!" broke in Harnden. "We are outsiders and will probably +remain so, and have no hankering to pry into family matters." + +"I did not intend to tell the story now, Mr. Harnden. It's too sacred +a matter to be discussed in the presence of that man who stands there +trying to make a club of the thing to ruin my hopes and my life. This +is a hateful situation. I apologize. But he has forced me to speak +out, as I have done, telling you and your wife of my love for Vona." + +"I don't see how you dare to speak of it, seeing what the +circumstances are," declared the father; there was a murmur of +corroboration from the mother. + +"It's a cheeky insult to all concerned," shouted Britt. + +"No, it's my best attempt to be honest and open and a man," insisted +Vaniman. "I have left no chance for gossip to bring tales to you, Mr. +Harnden." + +But Mr. Harnden sliced the air with a hand that sought to sever +further conference. "Absolutely impossible, young man." + +"Vona's prospects must not be ruined by anybody's selfishness," stated +Mrs. Harnden. + +In his eagerness, encouraged by this parental backing, Mr. Britt did +not employ a happy metaphor. "It has been my rule, in the case of +bitter medicine, to take it quick and have the agony over with." He +put all the appeal he could muster into his gaze at Vona. "That's why +I have sprung the thing this evening, on the spur of the moment. I +ain't either young or handsome, Vona. I know my shortcomings. But I've +got everything to make you happy; all you've got to do is turn around +and take me as your husband and make me and your folks happy, too." + +Mr. Harnden's optimism bobbed up with its usual serenity. "We're +making a whole lot out of a little, come to think it over!" He turned +to Vona, feeling that he was fortified against any appeal he might +find in her eyes. + +In the silence that she had imposed on herself while her champion was +battling she had been gathering courage, piling up the ammunition of +resolution. Love lighted her eyes and flung out its signal banners of +challenge on her cheeks. + +"Why, our girl has never said that she is in love with anybody," +prated the father. + +"I'll say it now, when there's a good reason for saying it," cried the +girl, her tones thrilling the listeners. "I'll say it in my own way to +the one who is entitled to know, and you may listen, father and +mother!" + +She went to Frank, stretching her hands to him, and he took them in +his grasp. "I understand! I can wait," she told him. "And when the +time comes and you call to me, I'll say, as Ruth said, 'Entreat me not +to leave thee, or to return from following after thee; for whither +thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy +people shall be my people, and thy God my God.'" Impulsively, heeding +only him, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. Then she +ran from the room. + +And finding the light gone out of the place, Frank groped to the door, +like a blind man feeling his way, and departed. + + + + CHAPTER IX + + THE NIGHT BROUGHT COUNSEL + +Mr. Britt, left with the father and mother, got his voice first +because he had been pricked most deeply; furthermore, the girl's +method of expression had touched him on the spot which had been +abraded by Prophet Elias's daily rasping. + +The suitor drove his fist down on the center table with a force that +caused the model of Mr. Harnden's doors to jump and snap. "By the joo- +dinged, hump-backed Hosea, I've just about got to my limit in this +text business!" + +"The dear girl is all wrought up. She don't realize what she's saying. +I'll run up to her room and reason with her. Don't mind what a girl +says in a tantrum, Mr. Britt," Mrs. Harnden pleaded. + +Mr. Britt, left with the father, began to stride back and forth across +the room. The title of the book jeered up at him from the carpet where +he had tossed the volume; he kicked the book under the table. + +"The wife said a whole lot just now," affirmed Mr. Harnden, +soothingly. "Consider where the girl has been this evening, Tasper! +Off elocuting dramatic stuff! Comes back full of high-flown nonsense. +Gets off something that was running in her head. Torched on by that +fly-by-night who'll be getting out of town and who'll be forgotten +inside a week. Where's your optimism?" He reached up and slapped +Britt's back when the banker passed him. + +"She is in love with him," complained the suitor; his anger was +succeeded by woe; his face "squizzled" as if he were about to weep a +second time that day. + +"Piffle! She's a queer girl if she didn't have the usual run of +childish ailments, along with the whooping cough and the measles. I +have always known how to manage my womenfolks, Tasper. Not by threats +and by tumulting around as you have been doing! You've got a lot to +learn. Listen to me!" + +Mr. Britt paused and blinked and listened. + +Mr. Harnden plucked out a pencil and made believe write a screed on +the palm of his hand while he talked. "'By the twining tendrils of +their affections you can sway 'em to and fro,' as the poet said, +speaking of women. I am loved in my home. I have important prospects, +now that you are backing me." + +Mr. Britt blinked more energetically, but he did not dispute. + +"Another poet has said that's it's all right to lie for love's sake-- +or words to that effect. I know the right line of talk to give Vona. +And I won't have to lie such a great lot to make her know how bad off +I am right now. She has always had a lot of sympathy for me," declared +Mr. Harnden, complacently. "I may as well cash in on it. She won't +ruin a loving father and a happy home when she wakes up after a good +cry on the wife's shoulder and gets her second wind and understands +where she's at in this thing. Tasper, you sit down there in a +comfortable chair and let me rub on some optimism anodyne where you're +smarting the worst." + +When Mrs. Harnden came into the room a half hour later she looked +promptly relieved to find Mr. Britt in such a calm mood; when she had +hurried out he was acting as if he were intending to kick the +furniture about the place. + +"A good cry--and all at peace, eh?--and a new view of things in the +morning?" purred the optimist in the way of query. + +"She didn't cry," reported the mother, with a disconsolateness that +did not agree with the cheering words of the reports. + +"Oh, very well," remarked Mr. Harnden, optimism unspecked. "That shows +she is taking a common-sense view and is using her head. What says +she?" + +"I may as well post you on how the matter stands, Mr. Britt. By being +honest all 'round we can operate together better." + +Britt agreed by an emphatic nod. + +After an inhalation which suggested the charging of an air gun, Mrs. +Harnden pulled the verbal trigger. "Vona says she is all through at +the bank." + +"Oh, I know my girl," said Mr. Harnden, airily. "I'll handle her when +morning's light is bright, and forgotten is the night!" + +"I thought I knew my girl, too," the mother declared, gloomily. "But I +guess I don't. I never saw her stiffen up like this before. She sat +and looked at me, and I felt like a cushion being jabbed by a couple +of hatpins--if there's any such thing as a cushion having feelings." +Mrs. Harnden, settling her flounces, a soft and sighing example of "a +languishing Lydia," was as unfortunate in her metaphor as Britt had +been when he mentioned a bitter medicine. + +"Tell her that I'll pay her ten dollars more a week," said President +Britt, looking desperate. "She mustn't leave me in the lurch." + +"She'll do it! Nothing to worry about!" affirmed the father. "And I'll +grab in as cashier till my bigger projects get started. I've got a +natural knack for handling money, Tasper." + +The banker winced. + +"We can make it all snug, right in the family," insisted Harnden. He +jumped up, opened the door into the hallway, and called. He kept +calling, his tones growing more emphatic, till the girl replied from +abovestairs. + +"She's coming down," reported the general manager of the household, +taking his stand in front of the fireplace. He pulled on a chain and +dragged out a bunch of keys and whirled them like a David taking aim +with a sling. + +Vona came no farther than the doorway, and stood framed there. + +"What's this last nonsense--that you won't go to your work in the +morning?" + +"Your pay is raised ten dollars a week, starting to-morrow," +supplemented Britt, appealingly. + +But there was no compromise in the girl's mien. "Mr. Britt, I realize +perfectly well that I ought to give you due notice--the usual two +weeks. That would be the honorable business way. But you have set the +example of disregarding business methods, in your treatment of Mr. +Vaniman. You mustn't blame others for doing as you're doing. Therefore +I positively will not come into the bank, as conditions are. As I feel +to-night I shall feel to-morrow! If you, or my father and mother, +think you can change my mind on the matter, you'll merely waste your +arguments." + +That time she did not run away. She surveyed them in turn, leisurely +and perfectly self-possessed. Even the optimist recognized +inflexibility when he was bumped against it hard enough! She stepped +backward, challenging reply, but they were silent, and she went +upstairs. + +"Still, nobody knows what the morning may bring forth," persisted +Harnden, after waiting for somebody else to speak. "As I have said, I +have a knack--" + +"Of blowing up paper bags and listening to 'em bust!" snarled the +banker, permitting himself, at least, to express his real opinion of a +man whom he had always held to be an impractical nincompoop. "If you +count cash the way you count chickens before they're hatched, you'd +make a paper bag out of my bank. I'll bid you good night!" + +He wrenched away from Harnden's restraining hands and shook himself +under the shower of the optimist's pattering words, as a dog would +shake off rain. In the hall he pulled on his overcoat and turned up +the collar, for the words still pattered. He went out into the night +and slammed the door. + +Britt began his program of general anathema by shaking his fist at the +Harnden house after he had reached the street. He shook his fist at +the other houses along the way as he went tramping in the middle of +the road toward his home. He even brandished his fist at his own +statue in the facade of Britt Block. The moonlight revealed the +complacent features; the cocky pose of serene confidence presented by +the effigy affected the disheartened original with as acute a sense of +exasperation as he would have felt if the statue had set thumb to nose +and had wriggled the stone fingers in impish derision. + +"Gid-dap" Jones and a few citizens who could not make up their minds +to go to bed till they had sucked all the sweetness out of an +extraordinary evening in Egypt, were walking up and down the tavern +porch, cooling off. Mr. Britt, tramping past, shook his fist at them, +too. + +"Hope you enjoyed the music!" suggested Jones, wrought up to a pitch +where he would not be bull-dozed even by "Phay-ray-oh." + +"Yes, and I hope we'll have some more to-morrow night," retorted the +banker. "You still have the poorhouse, the cattle pound, and the +lockup to serenade." + +"All right! Which one of 'em do you expect to be in?" inquired Jones. +"We wouldn't have you miss a tune for the world!" + +When Britt arrived in the shadows of his own porch he stood and looked +out over Egypt and cursed the people, in detail and in toto. He had +become a monomaniac. He had set himself to accomplish one fell +purpose. + +In his office, earlier that day, he had resolved upon revenge; but his +natural caution had served as a leash, and he had pondered on no +definite plans that might prove dangerous. Now only one fear beset him +--the fear that he would not be able to think up and put through a +sufficiently devilish program. + +He banged his door behind him and lighted a lamp which he kept on a +stand in the hall. He creaked upstairs in the lonely house. His sense +of loneliness was increased when he reflected that Vona would not be +at her desk in the morning. + +The village watchman noted that the reflector lamp shone all night on +the door of the vault in the Egypt Trust Company; it was the +watchman's business to keep track of that light. But he noted also, +outside of his regular business, that there was a light for most of +the night in Tasper Britt's bedroom. + + + + CHAPTER X + + THE MAN WHO WAS SORRY + +It was a heavy dawn, next day; a thaw had set in and a drizzle of rain +softened the snow; gray clouds trailed their draperies across the top +of Burkett Hill. + +Landlord Files had trouble in getting his kitchen fire started--in the +sluggish air the draught was bad. Mr. Files's spirits were as heavy as +the air. He knew it was up to him to be the first man in Egypt to come +in contact with Tasper Britt that morning. + +Stage-driver Jones had an early breakfast, for he had to be off with +the mail. Mr. Jones had been up late, for him, and he was grouchy. In +the matter of the warfare on Pharaoh his mood seemed to be less +assertive than it had been the night before. Mr. Files detected that +much after some conversation while the breakfast was served. + +"All you have to do is 'gid-dap' and get away," said Files, sourly. "I +have to stay here on my job and be the first to meet him and get the +brunt of the whole thing. And I condoned, as you might say, and as +he'll probably feel. I let my porch be used for meeting and mobbing, +as you might say. And he ketched me grinning over his shoulder when I +read them heading words after that old lunkhead of a Prophet passed +him the paper." + +"Shut up!" remarked Driver Jones, stabbing a potato. + +"I owe him money--and I let my porch be used--" + +"Figure out the wear and tear on the planks and pass me the bill. Now +shut up and don't spoil my vittles any morn'n you have done in the way +of cooking 'em." + +Mr. Files, left alone to meet Britt, resolved to hand that tyrant a +partial sop by having breakfast on the table the moment the regular +boarder unfolded his napkin; food might stop Britt's mouth to some +extent, the landlord reflected. + +Result of this precautionary courtesy! The breakfast was a mess when +Britt arrived, a half hour late. Mr. Files had depended on his +boarder's invariable punctuality and had been obliged to keep "hotting +up" the food, watching the clock with increasing despair. + +Britt smiled on the landlord when they faced each other in the dining +room. The smile made the landlord shiver. He was dreading the +explosion. He set on the viands as timidly as a child holding out +peanuts to an elephant. Mr. Britt beamed blandly and spoke of the +change in the weather and said he was hoping that "Old Reliable Ike +wouldn't be bothered too much by the soft footing on his way to +Levant." + +Mr. Files gasped when he heard this consideration expressed for the +ringleader of the evening's demonstration. He recovered sufficiently +to start in on an explanation of the condition of the food. + +"It's all right, Files! It's my fault. I overslept." + +Britt ate for a few minutes; then he suspended operations and looked +Files hard in the face; that face, as to mouth, was as widely open as +the countenance of the office alligator. "I did a whole lot of +thinking last night, Files. I'm telling you first, like I propose to +tell others in Egypt as I come in contact with 'em during the day--it +has been my fault--how things have happened! The night brings counsel! +Yes, sir, it surely does." He went on eating. + +"Mr. Britt, I was afraid--" + +Pharaoh waved his knife expostulatingly. "I know it, Files! Your face +told me the whole story when I stepped in here. But I'm a changed man. +I know when I'm down. However, it's my own fault, I repeat. I stubbed +my toe over the trigs I had set in the way of my own operations. I +deserve what I'm getting--and the lesson will make me a different man +from now on." + +Mr. Files staggered out into the kitchen in order to be alone with his +thoughts. + +Britt spent a longer time than usual in the tavern office after +breakfast; he smoked two cigars, himself, and gave a cigar to each of +the early citizens who dropped in through the front way after they had +received certain information from Files, who excitedly had beckoned +them to come to him at the ell door. Mr. Britt frankly exposed his new +sentiments about living and doing. When he put on his overcoat and +went forth, Prophet Elias popped out of the door of Usial's cot like +the little gowned figure of a toy barometer. Britt waved his hand in +cheerful greeting. "Prophet Elias, hand me that text about the way of +the transgressor being a hard one to travel, and I'll take it in a +meek and lowly spirit and be much obliged." There was no sarcasm in +Britt's tone; on the contrary, his manner agreed with his profession +regarding meekness. The Prophet swapped stares with Files, who stood +in the tavern door; that Elias was greatly impressed was evident, +because he withheld speech. + +That situation had enough drawing power to bring the brother to the +cottage door; he appeared, his spider in his hand. + +"Good morning, Usial," called Tasper. "I own up that you're a +convincing writer. According to your request, you see I'm giving you +your right name. The voters are giving you honors. Who knows what +another issue of /The Hornet/ may get for you?" Britt's tone was one +of bluff sincerity. + +Egypt's Pharaoh did not seem to be a bit put out because no one +replied to him in this astonishing levee. He descended from the porch +and strolled off toward Britt Block, puffing his cigar. + +He found the cashier alone in the bank. Vaniman hastened to put in the +first word. "President Britt, I'm ready to wind up my affairs, and I +hope you see the wisdom in holding our talk strictly to the business +in hand." + +The president walked in past the grille and sat down at the table; by +the mere look he gave the young man Britt succeeded in climaxing the +succession of the morning's surprises; Vaniman had more reason than +the others to be amazed. + +"Frank, I'm sorry!" There was wistful fervor in the declaration; for +the first time in their association the president had called the +cashier by his Christian name. + +Vaniman had risen from his stool; he sat down again and goggled at +Britt. + +"If the two of us begin to apologize, we'll get all snarled up," went +on the president. "Real men can get down to cases in a better way. I +did a lot of thinking last night; probably you did, too. The hell fire +I went through yesterday would upset any man. To-day I'm scorched and +sensible. I went after something I couldn't get. Just now I don't ask +you to stay here permanently. You can stay right along if you want to, +I'll say that here and now! But if you're bound to go--later--go when +you can leave on the square, after you have broken another man into +the job, if you feel you don't want it. I'll send you away then with +my best wishes and a clean bill! Please don't make me crawl any more'n +I'm doing!" + +It was an appeal to Youth's hale generosity--and generosity dominated +all the other qualities in Vaniman's nature. "I'll stay, Mr. Britt," +he blurted. "After what you have said I can't help staying." + +The banker rose and stretched out his hand. "Men can put more into a +grip of the fist than women can into an afternoon of gabble, Frank." + +After the vigorous clasp of palm in palm, Britt had something more to +say. "Vona was terribly stirred up last night, and nobody can blame +her. She served notice on me that she was done in the bank. But she +needs the money and you and I need her help. Go up and ask her to walk +back in here as if nothing had happened. And tell her that what I said +about the raise in her pay holds good." + +"I think you ought to go and tell her, Mr. Britt," Vaniman demurred. +"And my standing with Mr. and Mrs. Harnden--" + +"I guess your standing will be better from now on," Britt broke in, +twisting his face into a wry smile. "I left Harnden with a hot ear on +him last night! Furthermore, you'll have to ask her. She declared that +if her father or mother or I tried to change her mind about coming +back here we'd be wasting breath. Go on! I'll tend bank." + +When Frank returned with Vona a half hour later the president beamed +on them through the wicket. He immediately left the bank office, +giving the bookkeeper a paternal pat on the shoulder as he passed her, +calling her a good girl. And then the business of the Egypt Trust +Company settled back into its usual routine. + +During the day customers came to the wicket with notes sanctioned by +the president's O. K. and his sprawling initials; Mr. Britt did not +trouble himself by consulting the directors in regard to ordinary +loans. He was well settled in his autocracy by virtue of the voting +proxies which he handled for stockholders, although he had only a +modest amount of his own money invested in the stock of the bank. Mr. +Britt could use his own money to better advantage. He was permitted to +make a one-man bank of the Trust Company because nobody in Egypt +ventured to dispute his sapience as a financier. + +The customers who came that day were plainly having a hard time of it +in controlling their desire to share some of their emotions with the +cashier. But Vaniman's stolid countenance did not encourage any +confidences. + +Some of the repression he exercised in the case of customers extended +to his communion with Vona during the slack times of the business day. +There seemed to be a tacit agreement between them to keep off the +topic of what had happened the night before. Words could not have +added to their understanding of their mutual feelings. That +understanding had established for them the policy of waiting. Though +Frank said but little to the girl about his talk with the president, +he imagined he could feel the tingle of Britt's handclasp as he +remembered the look on Britt's face, and he pitied the old man. To go +on, seizing every opportunity to make love, would seem like "rubbing +it in," Frank told himself. He also said something of the sort to +Vona, and she agreed with an amiable smile. + +And the two of them agreed on one thing, more especially: Tasper Britt +must have had a strange housecleaning of the heart during that vigil +in his home on the hill. + +Among other convincing evidences of Britt's transformation was his +treatment of Prophet Elias at the end of that day. + +The Prophet did not deliver his usual matutinal taunts in front of +Britt Block. But when he came back from the field in the afternoon, he +returned from conferences with Egyptian skeptics who had not seen +Tasper Britt in his new form, and therefore, perhaps, their assertions +had caused Elias to doubt the evidences of his own senses. At any +rate, the Prophet resolved to put the reform of Pharaoh to the test of +texts, and he raised his voice and declaimed. + +Britt came to the front door and mildly entreated the Prophet to walk +in. "I'll be glad to listen to you. Isn't it a good idea to tell me, +man to man, in my office what's wrong with me, instead of standing out +there in the snow, telling the neighborhood?" + +The Prophet went in, having first slapped his hand on his breast, +urging action, "'Go in, speak unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, that he let +the children of Israel go out of his hand.'" + +He trudged forth, after a time, and walked along slowly toward Usial's +house, clawing his hand above his ear with the air of a man trying to +solve a perplexing puzzle. + + + + CHAPTER XI + + SACKS AND MOUTHS--ALL SEALED + +Every now and then the fad of a new trick puzzle--a few bits of +twisted wire, or a stick and a string--will as effectually occupy the +time of an entire community as a cowbell will take up the undivided +attention of a cur, if the bell is hitched to the cur's tail. + +The folks of Egypt had a couple of brain-twisters to solve. + +What had happened to Tasper Britt? + +How did it happen that Cashier Vaniman was holding on to his job? + +His townsfolk knew Britt's character pretty well, and they had much +food for speculation in his case. + +There were some who ventured the suggestion that Hittie's +remonstrating spirit had come to him in the night watches. Other +guesses ran all the way down the scale of probability to the prosaic +belief that Britt had decided that it was not profitable to go on +making a fool of himself. It was agreed that Britt had a good eye for +profit in every line of action; and it was conceded, even by those who +did not believe all that was said about spiritist influences in these +modern days, that if Hittie really had managed to get at him it was +likely that her caustic communications would knock some of the folly +out of him. + +Egypt did not know Vaniman, the outlander, very well. Gossip about his +reasons for remaining were mostly all guess-so; the folks got +absolutely nothing from him on the subject. He did not discuss the +matter even with Squire Hexter and Xoa. Frank and Vona had definitely +adopted the policy of waiting, and he resolved to take no chances on +having that policy prejudiced by anybody carrying random stories to +Britt, reports that the cashier had said this or the other. + +Vaniman took occasion to reassure Mr. Britt on that point, and the +latter had displayed much gratitude. "If you don't hurt /me/, Frank, I +won't hurt /you/!" Then the usurer's eyes hardened. "Of course I can't +expect you to forget that I threatened to blacken your name in banking +circles. But in our new understanding I guess we can afford to call it +a stand-off." + +"If I were staying here simply to wheedle you into passing me on with +a high testimonial, I'd be playing a selfish game, and that isn't my +attitude, sir. I was anxious to get this job. I felt that I had a +right to stand for myself, on my own honesty. But I shall tell the +whole story the next time I apply for a position. I'm getting to +understand big financiers better," he added, with bitterness. + +"Yes, finance is very touchy on certain points," admitted the +president. "But I'm glad you're not going to do any more talking here +in town. You're somewhat of a new man here, and you don't know the +folks as I do. I suppose some talk will have to be made as to why you +and I are sticking along together, after you slapped my face in +public. You'd better let me manage the story." + +"You may say what you think is best, Mr. Britt." + +"They're a suspicious lot, the men in this town." The banker surveyed +Vaniman, making slits of his eyes. "However, I've grown used to all +this recent talk about me being a fool. If it's also said that I'm a +fool for keeping you here, I won't mind it. And you mustn't mind if +it's hinted around that you're hanging on in the bank because you've +got private reasons that you're not talking about." + +The cashier greeted that sentiment with an inquiring frown. + +"Oh, don't be nervous, Frank!" Mr. Britt flapped his hand, making +light of the matter. He grinned. "I won't set you out as being the +leader of a robber gang. I'm not like the peaked-billed old buzzards +of this place--bound to say the worst of every stranger. You'd better +turn to and hate the critters here, just as I do." + +Britt's tones rasped when he said that; his feelings were getting away +from him. The young man's expression hinted that he was trying to +reconcile this rancorous mood with Britt's recent declarations of a +new view of life. + +"What I really meant to say, Frank, was that such has been my feeling +in the past. I'm trying to change my nature. If I forget and slip once +in a while, don't lay it up against me." + +After that the president and the cashier in their daily conferences +confined their discourse to the business of the bank. Britt got into +the way of asking Vaniman's advice and of deferring to it when it had +been given. "You're running the bank. You know the trick better than I +do." + +Therefore, it was perfectly natural for the president to bring up a +topic of the past, a matter where Frank had given advice that had been +scornfully rejected. "I've been thinking over what you said about that +stock of hard money in the vault needing a guard. That fool of a +Stickney has started a lot of gossip, in spite of my warning to him. +There's no telling how far the gossip has spread." + +"That kind of news travels fast, sir." + +Britt showed worry. "Perhaps I undertook too much of a chore for a +little bank like ours. But because we are little and because this town +isn't able to support the bank the way I had hoped, I thought I'd turn +a trick that would net us more of a handy surplus in a modest sort of +a way." + +Britt did not trouble himself to explain to the cashier that, by a +private arrangement with the city broker, the deal would also turn a +neat sum into the pocket of the president of the Egypt Trust Company, +hidden in the charge of "commission and expenses," split with due +regard to the feelings of broker and president. + +"The big fellows are grabbing off twenty-five or thirty per cent in +their foreign money deals," went on the banker. "Tightening home +credits so as to do it! What's fair for big is fair for little!" + +"The profit is attractive, surely," the cashier stated. + +"Our stockholders have honored me right along, and I'd like to show +'em that I deserve my reputation as a financier. I'm just finicky +enough to want to clean up the last cent there is in it--and that's +why I'm waiting for the right market. We've got to hold on for a few +days, at any rate. But I reckon you feel as I do, that we're taking +chances, now that gossip is flying high!" + +"I think the vault should be guarded, Mr. Britt." + +"Any suggestions as to a man?" + +"I don't know the men here well enough to choose." + +"And I know 'em so blasted well that I'm in the same box as you are. +They're numbheads." + +The two men sat and looked at each other in silence; the matter seemed +to be hung up right there, like a log stranded on a bank--"jillpoked," +as rivermen say. + +"There's one way out of it, Frank," blurted the president. "Nobody +cares when I come or go, nights. I may as well sleep here as in my +house, all alone. I'll have a cot put in the back room." He pointed to +a door in the rear of the bank office. + +Vaniman came forward with instant and eager proffer. "That's a job for +me, Mr. Britt." + +In spite of an effort to seem casual, Britt could not keep +significance out of his tone. "It's too bad to pen a young man up of +an evening, when he can be enjoying himself somewhere." + +"It's because I'm young that I'm insisting, sir." + +"And I suppose I'm so old that no husky robber would be afraid of me," +returned Britt, dryly. "So you insist, do you?" + +"I do." + +"I must ask you to remember that you're doing it only because you have +volunteered." + +"I'll be glad to have you tell the directors that I volunteered and +insisted." + +"Very well! We'll have the thing understood, Frank. I wouldn't want to +have 'em think I was obliging you to do more than your work as +cashier." + +Therefore, Vaniman had a cot brought down from Squire Hexter's house, +and borrowed a double-barreled shotgun from the same source. He did +not consider that his new duty entailed any hardship. He had his +evenings for the pachisi games. Xoa insisted on making a visit to the +bank and putting the back room in shape for the lodger. But she vowed +that she was more than ever convinced that money was the root of all +evil. + +Frank's slumbers were undisturbed; he found the temporary arrangement +rather convenient than otherwise. He kindled his furnace fire before +going to the Squire's for breakfast and Britt Block was thoroughly +warm when he returned. + +There was only one break in this routine, one occasion for alarm, and +the alarm was but temporary. Frank heard footsteps in the corridor one +evening after he had come back to the bank from the Squire's house. +Almost immediately Mr. Britt used his key and appeared to the young +man. "I waited till I was sure you were here," the president +explained. "What Hexter doesn't know won't hurt him--and I thought I'd +better not come to the house for you. I'm sorry it's so late." Britt +was anxiously apologetic. + +"It isn't very late, sir." + +"But it's late, considering what's on my mind, Frank. And now that I'm +here I hate to tell you what my errand is." He fumbled in his pocket +and brought out a letter, tapped it with his forefinger, and replaced +it. "I got it in the mail after you had gone to supper." + +"If it's any matter where I can be of help, sir, you needn't be a bit +afraid to speak out." + +"You can help, but--" After his hesitation Britt plunged on. "I wrote +to that broker that I was feeling a little under the weather and was +postponing my trip to the city, and now that fool of a Barnes writes +back that he's starting right behind his letter to come up here to +arrange about taking over the specie and closing the deal, because the +market is just right to act. And the through train, the one he'll be +sure to take, hits Levant about two o'clock to-morrow morning. He asks +me to send somebody down to meet him. That's all one of those taxicab +patronizers knows about traveling conditions in the country. Frank, +unless you'll volunteer to go I'll have to go myself. I don't want +that man talking all the way up here with old Files's gabby hostler, +or with anybody else I send from the village." + +Vaniman, even though he tried to make Britt's reasons for the request +seem convincing, could not help feeling that the financier's natural +secretiveness in matters of personal business was stretched somewhat +in this instance. But he gulped back any hesitation and offered to go +on the errand. + +"Frank, when I was having my run of foolishness I was sorry that you +are young. Now I'm mighty glad of it," declared Britt. "I can take +your place in yonder on the cot for the night--and I'm going to do it. +But I'll be frank enough to say that I'd rather you'd ride to Levant +and back in a sleigh to-night than do it myself. Go rout up Files's +hostler, borrow his fur coat, and bundle up warm. It's good slipping +along the road, and the trip may have a little pep for you, after +all." + +And, putting away his momentary doubts, Frank reflected on the matter +and was honestly glad to vary the monotony of his close confinement to +the bank. + +So he went and roused Files's hostler, bundled himself in the coat and +the sleigh robes, and made a really joyous experience out of the trip +to Levant, under the stars and over the snow that was crisped by the +night's chill. + +He waited beside the station platform, standing up in the sleigh and +peering eagerly after the train stopped. He called the name, "Mr. +Barnes," until the few sleepy, slouching, countrified passengers who +alighted had passed on their way. + +It was perfectly apparent that Broker Barnes was not present to answer +roll call. + +And after waiting, in whimsical delay, to make sure that Mr. Barnes +had not come footing it behind the train, Frank whipped up and drove +back to Egypt. He felt no pique; he had enjoyed the outing in the +sparkling night. + +In the gray dawn he again routed out Files's yawning hostler and +turned the equipage over to him. + +"Hope you found it a starry night for a ramble," suggested the +hostler, willing to be informed as to why a bank cashier had been +gallivanting around over the country between days, turning in a +sweating horse at break of dawn. + +Vaniman allowed that it was a starry night, all right, and left the +topic there, with a period set to it by the snap of his tone. + +He went directly to the bank and admitted himself with his keys. + +President Britt came from the back room, with yawns that matched those +of the hostler. + +"What time did Barnes say he'd be down here from the tavern in the +morning?" + +"Mr. Barnes did not come on that train, sir." + +"Well, I'll be--" rapped Britt, snapping shut his jaws. + +"But I haven't minded the trip--I really enjoyed the ride," insisted +the messenger. + +"Don't tell that to Barnes when he shows up to-night on Ike Jones's +stage," commanded Britt. "I propose to have a few words to say about +what it means in the country when a city fathead changes his mind +about the train he'll take." He was looking past the cashier while he +talked. He turned away and picked up his hat and coat from a chair. +"I'll be going along to my house, I reckon. You'd better catch a cat- +nap on the cot. I found it comfortable. I've slept every minute since +you've been gone." + +Then Britt hurried out, locking the door behind him. + + + + CHAPTER XII + + SOMETHING TO BE EXPLAINED + +By noon that day, in the lulls between customers at the wicket, +Vaniman had had a succession of run-ins with the demon of drowsiness-- +a particularly mischievous elf, sometimes, in business hours. Whenever +he caught himself snapping back into wakefulness he found Vona's +twinkle of amusement waiting for him. + +Once she pointed to the big figures on the day-by-day calendar on the +wall. The date was February 21st. "Console yourself, Frank, dear," she +advised, teasing him. "The bank will be closed to-morrow and you can +make Washington's Birthday your sleep day! But I do hope you can stay +awake at our play this evening." + +"The man who invented sleep as a blessing didn't take into account +city brokers who change their minds about trains," he returned. "I +hope old Ike Jones will sing that 'Ring, ting! Foo loo larry, lo day' +song of his all the way coming up from Levant. It'll be about the sort +of punishment that Behind-time Barnes deserves." + +A few minutes later the cashier was jumped out of another incipient +nap by the clamor of bells. The two horses that whisked past, pulling +a double-seated sleigh, were belted with bells. A big man with a +lambrequin mustache was filling the rear seat measurably well. Folks +recognized the team as a "let-hitch" from Levant. + +"Mr. Barnes comes late, but he comes in style and with all his bells," +Vona suggested. + +The equipage swung up beside the tavern porch and the big man threw +off the robes and stamped in, leaving the driver to take the horses to +the stable. + +Landlord Files had furnished an accompaniment for the clangor of the +bells; he was pounding his dinner gong. + +The new arrival had a foghorn voice and used it in hearty volume in +telling Mr. Files that his music was all right and mighty timely! "And +that alligator seems to be calling for his grub, too," he remarked, on +his way to hang up his coat. "But he doesn't look any hungrier than I +feel." + +"Room?" inquired the landlord, hopefully, swinging the register book +and pulling a pen out of a withered potato. + +"No room! Just dinner. I expect to be out of here by night." + +Mr. Files stabbed the potato with a vicious pen thrust. He knew food +capacity when he viewed it; there would be some profit from a lodging, +but none from a two-shilling meal served to a man who had compared +himself with that open-mouthed saurian. + +But the guest grabbed the penstock while it was still vibrating. He +wrote across the book, with great flourishes: "Fremont Starr. State +Bank Examiner. February 21st." + +"A matter of record, landlord! Show's I'm here. Tells the world I was +here on date noted. Never can tell when the law will call for records. +Hotel registers are fine evidence. Always keep your registers." + +"I've had that one eleven years, and it 'ain't been filled up yet," +averred Mr. Files, inspecting the potentate's signature as sourly as +if he were estimating by how much the lavish use of ink had reduced +the possible dinner profit. "You're the new appointment, hey? I heard +you speak, one time, over at the political rally in the shire town." + +"Both my enemies and my friends would have advised you to stay right +here on your porch--saying that you could hear me just as well, if you +didn't care to make the trip to the shire," said Mr. Starr, lifting +the mat of his mustache in a wide smile. "But when they call me +'Foghorn Fremont' I'm never one mite offended. 'Let your light shine +and your voice be heard,' is my motto in politics." + +"Shouldn't wonder if it's a good one, when they get to passing around +the offices," admitted Files. He started on his way to the kitchen. + +At that moment President Britt entered, having answered the gong with +the promptitude of a fireman chasing a box alarm. + +"What have you on the fire, landlord?" called Mr. Starr, absorbed in +the dinner topic. + +"Boiled dinner!" + +Britt did not show the enthusiasm that was exhibited by the other +guest. + +"Nothing like a boiled dinner after a long ride," Mr. Starr affirmed. +"Plenty of cabbage with mine, if you'll be so kind!" + +Files gave Mr. Britt some information that he thought might be of +interest. "Here's the new bank examiner. Seeing that you probably have +business together, I'll set both of you at the same table." He +retired. + +After the commonplaces of getting acquainted, the two tacked the +boiled dinner. + +"Let's see--who's your cashier?" inquired Starr, chewing vigorously +behind the mask of his mustache. + +"Young fellow named Vaniman. I have let him take full charge of the +bank business. He seems to know all the ropes." + +"Poor policy, Britt! Poor policy!" stated the examiner, vehemently. +"Not a word to say against Vaniman--" He halted on the word and opened +his eyes on Britt. "Vaniman! A name that sticks. There was a Vaniman +of Verona. Easy to remember! There was some sort of a money snarl, as +I recollect." + +"It was the young chap's father." + +"And you're letting the son run your bank?" + +"I'm not the kind that visits the sins of the fathers on the +children," loftily stated the president. "Furthermore, a burnt child +dreads the fire. I heard a railroad manager say that a trainman who +had let an accident happen by his negligence was worth twice as much +to the road as he was before. You don't say that I made a bad pick, do +you?" + +"Not a word to say against Vaniman!" repeated Starr, slashing his +cabbage. "I never /guess/ about any proposition--I go at it! But what +I'm saying to you, Britt, is what I'm saying to all the easy-going +country-town bankers. 'You may have second editions of the Apostle +Paul for your cashiers,' I say, 'but every time you sign a statement +of condition without close and careful audit you're bearing false +witness.' And being a new broom that proposes to sweep clean, I'm +tempted to poke it just as hard to slack presidents and directors as I +am to an embezzling cashier who has been given plenty of rope to run +as he wants! /I'm/ on the job /examining/ banks!" He was a vigorous +man, Examiner Starr! He showed it by the way he went at his corned +beef. + +President Britt was perturbed; his eyes shifted; he was even pale. "If +that's the way you feel about it, I hope you'll give our little bank a +good going-over. I was glad to read of your appointment, Mr. Starr!" + +"Uncle Whittum isn't on this job any longer," stated the examiner, not +needing, in Britt's case, as a banker, to dwell upon the lax methods +of the easy-going predecessor. + +A half hour later, Starr, with his unbuttoned fur-lined overcoat +outspread as he strode, giving him the aspect of a scaling aeroplane, +marched from the tavern to the bank with Britt. + +Vaniman had his mouth opened to welcome a man named Barnes, but he was +presented to Bank-Examiner Starr and surprise placed him at a +disadvantage in the meeting. The torpor of drowsiness made him appear +stupid and ill at ease in the presence of this forceful man who +stamped in and proceeded to exploit and enjoy his newly acquired +authority. Mr. Starr hung up his coat and hat and swooped like a hawk +on the daybook, at the same time calling for the book of "petty cash." + +"First of all, the finger on the pulse of the patient, Cashier," he +declared, grimly jovial. "Then we'll have a look at the tongue, and +study the other symptoms." + +President Britt went away to his own office. + +Examiner Starr, confining himself to his announced policy of grabbing +in on the running operations of the bank at the moment of his entry, +studied the petty-cash accounts and checked up the daybook with +thoroughness. He found everything all right and grunted his +acknowledgment of that discovery. + +Then he began on the ledgers, assuring Vona with ponderous gallantry +that he wouldn't get in her way; he averred that he had a comparison +system of his own, and showed the pride of "the new broom." + +After a time it was apparent that Mr. Starr was having trouble. He +added columns of figures over again and scowled; his system was +plainly trigged. + +"Young lady, where's your comptometer?" he demanded, after he had made +a quick survey of the office. + +"We have never used one, sir." + +"One is indispensable these days in a bank--especially when a +bookkeeper can't add a column of figures correctly by the old method." + +She flushed and her lips quivered. "I'm sure I do add correctly, sir. +My books always balance." + +"Add that column, young lady!" He indicated the column with the +plunging pressure of a stubby digit, and stood so close to her, while +she toiled up the line of figures, that his breath fanned her hair. + +Vaniman looked on, sympathizing, feeling sure that the bluff +inquisitor had made a mistake of his own. + +Her confusion under Starr's baleful espionage sent her wits +scattering. She jotted down the total, as she made it. + +"Wrong!" announced the examiner. "And your figures are different, +even, from the wrong total you have on the books. Try again." + +She set her lips and controlled her emotions and went over the work +once more. + +Starr exhibited figures which he had jotted on a bit of paper that he +had palmed. "You're right, as the figures stand! But your book total +doesn't agree with those figures. Now what say?" + +Vona was distinctly in no condition to say anything sensible; she +stared from the figures to Starr, showing utter amazement, and then +she mutely appealed to the cashier. + +"I'm sure that Miss Harnden is remarkably accurate in her work, Mr. +Starr," asserted the young man. "I have been in the habit of going +over it, myself, and I have found no errors." + +"Oh, you go over it, do you? That's good!" But Starr's tone was not +one of satisfied indorsement. He picked up the big book and carried it +to the center table. He fished from his waistcoat pocket a small +reading glass, unfolded the lenses, and studied the page. He turned +other pages and performed the same minute inspection. Then he took the +ledger to the window and held page after page against the glass, +propping the book in his big hands. + +When he turned, Vona was sitting in a chair, trembling, tears in her +eyes, apprehension ridging her face. + +"Cashier Vaniman, I don't want to hurt this young lady's feelings any +more than I have. There's no sense in blaming her until I understand +the which and the why of this thing. I have found column after column +added wrongly. Perhaps she has done her work, originally, all right. +But the pages of this ledger are pretty well speckled with erasures. +The two of you will have to thresh it out between yourselves. I'm +looking to you as the responsible party in this bank, Vaniman. I'll do +the rest of my talking to you. After you have found out what the +trouble is you must explain to me." + +"There can be no trouble with our books!" But the cashier stammered; +his incredulity would not permit him to discuss the matter then or to +offer any sort of explanation; in his amazement he could not think of +any possible explanation. He could not convince himself that Vona +needed other protection than her own thoroughness and rectitude gave +her; however, he wanted to extend his protection. + +"If anything is wrong with the accounts, you may most certainly look +to me, Mr. Starr. I assume full responsibility. I have found Miss +Harnden to be most accurate." + +"I ought to have been through with this small bank and away by night," +grumbled the examiner. "But I'm going to give you a fair show, +Vaniman, by waiting over. You've got this evening--and to-morrow is a +holiday, and you can take that day, if you need it, to get this tangle +straightened out. I'm stopping my work right here." He slammed the +ledger shut and tossed it on the girl's desk. "There's no sense in +going through your cash in the vault till I can check by the book +accounts. But, bless my soul! I can't understand by what rhyme or +reason those figures have been put into the muddle they're in. It's +coarse work. I'll be frank and say that it doesn't look like a sane +man's attempt to put something over. That's why I'm lenient with you +and am not sticking one of my closure notices on to your front door. +Now get busy, so that you can be sure it won't go up on the door day +after to-morrow." + +He took down his coat and hat and when he left the room they heard him +go into Tasper Britt's office across the corridor. + +The stricken lovers faced each other, appalled, mystified, questioning +with the looks they exchanged. + +"Frank," the girl wailed, "you know I haven't--" + +"I know you have been faithful and careful, in every stroke of your +pen, dear. Whatever it is, it's not your fault." + +"But what has happened to the books?" she queried, winking back her +tears, trying hard to meet him on the plane of his calmness; he was +getting his feelings in hand. + +"I propose to find out before I close my eyes this night," he told +her, gravely. + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + MISFORTUNE MEDDLES + +Shortly before the supper hour, Britt and Starr came into the bank; +they wore their overcoats and hats, and were on their way to the +tavern, evidently. + +"How are you making it, Frank?" the president inquired, with +solicitude. + +A sympathetic observer would have found a suggestion of captives, +caged and hopeless, in the demeanor of the cashier and the bookkeeper +behind the grille. + +Vaniman peered through the lattice into the gloom where the callers +stood and shook his head. "I'm not making it well at all, sir." + +"But you must have some idea of what the trouble is." + +"There's trouble, all right, Mr. Britt--plenty of it. There's no use +in my denying that. But I'm not far enough along to give any sensible +explanation." + +The president showed real anxiety. "What do you say for a guess?" + +"If you are asking me only for a guess, I should say that the ghost of +Jim the Penman has been amusing himself with these books," replied the +cashier; he was bitter; he was showing the effects of worry that was +aggravated by lack of sleep. + +"Aha! Plainly not far enough along for a sensible explanation," +rumbled Examiner Starr. + +"A knave is usually ready with a good story when he has been taken by +surprise. Honesty isn't as handy with the tongue. I can only say that +something--I don't say somebody--has put these books into a devil of a +mess, and I'm doing my best to straighten them." + +"I wish you luck," affirmed Starr. "I've been talking with your +president and he says everything good about your faithfulness, and +about how you have been doing guard duty in the bank of late. Perhaps +you're a sleepwalker, Vaniman," he added, with heavy humor. + +"I feel like one now," retorted the cashier. "I was awake all last +night." + +"Ah! Doing what?" asked the examiner, politely, but without interest. + +The question hinted that in the talk in Britt's office the president +had refrained from mention of Barnes, the broker. Vaniman decided +instantly to respect Britt's reticence; the president had shown much +caution the night before, even in regard to Squire Hexter. "Oh, merely +running around on a little business of my own, Mr. Starr." + +Britt did not assist by any reference to his own share in the +business. "We may as well start along toward the tavern, Starr." The +president took two steps toward the grille and addressed Vona. "I'm +going to take Mr. Starr to the show this evening. I want him to see +what smart girls we have in Egypt." + +Vona did not reply. She turned to Vaniman with the air of one who has +suddenly been reminded of something forgotten in the stress of +affairs. But before she had an opportunity to speak there was a +tramping of hasty feet in the corridor and her father came in through +the door that had been left ajar by Britt. "Good evening, all!" hailed +Mr. Harnden, cheerily. "But, see here, Vona, my dear girl, we have +been waiting supper a whole half hour. You've got scant time to eat +and get on your stage togs." + +"This has been a pretty busy day in the bank, Harnden," explained +Britt. "Meet Mr. Starr, the bank examiner!" + +"Oh, hullo, Starr!" cried Mr. Harnden, shoving out a friendly hand. +"Heard you were in town. I know Starr," he told Britt. "I know +everybody in the state worth knowing. I told you so." + +Mr. Starr was not effusive; there was a hint of sarcasm in his inquiry +as to how the invention business was coming along. + +"Fine and flourishing!" announced Harnden, radiantly. Then he blurted +some news which seemed to embarrass Britt very much; the news also +provoked intense interest in Vaniman and the daughter. "All I've ever +needed is backing, Starr. Now I've got it!" He clapped his hand on the +banker's shoulder. "Here's my backer--good as a certified check. Hey, +Tasper?" + +"I'm--I'm always ready to help develop local talent," Britt admitted, +stammering, turning his back on the faces at the grille. "Starr, we'd +better get along toward the tavern. I've had some poor luck with Files +when he's off his schedule time!" + +"The new combination of Harnden and Britt will make 'em sit up and +take notice," persisted the inventor. Forgetting Vona, desiring to +impress a skeptic from the outside world, he followed Starr and the +banker. + +Vaniman and the girl listened to the optimist's fervid declarations +till the slam of the outside door shut them off. + +"That sounds like an interesting investment, Vona," was the cashier's +dry comment. "Mr. Britt seems to be swinging that watering pot of his +new generosity around in pretty reckless fashion. I wonder what he'll +do next!" + +"Frank, I'm afraid!" She spoke in a whisper, staring hard at him. "No, +no! Not what you think! I am not afraid because he is buying my +father. If Mr. Britt thinks I can be included in that bargain he is +wiser in making his money than he is in spending it. But there's +something dreadful at work against us!" She had her hand on the page +of an open ledger. + +"The books can be straightened," he insisted. "I can do it. I'll do +it, if I have to call in every depositor's pass book." He pointed to +the vault. He was keeping the doors open till his work was done. "As +long as the money is there, every cent of it, the final checking will +show for itself. And the money will be there! I'm answering for that +much! I propose to stay with it till that Barnes shows up." + +"I remember now that you told me he would come by the stage to-day." + +"So Britt gave me to understand, when I reported that he didn't come +on the night train." + +"But I looked out of the window a little while ago--there was no +passenger with Jones." + +"Has the stage come?" He glanced at the clock and blinked at the girl. +"Well, I guess those books had me hypnotized!" + +"Small wonder," she said, bitterly. "I tell you I'm afraid, Frank! +There's something we don't see through!" + +"I don't dare to waste any more time wondering what the trouble is, +Vona. I must get on to the job." + +"Both of us must." + +"It's time for you to be going home." + +"I'm going to stay here." + +"But, dear girl, there's the play! You have the leading part!" + +"The words will stick in my throat and tears will blind me when I +think of you working here alone. Frank, I insist! I will not leave +you. They must postpone the play." + +He went to her and laid her hands, one upon the other, between his +caressing palms. "The folks will be there--they are expecting the play +--you must not disappoint them. It's as much your duty to go to the +hall as it is mine to stay here with the books. And another thing! +Think of the stories that will be set going, with the bank examiner +here, if it's given out that the play had to be postponed because you +couldn't leave the books. Such a report might start a run on the bank. +Folks would be sure to think there's trouble here. You must go, Vona. +It's for the sake of both of us." + +He went and brought her coat and hat. + +"I can't go through with the play," she wailed. + +"We've got to use all the grit that's in us--whatever it is we're up +against. Come! Hold out your arms!" He assisted her with the coat. + +He drew her toward the door with his arm about her. "We'll make a good +long day of it to-morrow--a holiday. George Washington never told a +lie. Perhaps those books will come to themselves in the morning and +realize what day it is and will stop lying! Now be brave!" + +The kiss he gave her was long and tender; she clung to him. He +released her, but she turned in the corridor and hurried back to him. +"I shouldn't feel as I do--worried sick about you, Frank! The books +must come out right, because both of us have been careful and honest." + +"Exactly! The thing will prove itself in the end. The money in that +vault will talk for us! I'll do a little talking, myself, when-- But +no matter now!" + +"You have suspicions! I know you have!" + +"Naturally, not believing as much in ghosts or demons as I may have +intimated to Starr." + +She looked apprehensively over her shoulder into the dark corners of +the corridor. Then she drew his face down close to hers. "And it's +hard to believe in the reformation of demons," she whispered. + +"I'm doing a whole lot of thinking, little girl. But I don't want to +talk now. Do your best at the play. Hide your troubles behind smiles-- +that's real fighting! And we'll see what to-morrow will do for us." + +"Yes, to-morrow!" She ran away, but again she returned. "And nothing +can happen to you here, in a quiet town like this, can it, Frank?" she +asked. + +"Nothing but what can be taken care of with that shotgun in the back +room! But don't look frightened, precious girl! There's nothing--" + +But even Vaniman was startled, the next moment. The girl leaped into +his embrace and cowered. Something was clattering against a window of +the bank. But only the mild face of Squire Hexter was framed in the +lamplight cast on the window. He called, when he got a peep at the +cashier, who came hastening back inside the grille: "Supper, boy! +Supper! Come along!" + +Frank threw up the window. "I'll make what's left over from my lunch +do me, Squire. I'm tied up here with my work." + +"I'll allow the new Starr in our local sky to keep you away from +euchre," the Squire grumbled, "but I swanny if I'll let your interest +in astronomy, all of a sudden, keep you away from the hot vittles you +need. You come along with me to the house." + +"Squire, I can't lock the vault yet awhile. I don't want to leave +things as they are. I must not." + +Vona had come to his side, she understood the nature of his anxiety. +"I am just starting for my house, Squire Hexter. I'm going to hurry +back with Frank's supper, so that he won't be bothered." + +"Bless your soul, sis, even Xoa will be perfectly satisfied with that +arrangement when I explain," said the Squire, gallantly. "I'm tempted +to stay, myself, if Hebe is going to serve." He backed away and did a +grand salaam, flourishing the cane whose taps on the window had +startled the lovers. + +"You must not take the time, Vona," protested the young man. + +"I'll bring the supper when I'm on my way to the hall. Not another +word! If I'm to lose the best part of my audience from the hall +to-night, I can, at least, have that best part give me a compliment on +my new gown--and give me," she went on, reassuring him by a brave +little smile, "a whole lot of courage by a dear kiss." + +She hurried away. + +He was hard at work when she returned, carrying a wicker basket. + +Again he protested because she was taking so much trouble, but she +laid aside her coat and insisted on arranging the food on a corner of +the table, a happy flush on her cheeks, giving him thanks with her +eyes when he praised her gown. + +"I'm going to look in on you after the show," she declared. "Father +will come with me." + +Vona remained with him until the wall clock warned her. + +She asked him to wait a moment when he brought her wraps. She stood +before him in her gay garb, wistfully appealing. "Frank, I was +intending to have a little play of my own with you at the hall +to-night. I was going to look right past that Durgin boy, straight +down into your eyes, when I came to a certain place in the play. I was +intending to let the folks of Egypt know something, providing they all +don't know it by now. This is what I have to say, and now I'm saying +it to the only audience I care for: + + + "'Twere vain to tell thee all I feel, + Or say for thee I'd die. + Ah, well-a-day, the sweetest melody + Could never, never say one half my love for thee." + + +Then, after a moment, she escaped from his ardent embrace. + +"Remember that, dearest," she called from the doorway. + +"I'll remember it every time I start with a line of figures, you +blessed girl. And then how my pencil will go dancing up the column!" + +After she had gone he pulled the curtain cords, raising the curtains +so that they covered the lower sashes; he did not care to be seen at +his work by the folks who were on their way to the hall. + +Squire Hexter, escorting Xoa, took the trouble to step to the window +and tap lightly with his cane. He was hoping that the cashier would +change his mind and go to the hall. He waited after tapping but +Vaniman did not appear at the window. The Squire did not venture to +tap again. "He must be pretty well taken up with his work," he +suggested to Xoa when they were on their way. "That's where we get the +saying, 'Deaf as an adder.'" + +Oblivious to all sounds, bent over his task, Vaniman gave to the +exasperating puzzle all the concentration he could muster. + +The play that evening at Town Hall dragged after the fashion of +amateur shows. The management of the sets and the properties consumed +much time. There were mishaps. One of these accidents had to do with +the most ambitious scene of the piece, a real brook--the main feature +of the final, grand tableau when folks were trying to keep awake at +eleven o'clock. The brook came babbling down over rocks and was +conveyed off-stage by means of a V-shaped spout. There was much +merriment when the audience discovered that the brook could be heard +running uphill behind the scenes; two hobble-de-hoy boys were dipping +the water with pails from the washboiler at the end of the sluice and +lugging it upstairs, where they dumped it into the brook's fount. The +brook's peripatetic qualities were emphasized when both boys fell off +the top of the makeshift stairs and came down over the rocks, pails +and all. Then there was hilarity which fairly rocked the hall. + +For some moments another sound--a sound which did not harmonize with +the laughter--was disregarded by the audience. + +All at once the folks realized that a man was squalling discordantly-- +his shrieks almost as shrill as a frightened porker's squeals. Heads +were snapped around. Eyes saw Dorsey, the municipal watchman, almost +the only man of the village of Egypt who was not of the evening's +audience in Town Hall. He was standing on a settee at the extreme rear +of the auditorium. He was swinging his arms wildly; as wildly was he +shouting. He noted that he had secured their attention. + +"How in damnation can you laugh" he screamed. "The bank has been +robbed and the cashier murdered!" + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + A BANK TURNED INSIDE OUT + +When the skeow-wowed "brook" twisted the drama into an anticlimax of +comicality, the players who were on the stage escaped the deluge by +fleeing into the wings. + +Vona had been waiting for her cue to join the hero and pledge their +vows beside the babbling stream. After one horrified gasp of +amazement, she led off the hilarity back-stage. Frank was in her mind +at that moment, as he had been all the evening; her zestful enjoyment +of the affair was heightened by the thought that she could help him +forget his troubles for a little while by the story she would carry to +him. Then she and the others in the group heard the piercing squeals +of a man's voice. + +"Somebody has got hystierucks out of it, and I don't blame him," +stated the manager of the show. He grabbed the handle of the winch and +began to let down the curtain. "I reckon the only sensible thing to do +is to let Brook Number One and Brook Number Two take the curtain +call." + +Then Dorsey's shrill insistence prevailed over the roars of laughter +in front; the young folks on the stage heard his bloodcurdling +bulletin. + +The manager let slip the whirling handle and the pole of the hurrying +curtain thumped the platform. Vona had leaped, risking her life, and +was able to dodge under the descending pole. For a moment, sick with +horror and unutterable woe, she stood there alone against the tawdry +curtain, as wide-eyed and white-faced as Tragedy's muse. + +Men, women, and children, all the folks of Egypt, were struggling to +their feet; the sliding settees squawked and clattered. + +She saw Tasper Britt, fighting a path for himself, Starr following. +Britt's face, above his blackened beard, was yellow-pale. + +Panic was piling the people at the narrow rear doors; the weight of +those who were rushing forward wedged all the mass at the exits. + +"Vona!" called the manager, pulling at the edge of the curtain to give +her passage. "This way! The side door." + +The summons helped to put away her faintness; her strength came back +to her. Her goal was the bank! In the frenzy of her solicitude for her +lover she took no thought of herself. + +The others stopped to find their wraps. Vona ran down the street as +she was, bareheaded, the ribbons of her stage finery fluttering. She +was close behind the first arrivals at the open door of Britt Block. +All the other portals were wide open, bank door and grille door. But +the door of the vault was closed. + +She thrust herself resolutely through the group of men and made a +frenzied survey of the bank's interior. Her single quest was for +Vaniman; he was nowhere in sight. The books of account were open on +the desk, mute evidence for her that he had been interrupted suddenly. + +She voiced demands in shrill tones, but the men had no information for +her. She called his name wildly and there was no reply. + +"I found the outside door open," said Dorsey, raucously hoarse. "I +came in, and all was just as you see it." + +"But you said that he--that Frank--" Vona pressed her hands against +her throat; she could not voice the terrible announcement that Dorsey +had made. + +"Well, if it ain't that, what else is it?" insisted the watchman. + +Then Tasper Britt arrived in the room, followed by the bank examiner; +they entered, breathing heavily and running with the tread of +Percherons. + +"If it ain't murder and robbery, what is it, Mr. Britt?" Dorsey +bawled, evidently feeling the authority was then on the scene and was +demanding report and action. + +"I don't know--I don't know!" the president quavered, staggering to +the grille and clutching the wires with both hands in order to steady +himself. He was palpably, unmistakably stricken with a fear that was +overpowering him. + +The outer office was filling; the corridor was being packed by the +arriving throngs. + +Examiner Starr took command of the situation. He noted the nickel +badge on Dorsey's breast. "Officer, put every person except Mr. Britt +out of this building!" + +But Watchman Dorsey, though he commanded and pushed, was not able to +make any impression. + +"By my authority as bank examiner, I order this place cleared!" +bellowed Mr. Starr. The folks of Egypt showed that they were greatly +interested in the volume of voice possessed by "Foghorn Fremont," but +they did not retreat. For that matter, the crowd in the room was +thoroughly blocked at the door by the press in the corridor. + +Starr's attention was wholly taken up by one individual for the next +few minutes. Prophet Elias boldly advanced, after worming his way out +of the throng; he pushed the examiner aside from the door of the +grille and went into the inner inclosure. An intruder who was +prosaically garbed would not have prevailed as easily as this bizarre +individual with the deep-set eyes, assertive mien, and wearing a robe +that put him out of the ordinary run of humanity. But Mr. Starr got +back his voice and ordered the Prophet to walk out. + +Elias turned slowly and faced Starr. The Prophet's feet were hidden by +the robe and he came around with the effect of a window dummy +revolving on a support. Starr bawled more furious demands. + +But the Prophet did not lower his crest. "'Many bulls have compassed +me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me +with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.'" + +Then the Prophet spatted his palm upon the legend on his breast and +clacked a disdainful digit off the pivot of his thumb. Tasper Britt, +even in his hottest ire, had been restrained in the past by some +influence from laying violent hands on this peculiar personage. It was +evident that Starr was controlled by a similar reluctance and that his +forbearance was puzzling him. When the Prophet got down on his knees, +Starr was silent; it looked as if this zealot intended to offer prayer +--and the bank examiner did not care to earn the reputation of being a +disturber of a religious gathering. But Elias doubled over and began +to crawl around the room on his hands and knees, peering intently and +cocking his ear and seeming to take much interest in his undertaking. + +Until then, in the rush of events, in the haste of gathering at the +scene of the tragedy, in the wild uncertainty as to what had happened, +nobody had taken the time to study the details of the conditions in +the bank inclosure. + +Starr ordered Dorsey to stand in front of the grille door and keep out +all persons. The examiner was obliged to urge Britt to unclasp his +hands and follow him before the door was closed and locked against the +crowd. + +Vona had stumbled to a chair; she was staring about her, trying to +control her horror and steady her mind so that she might comprehend +what had happened. Under a stool she saw a crumpled coat; she leaped +from her chair, secured it, and sat down again. It was Frank's office +coat; both sleeves were ripped and the back breadths were torn. She +held it forward in her shaking hands for the inspection of the bank +examiner. But Mr. Starr was too intent on other matters to take heed +of the pathetic proof of violence. He was particularly concerned with +what he had found in one corner. + +Literally, thousands of small metal disks were heaped and scattered +there. Some of the disks had rolled to all parts of the room. The +Prophet had been scraping up handfuls of them, inspecting them, and +throwing them toward the corner where the main mass lay. + +Starr picked up some of them. They were iron; each disk was +perforated. + +There were many canvas sacks near the heap of disks; the sacks were +ripped and empty. Mr. Starr secured one of them. Its mouth was closed +with the seal with which specie sacks are usually secured. + +But Mr. Starr saw something else in the corner, an object at which he +peered; the gloom made the results of his scrutiny uncertain. He +stooped and picked up that object, making it the third of the trinity +of exhibits. It was a large square of pasteboard, the backing of an +advertising calendar. Starr carried it to the lamp on the table. There +was writing on the placard. The characters were large and sprawling. +The bank examiner tapped his finger on the writing, calling for the +attention of the anguished president. The legend read: + + + This is a /hell/ of a bank! + + +"Britt, if this is a sample of your whole stock of specie," Starr +rumbled, holding a disk between thumb and forefinger, "the profanity +is sort of excused by the emphasis needed. I really think I would have +been obliged to say the same, after counting up." + +"I can't understand it," the president muttered. + +"Did you suppose you carried actual coin in those bags?" + +"Yes--gold and some silver." + +"Had you counted it?" + +"I left the checking up to the cashier." + +"Where do you think your cashier is, right now?" + +Britt flapped his hands, helplessly confessing that he did not know. + +In all the room there was a profound hush. The crowd had been +straining aural nerves, trying to hear what was being said by the men +in authority. + +Nobody had been paying any attention to Prophet Elias, who had been +crawling like a torpid caterpillar. For some moments he had been +rigidly motionless in one spot. He was leaning against the front of +the vault, his ear closely pressed to the crevice at the base of the +door. + +He straightened up on his knees and shouted in such stentorian tones +that all in the room jerked their muscles in sudden fright. "Swine! +Fools!" + +They gaped at him. + +"Whilst you're shouting amongst your trash a man is dying on the other +side of the door!" + +Vona leaped from her chair. She shrieked. She ran to the door and beat +her fists against the steel, futilely and furiously. + +"In there lies your money-changer, I tell you, Pharaoh, lord of +Egypt," the Prophet shouted. "I hear his groans!" + +Britt and Starr rushed to the vault and both of them strove clumsily +and ineffectually with the mechanism, giving up their attempts after a +few moments. + +"It's no use!" Britt gulped. "The time lock must be on." + +"Oh, for the rod of Moses and the ancient faith that smote the rock in +twain!" pleaded the Prophet. + +"We'd better use rendrock, seeing that we can't depend on a miracle," +called a practical citizen from behind the grille. + +"Get sledge hammers and chisels," shouted somebody else, and there +followed a surging of the throng, indicating that concerted action was +following the suggestion. + +The face of the president was twisted by grimaces which resembled +spasms. "Wait! Wait a moment! There may be a way!" he called, +chokingly. "Let me out through there!" + +Then Vona gave over her insane efforts to pry open the vault door with +her finger nails. She ran out past Starr, who stopped to lock the +grille door. The examiner was too much taken up by other matters to +bother with the Prophet, who held to his place at the vault door and +was intently scrutinizing something which he found of interest. + +Vona forced herself through the press, in company with Starr, and was +at Britt's elbow when he unlocked his office door. He tried to keep +her out and called to Dorsey. But she slipped past while the door was +open to admit Starr's bulky form. Inside, she turned on Britt, who was +in the doorway. + +"You don't dare to keep me out, Mr. Britt!" She stamped her foot. Her +eyes blazed. "You don't dare!" + +He blinked and entered and locked the door. + + + + CHAPTER XV + + VIA THE PRESIDENT'S PRIVATE WAY + +There was a hanging lamp in Britt's office, and the president hastened +to light it. + +"Do you mean to say that there's another way of entering that bank +vault?" Starr demanded when Britt began to twirl the knob of a steel +door that guarded his private vault. "I'm beginning to think that the +fellow who wrote on that placard had this joint sized up mighty well." + +Britt went on with the working of the combination. He was deeply +stirred; his excitement had made his temper touchy. "I know of no +reason why the president of a bank isn't allowed access to the vault." + +"Perhaps not, under proper conditions, but we'll discuss that matter +later, Britt. Right now I'm all-fired glad you can get in." He sneered +when he added, "Perhaps a regular, time-locked vault does need a +safety outlet. I may recommend it for all state banks." + +Vona took her stand close to the door, trembling with passionate +eagerness. Constantly she appealed to Britt to hurry. When he finally +swung open the door she leaped into the vault. He dragged her back, +handling her roughly, harshly telling her that it was no place for a +girl. + +"I don't think it is, either," agreed Starr. "We seem to have +considerable love mixed in with this situation, young woman, but this +is not the time for it." + +He crowded past her, at the back of Britt. + +The man ahead stopped and fumbled at what seemed to be a wall of +concrete; he pushed open a narrow door which fitted so closely that it +had seemed to be a part of the wall. + +Mr. Starr grunted. + +There was a passage at the right of the inner safe. The light from the +lamp outside shed dim radiance. Britt descended a short flight of +cement steps, and Starr, following groping with his feet, realized +that the way led under the floor of the corridor. He was obliged to +crouch almost double in order to avoid the ceiling. + +There was another flight of stairs leading up to the floor level. + +The two men, mounting the stairs, heard groans. + +Vona, undeterred by her treatment, had followed closely on Starr's +heels. She urged them to hurry, calling hysterically. + +Again the man ahead fumbled at what seemed to be solid wall. Again he +was able to open a door of concrete. + +But Britt, when he was through the narrow door in the lead, was +blocked and stopped. He lighted a match. One leaf of the double doors +of the inner safe of the bank vault was flung back across the narrow +passage. He dropped the stub of the match and pushed. The door moved +only a few inches; it was opposed by something on the other side. The +president lighted another match and held it while he peered over the +door; there was a space between the top of the door and the ceiling. +"It's Vaniman," he reported, huskily. "He's lying against this door. I +can't push it any further. He's wedged against the front of the +vault." + +Then Starr lighted a match. He noted that the space above the door was +too narrow for his bulk or Britt's. + +"Go tell the guard to send in a chap that's slim and spry," the +examiner commanded the girl. "We've got to boost somebody in over that +door." + +"I'll go. I must go. I'm bound and determined to go!" she insisted, +pulling at him, trying to crowd past him. + +But it was necessary for Starr and Britt to follow her to the wider +space below the corridor in order to allow her to pass them. They +demurred, still, but she hurried back up the stairs. Britt knelt and +gave her his shoulders to serve as a mounting block. She swung herself +over the door, and by the light of the match that Starr held she was +able to avoid stepping on the prostrate figure when she lowered +herself to the floor. + +The men outside in the passage detected the odor of chloroform. + +"I have lifted him," the girl cried. "Push back the door." + +Britt obeyed. Then he and Starr took the unconscious cashier by +shoulders and heels and carried him to the private office. + +Britt's office conveniences did not include a couch; the men propped +Vaniman in the desk chair and Vona crouched beside him and took his +head on her shoulder. + +There were no visible marks of injury. He gave off the scent of +chloroform. His wrists were crossed in front of him and were secured +with a noose of tape. Starr picked up shears from Britt's desk and cut +the tape. "Where's your doctor? Get him in here." + +"He lives in another part of the town. I didn't see him at the hall +to-night," said Britt. "I'll send for him." + +But Vaniman began to show such promising symptoms that the president +delayed the message. + +There seemed to be magic in the touch of Vona's caressing palm on the +stricken man's forehead; the words she was murmuring in his ear were +stirring his faculties. He opened his eyes and stared at her and at +the two men, vague wonderment in his expression. + +"What is it--what has happened?" he muttered. + +"That's what we want to know," said Starr. "What did happen? Who got +afoul of you?" + +"I don't know. Who brought me in here?" + +"We got you out of the bank vault and brought you here by the way of +Britt's private passage." + +Vaniman seemed to find that statement unconvincing. + +"He didn't know about that passage," stammered the president. "I--I +never bothered to speak about it. I suppose I ought to have told you, +Frank. That cement panel is a door--with the handle on this side." + +The cashier shook his head slowly, as if giving up the attempt to +understand. + +"I guess the panel fits so closely that you never noticed it was a +door," Britt went on, with the manner of one trying to set himself +right. "I meant to tell you about it." + +"But what happened?" the examiner insisted. + +"I don't know, sir." + +"Look here! You must know something!" + +"Mr. Starr, this is no time to shout and bellow at this poor boy who +has barely got his senses back," Vona protested, indignantly. + +"You mustn't blame Mr. Starr, dear," said the cashier, patting her +hand. "Of course, he and Mr. Britt are much stirred up over the thing. +I'm not trying to hide anything, gentlemen. You say you found me in +the vault! What is the condition of things in the bank?" He struggled +and sat up straighter in the chair. He was showing intense anxiety as +his senses cleared. + +Examiner Starr, though present officially, was in no mood to make any +report on bank conditions just then. "Vaniman, you'd better do your +talking first." + +"I'll tell all I know about it. I was working on the books, my +attention very much taken up, of course. I felt a sudden shock, as I +remember it. Everything went black. As to what has been going on from +that moment, whenever it was, till I woke up here, I'll have to depend +on you for information." + +"That's straight, is it?" demanded the examiner, grimly. + +"On my honor, sir." + +"There's a lot to be opened out and what you have said doesn't help." + +"I wish I could help more. I understand fully what a fix I'm in unless +this whole muddle is cleared up," confessed the cashier, plaintively. +He had been putting his hand to his head. "I think I must have been +stunned by a blow." + +Starr, without asking permission, ran his hand over Vaniman's head. +"No especially big lump anywhere!" + +Vaniman spanned a space on his head between thumb and forefinger. "I +feel a particular ache right about there, sir." + +"Britt, get down that lamp!" + +The president brought the lamp from the hanging bracket and held it +close to Vaniman's head while Starr carefully parted the hair and +inspected. "There's a red strip, but it's not much swollen," he +reported. "Of course, we know all about those rubber wallopers that-- +But this is not a time for guesswork. Now, Vaniman, how about this +chloroform odor? Remember anything about an attempt to snuff you that +way?" + +"No, sir!" + +"Why don't you wait until to-morrow and let Frank's mind clear up?" +Vona pleaded. She had been standing with her arm about the young man's +shoulders, insisting on holding her position even when Starr crowded +close in making his survey of the cashier's cranium. + +"Young woman, the first statements in any affair are the best +statements when there's a general, all-round desire to get to bottom +facts," said the examiner, sternly. + +"That's my desire, sir," declared Vaniman, earnestly. "But I have told +you all I know." + +President Britt had replaced the lamp in the bracket. He waited for a +moment while Starr regarded the cashier with uncompromising stare, as +if meditating a more determined onslaught in the way of the third +degree. Britt, restraining himself during the interview, had managed +to steady himself somewhat, but he was much perturbed. He ventured to +put in a word. "Mr. Starr, don't you think that Vona's idea is a good +one--give Frank a good night's rest? He may be able to tell us a whole +lot more in the morning." + +Then the bank examiner delivered the crusher that he had been holding +in reserve. "Vaniman, you may be able to tell me in the morning, if +not now, how it happens that all your specie bags were filled with-- +not with the gold coin that ought to have been there, but with"--Starr +advanced close to the cashier and shook a big finger--"mere metal +disks!" He shouted the last words. + +Whether Starr perceived any proof of innocence in Vaniman's expression +--mouth opening, eyes wide, face white with the pallor of threatened +collapse--the bank examiner did not reveal by any expression of his +own. + +"This is wicked--wicked!" gasped Vona. + +"Young woman, step away!" Starr yanked her arm from Vaniman's shoulder +and pushed her to one side. "Did you know /that/, Mr. Cashier--suspect +that--have any least idea of that?" + +"I did not know it, sir." + +"Why didn't you know it?" + +Vaniman tried to say something sensible about this astounding +condition of affairs and failed to utter a word, he shook his head. + +"How had you verified the specie?" + +"By checking the sacks as received--by weighing them." + +"Expect somebody else to take 'em in the course of business on the +same basis?" + +"I was intending--" + +Starr waited for the explanation and then urged the cashier out of his +silence. + +"I intended to have President Britt and a committee of the directors +count up the coin with me, sir. But it can't be possible--not with the +Sub-treasury seal--not after--" + +"If you're able to walk, you'd better go over into the bank and take a +look at what was in those sacks, Mr. Cashier." The examiner put a +sardonic twist upon the appellation. "The sight may help your thoughts +while you are running over the matter in your mind between now and +to-morrow morning." + +Vaniman rose from the chair. He was flushed. "Mr. Starr, I protest +against this attitude you're taking! From the very start you have +acted as if I am a guilty man--guilty of falsifying accounts, and now +of stealing the bank's money." + +There was so much fire in Vaniman's resentment that Starr was taken +down a few pegs. He replied in a milder tone: "I don't intend to put +any name on to the thing as it stands. But I'm here to examine a bank, +and I find a combination of crazy bookkeeping and a junk shop. My +feelings are to be excused." + +"I'll admit that, sir. But you found something else! You found me in +the vault, you say. It is plain that I was shut in that vault with the +time lock on; otherwise it wouldn't have been necessary to lug me out +by that other way, whatever it is!" He snapped accusatory gesture at +the open door of Britt's vault and flashed equally accusatory gaze at +the president. "Do you think I was trying to commit suicide by that +kind of lingering agony?" + +"Seeing how you admit that you excuse my feelings, Vaniman, I'll +admit, for my part, that you've certainly got me on that point. It +doesn't look like a sensible plan of doing away with yourself, +provided there is any sense in suicide, anyway! You say you were not +aware of Mr. Britt's private passage?" he quizzed. + +"Most certainly I knew nothing about it." + +"I suppose, however, the vault door is time-locked. To be sure, we +were pretty much excited when we tried to open it--" + +"Verily, ye were!" + +The voice was deep and solemn. The sound jumped the four persons in +Britt's office. Framed in the door of Britt's vault was Prophet Elias. + +"How did you get in here?" thundered "Foghorn Fremont," first to get +his voice. + +"Not by smiting with the rod of Moses," returned the Prophet, +considerable ire in his tone. "I pulled open the door of the bank +vault and walked in." + +"Britt, you'd better put up a sign of 'Lunatic Avenue' over that +passage and invite a general parade through," barked Starr. "I've had +plenty of nightmares in my life, but never anything to equal this one, +take it by and large!" + +It was evident from President Britt's countenance that a great many +emotions were struggling in him; but the prevailing expression--the +one which seemed to embrace all the modifications of his emotions-- +indicated that he felt thoroughly sick. He gazed at the open door of +his vault and looked as a man might appear after realizing that the +presentation of a wooden popgun had made him turn over his pocketbook +to a robber. "Walked in? /Walked/ in?" he reiterated. + +The stress of the occasion seemed to have made the Prophet less +incoherent than was his wont; or perhaps he found no texts to fit this +situation. "I did not dive through your solid steel, Pharaoh! I used +my eyes, after I had used my ears. Here!" His fists had been doubled. +He unclasped his hands and held them forward. In each palm was one of +the metal disks. "Your bank-vault door was trigged with these--wedged +in the crack of the outer flange. I saw, I pulled hard on the big +handle--and here I am!" + +"But the bolts--" Starr stopped, trying to remember about the bolts. + +"The bolts were not shot. You were trying to push back what had +already been pushed." + +Starr began to scratch the back of his head, in the process tipping +his hat low over his eyes. He turned those eyes on Vaniman. "Speaking +of pushing--of being able to push--" But the examiner did not allow +himself to go any farther at that time. "Vaniman," he blurted, after a +few moments of meditation, "I want you to volunteer to do something-- +of your own free will, understand!" + +Vaniman, pallid again, was fully aware of the effect of this new +revelation on his position, already more than questionable. "I'll +follow any suggestion, of my own free will, sir." + +"We'd better arrange to have a private talk to-night before we go to +sleep, and another talk when we wake up. I suggest that you come to +the tavern and lodge with me." + +"It's a good plan, Mr. Starr," the cashier returned, bravely. + +But in the distressed glance which Frank and Vona exchanged they both +confessed that they knew he was politely and unofficially under +arrest. + +"I'll keep Dorsey on the premises and will stay here, myself," +proffered the president. "You can be sure that things will take no +harm during the night, Mr. Starr." + +"So far as your bank goes, there doesn't seem to be much left to harm, +Britt," snapped back the examiner. He fished one of the disks from his +vest pocket and surveyed it grimly. "As to these assets, whatever they +may be, I don't think you need to fear--except that small boys may +want to steal 'em to use for sinkers or to scale on the water next +summer. What are they, anyway? Does anybody know?" + +Britt had plucked one of the disks from his pocket and was inspecting +it. He hastened to say that he had never seen anything of the sort +till that evening. + +Prophet Elias seemed to be taking no further interest in affairs. He +went to the door leading into the corridor. It was locked. "I'd like +to get out," he suggested. + +"Now that the other way through the vaults had become the main- +traveled avenue of the village, why don't you go out as you came in?" +was Starr's sardonic query. + +The Prophet was not ruffled. "I would gladly do so, but the door of +the grille is locked." + +"Ah, that accounts for the fact that everybody else in Egypt isn't in +this office on your heels! Britt, let him out!" + +The president obeyed, unlocking the door, and the Prophet joined the +crowd in the corridor. Starr went to the door and addressed the folks. +"Allow me to call your attention, such of you as are handy to this +door, to Cashier Vaniman." He jerked a gesture over his shoulder. "You +can see that he is all right. We are giving out no information +to-night. I order you, one and all, to leave this building at once. I +mean business!" + +He waited till the movement of the populace began, gave Dorsey some +sharp commands, and banged the door. But when he turned to face those +in the office he reached behind himself and opened the door again; the +sight of the girl had prompted him. "I suggest that this is a good +time for you to be going along, Miss Harnden. You'll have plenty of +company." + +But she showed no inclination to go. She was exhibiting something like +a desperate resolve. "Will you please shut the door, Mr. Starr?" + +He obeyed. + +"It's in regard to those disks! They are coat weights!" + +Starr fished out his souvenir once more and inspected it; his face +showed that he had not been illuminated especially. + +"Women understand such things better than men, of course," she went +on. "Dressmakers stitch those weights into the lower edges of women's +suit coats to make the fabric drape properly and hang without +wrinkling." + +"You're a woman and you probably know what you're talking about on +that line," admitted the examiner. "But because you're a woman I don't +suppose you can tell me how coat weights happen to be the main cash +assets of this bank!" Mr. Starr's manner expressed fully his +contemptuous convictions on that point. + +"I certainly cannot say how those weights happen to be in the bank, +sir. But I feel that this is the time for everybody in our town to +give in every bit of information that will help to clear up this +terrible thing. I'm taking that attitude for myself, Mr. Starr, and I +hope that all others are going to be as frank." She gave President +Britt a fearless stare of challenge. "My father has recently had a +great deal of new courage about some of the inventions he hopes to put +through. He has told me that Mr. Britt is backing him financially." + +"Your father is everlastingly shinning up a moonbeam, and you know +it," declared Britt. + +Starr shook his hand, pinching the disk between thumb and forefinger. +"Young woman, I'm interested only in this, if you have any information +to give me in regard to it." + +Vaniman was displaying an interest of his own that was but little +short of amazement. + +"The information I have is this, sir! My father said that Mr. Britt's +help had enabled him to start in manufacturing a patent door which +requires the use of many washers with small holes, and he was saying +at home that he'd be obliged to have them turned out by a blacksmith. +I happened to be making over something for mother and I had some coat +weights on my table. I showed them to my father and he said they were +just the thing. He found out where they were made and he ordered a +quantity--they came in little kegs and he stored them in the stable. +That's all, Mr. Starr!" + +"All? Go ahead and tell me--" + +"I have told you all I know, sir! That's the stand I'm taking, +whatever may come up. If you expect me to tell you that these are the +disks my father stored in the stable, I shall do no such thing. The +kegs and the disks may be there right now, for all I know." She faced +the examiner with an intrepidity which made that gentleman blink. It +was plain enough that he wanted to say something--but he did not +venture to say it. + +"And now I'll go! I think my father must be out there waiting for me. +If you care to stay here long enough, I'll have him hurry back from +our home and report whether the kegs are still in the stable." + +"We'll wait, Miss Harnden!" Starr opened the door. + +After she had gone, Britt closed the door of his vault and shot the +bolts. + +The three men kept off the dangerous topic except as they conferred on +the pressing business in hand. They helped Dorsey hurry the lingerers +from the building. Then they went into the bank, stored the books in +the vault, and locked it. + +Starr, especially intent on collecting all items of evidence, found in +the vault, when he entered, a cloth that gave off the odor of +chloroform. On one corner of the cloth was a loop by which it could be +suspended from a hook. + +"Is this cloth anything that has been about the premises?" asked the +official. + +"It's Vona's dustcloth," stated Britt. He had watched the girl too +closely o' mornings not to know that cloth! + +That information seemed to prick Starr's memory on another point. From +his trousers pocket he dug the tape which he had cut from Vaniman's +wrists. He glanced about the littered floor. There was the remnant of +a roll of tape on the floor. Mr. Starr wrapped the fragment of tape in +a sheet of paper along with the roll. + +Then Mr. Harnden arrived. The outer door had been left open for him. +He had run so fast that his breath came in whistles with the effect of +a penny squawker. As the movie scenarios put it, he "got over," with +gestures and breathless mouthings rather than stated in so many words, +that the kegs of disks were gone--all of them. + +Replying with asthmatic difficulty to questions put to him by Starr, +Mr. Harnden stated that he could not say with any certainty when the +kegs had been taken, nor could he guess who had taken them. He kept no +horse or cow and had not been into the stable since he put the kegs +there. The stable was not locked. He had always had full faith in the +honesty of his fellow-man, said the optimist. + +Mr. Starr allowed that he had always tried to feel that way, too, but +stated that he had been having his feelings pretty severely wrenched +since he had arrived in the town of Egypt. + +Then he and Vaniman left the bank to go to the tavern. + +Outside the door, a statue of patience, Squire Hexter was waiting. + +"I didn't use my pull as a director to get underfoot in there, Brother +Starr. No, just as soon as I heard that the boy, here, was all right I +stepped out and coaxed out all the others I could prevail on. What has +been done about starting the general hue and cry about those robbers?" + +Starr stammered when he said that he supposed that the local constable +had notified the sheriff. + +"I attended to that, myself! Dorsey could think of only one thing at a +time. But I reckoned you had taken some steps to make the call more +official. The state police ought to be on the job." + +"I'll attend to it." But Mr. Starr did not display particularly urgent +zeal. + +"Well, son, we'll toddle home! What say?" + +Vaniman did not say. He was choking. Reaction and grief and anxiety +were unnerving him. Starr did the saying. "The cashier and I have a +lot of things to go over, Squire, and he plans to spend the night with +me at the tavern." + +"I see!" returned the notary, amiably, showing no surprise. He called +a cheery "Good night!" when he left them at the tavern door. + +Landlord Files gave them a room with two beds. Without making any +bones of the thing, Examiner Starr pushed his bed across the door and +then turned in and snored with the abandon of one who had relieved +himself of the responsibility of keeping vigil. + + + + CHAPTER XVI + + LOOKED AT SQUARELY + +The bank examiner and the cashier were down early to breakfast. + +Starr had slept well and was vigorously alert. Vaniman was haggard and +visibly worried. Both of them were reticent. + +Vaniman felt that he had nothing to say, as matters stood. + +Starr was thinking, rather than talking. He snapped up Files when the +landlord meekly inquired whether there were any clews. Files retreated +in a panic. + +"Vaniman," said the examiner, when they pulled on their coats under +the alligator's gaping espionage, "this is going to be my busy day and +I hope you feel like pitching into this thing with me, helping to your +utmost." + +"You can depend on me, Mr. Starr." + +"I don't intend to bother you with any questions at present except to +ask about the routine business of the bank. So you can have your mind +free on that point." + +They went to the bank and relieved Britt. + +"Go get your breakfast and come back here as soon as you can," Starr +commanded, plunging into matters with the air of the sole captain of +the craft. "And call a meeting of the directors." + +The examiner had brought a brief-case along with him from the tavern. +He pulled out a card. Britt winced when he saw what was printed on the +card. + + + THIS BANK CLOSED + pending examination of resources and liabilities and + auditing of accounts. Per order STATE BANK EXAMINERS. + + +Mr. Starr ordered Britt to tack that card on the outer door. + +"Isn't there any other way but this?" asked the president. + +"There's nothing else to be done--certainly not! I'm afraid the +institution is in a bad way, Britt. You say you have been calling +regular loans in order to build up a cash reserve--and your cash isn't +in sight. I reckon it means that the stockholders will be assessed the +full hundred per cent of liability." + +He bolted the bank door behind the president. + +"Now, Vaniman, did you find out anything sensible about those books, +as far as you got last evening?" + +"Only that the accounts seem to have been willfully tangled up." + +"Then we'll let that part of the thing hang. Get out letters to +depositors, calling in all pass books." + +After Vaniman had set himself down to that task, Starr went about his +business briskly. He prepared telegrams and sent his charioteer to put +them on the wire at Levant. Those messages were intended to set in +operation the state police, a firm of licensed auditors, the security +company which had bonded the bank's officials, the insurance +corporation which guaranteed the Egypt Trust Company against loss by +burglars. Then Starr proceeded with the usual routine of examination +as conducted when banks are going concerns. + +For the next few days Egypt was on the map. + +Ike Jones was obliged to put extra pungs on to his stage line for the +accommodation of visitors who included accountants, newspaper +reporters, insurance men, and security representatives. + +Finally, so far as Starr's concern was involved, the affairs of the +Egypt Trust Company were shaken down into something like coherence. +The apparent errors in the books, when they had been checked by pass +books and notes and securities, were resolved into a mere wanton +effort to mix things up. + +Mr. Starr took occasion to reassure Miss Harnden in regard to those +books; during the investigation the girl had been working with Vaniman +in the usual double-hitch arrangement which had prevailed before the +day of the disaster. The two plodded steadily, faithfully, silently, +under the orders of the examiner. + +"Now that I've seen you at work, Miss Harnden, I eliminate +carelessness and stupidity as the reasons for the books being as they +are. That's the way I'm going at this thing--by the process of +elimination. I'm going to say more! I'm eliminating you as being +consciously responsible for any of the wrongdoing in this bank. That's +about as far as I've got in the matter of elimination." He thumped his +fist on a ledger. "It looks to me as if somebody had started to put +something over by mixing these figures and had been tripped before +finishing the job." + +Then Mr. Starr, as if to show his appreciation of a worthy young woman +whom he had treated in rather cavalier fashion at their first meeting, +made her clerk to the receiver; the receiver was Almon Waite, an +amiable old professor of mathematics, retired, who had come back to +Egypt to pass his last days with his son. Examiner Starr, having taken +it upon himself to put the Egypt Trust case through, had found in +Professor Waite a handy sort of a soft rubber stamp. + +Every afternoon, day by day, Starr had remarked casually to Vaniman, +"Seeing that we have so many things to talk over, you'd better lodge +with me at the hotel to-night!" And daily Vaniman agreed without a +flicker of an eyelid. In view of the fact that both of them kept +sedulously off the bank business after hours, there was a perfect +understanding between the examiner and the cashier as to what this +espionage meant. And Vaniman knew perfectly well just why a chap named +Bixby was in town! + +Having a pretty good knowledge of Starr's general opinions and +prejudices, the cashier had squared himself to meet things as they +came along. Once or twice Starr gave the young man an opportunity to +come across with explanations or defense. Vaniman kept silent. + +The cashier explained his sentiments to Vona. "It's mighty little +ammunition I've got, dear! All I can do now is to keep it dry, and +wait till I can see the whites of the enemy's eyes." + +He refrained from any comment on the identity of the enemy. He did not +need to name names to Vona. The attitude of Tasper Britt, who kept by +himself in his own office; who offered not one word of suggestion or +explanation or consolation; who surveyed Vaniman, when the two met at +the tavern, with the reproachful stare of the benefactor who had been +betrayed--Britt's attitude was sufficiently significant. Vaniman was +waiting to see what Britt would do in the crisis that was approaching. +"At any rate, I must keep silent until I'm directly accused, Vona. +Starr is regularly talking with Britt. If I begin now to defend myself +by telling about Britt's operations, I'll merely be handing weapons to +the enemy. They can't surprise me by any charge they may bring! I have +got myself stiffened up to that point. You must make up your mind that +it's coming. Pile up courage beforehand!" + +It was a valiant little speech. But he was obliged to strive +heroically to make his countenance fit his words of courage. In facing +the situation squarely he had been trying to make an estimate of the +state of mind in Egypt. He bitterly decided that the folks were lining +up against the outlander. As hateful as Britt had made himself, he was +Egyptian, born and bred. Vaniman knew what the wreck of the little +bank signified in that town, which was already staggering under its +debt burden. How that bank had been wrecked was not clear to Vaniman, +even when he gave the thing profound consideration. He did not dare to +declare to himself all that he suspected of the president. Nor did he +dare to believe that Britt would dump the whole burden on the cashier. +However, if Britt undertook such a play of perfidy, the outlander knew +that the native would have the advantage in the exchange of +accusation. + +Vaniman perceived the existing state of affairs in the demeanor of the +men whom he met on the street, going to and from the tavern. He heard +some of their remarks. He strove to keep a calm face while his soul +burned! + +Then, at last, Examiner Starr acted. He employed peculiar methods to +fit a peculiar case. + +One afternoon Starr sat and stared for some time at Vaniman. They were +alone in the bank. Receiver Waite and Vona had gone away. + +"Would you relish a little show?" inquired the examiner. + +Vaniman had nerved himself against all kinds of surprise, he thought, +but he was not prepared for this proffer of entertainment. He frankly +declared that he did not understand. + +"Seeing that you are doubtful, we'll have the show, anyway, and you +can tell me later whether or not you relish it." He opened the door +and called. Bixby came in. It was evident that Bixby had been waiting. + +"All ready!" said Starr. + +"All right!" said Bixby. + +"I'll say that Bixby, here, is an operator from a detective agency, in +case you don't know it," explained the examiner. + +"I do know it, sir!" + +Bixby pulled off his overcoat. Under it he wore a mohair office coat. +He yanked off that garment, ripped the sleeves, tore the back breadth, +and threw the coat under a stool. Then he secured a dustcloth from a +hook, produced a small vial of chloroform, and poured some of the +liquid on the cloth. He poured more of the chloroform on his hair and +his vest. Then he laid down the cloth and got a roll of tape out of a +drawer. He cut off a length and made a noose, slipped it over his +wrists, bent down and laid the end of the tape on the floor, stood on +it, and pulled taut the noose until the flesh was ridged. He stooped +again and picked up two metal disks which Starr tossed on the floor; +the detective did this easily, although his writs were noosed. + +"Not the exact program, perhaps, but near enough," Starr commented. + +With equal ease Bixby laid the disks carefully on the flange of the +sill of the vault. Then he took the cloth from the desk, went to the +vault, stooped and thumped his head up against the projecting lever. +He went into the vault and carefully pulled the door shut after him, +both hands on the main bolt. + +Starr was silent for some moments, exchanging looks with the cashier. + +"Any comments?" inquired the manager of the show. + +"None, sir." + +"I'll simply say that the chloroform cloth can be put to the nose as +occasion calls for. Bixby isn't doing that. I told Bixby that for the +purposes of demonstration he might count one hundred slow and then +figure that he had used up the oxygen in the vault, and then, if +nobody came to open the door, he could--well, he isn't in there to +commit suicide, but only to create an impression. I ask again--any +comments?" + +Vaniman shook his head. + +Then the door swung open. Bixby was on his back, his heels in the air. +He had pushed the door with his feet, his shoulders against the inner +door. He rose and came out. Starr cut the tape with the office shears. + +"That's all!" said the manager. + +Bixby, not troubling about the torn office jacket, put on his overcoat +and departed. + +Starr took a lot of time in lighting a cigar and getting a good clinch +on the weed with his teeth. He spoke between those teeth. "It's your +move, Vaniman." + +"I haven't agreed to sit in at that kind of a game," stated the young +man, firmly. + +"But you'll have to admit that I'm playing mighty fair," insisted the +examiner. "When we talked in Britt's office, you and I agreed that it +wasn't likely that a chap would run risks or commit suicide by +shutting himself up in a bank vault with a time lock on. That's about +the only point we did agree on. I'm showing you that I don't agree +with you now, even on that point. That being the case, you've got to-- +show /me/." Starr emphasized the last two words by stabbing at his +breast with the cigar. + +"The idea is, Mr. Starr, you believe that I framed a fake robbery, or +something that looked like a robbery, in order to cover myself." Frank +stood up and spoke hotly. + +Mr. Starr jumped up and was just as heated in his retort. "Yes!" + +"But the whole thing--the muddling of the bank's books--the disks--a +man shoving himself into the vault--I'd have to be a lunatic to +perform in that fashion!" + +"They say there's nothing new under the sun! There is, just the same! +Some crook is thinking up a new scheme every day!" + +"By the gods, you shall not call me a crook!" + +"You, yourself, are drawing that inference. But I don't propose to +deal in inferences--" + +"Starting in the first day you struck this town, hounding me on +account of matters I had no knowledge of, Mr. Starr, was drawing a +damnable inference." + +"It has been backed up by some mighty good evidence!" + +"What is your evidence?" + +The examiner blew a cloud of smoke, then he fanned the screen away and +squinted at Vaniman. "If you ever hear of me giving away the state's +case in any matter where I'm concerned you'll next hear of me +committing suicide by locking myself into a bank vault. Calm down, Mr. +Cashier!" + +Starr walked close to Vaniman and tapped a stubby forefinger against +the young man's heaving breast. "I'm going to give you a chance, young +fellow! I staged that little play a few moments ago so that you'd see +what a fool house of cards you're living in! I hope you noted +carefully that we did not need to go off the premises for any of our +props. I, myself, had noted in your case that everything that was used +came from the premises. Real robbers usually bring their own stuff. +Even that chloroform--" + +"I know nothing about the chloroform, sir." + +"Well, the vial was here that night, anyway! It's a small thing to +waste time on! I don't profess to be at the bottom of the affair, +Vaniman. I'll admit that it looks as if there's a lot behind this +thing--plenty that is interesting. I've got my full share of human +curiosity. I'd like to be let in on this thing, first hand. Now come +across clean! The whole story! Tell me where the coin is! It's +certainly a queer case, and there must be some twist in it where I can +do you a good turn. I've giving you your chance, I say!" + +"I have no more idea where that coin is than you have, Mr. Starr. I +never touched it. I have already told the whole truth, so far as I +know facts." + +"Now listen, Vaniman! This town is already /down/! If that gold isn't +recovered this bank failure will put the town /out/! The folks are +ugly. They're talking. Britt says they believe you have hidden the +money!" + +"He does say it!" Vaniman fairly barked the words. "No doubt he has +been telling 'em so!" + +Starr proceeded remorselessly. "I have heard all the gossip about the +trouble between you and Britt. But that gossip doesn't belong in this +thing right now. Vaniman, you know what a country town is when it +turns against an outsider! If you go before a jury on this case--and +that money isn't in sight--you don't stand the show of a wooden latch +on the back door of hell's kitchen! They'll all come to court with +what they can grub up in the way of brickbats--facts, if they can get +'em, lies, anyway! Come, come, now! Dig up the coin!" + +Starr's bland persistency in taking for granted the fact that Vaniman +was hiding the money snapped the overstrained leash of the cashier's +self-restraint. In default of a general audience of the hateful +Egyptian vilifiers, he used Starr as the object of his frenzied +vituperation. + +Mr. Starr listened without reply. + +As soon as it was apparent to the bank examiner that the cashier did +not intend to take advantage of the chance that had been offered, +Starr marched to the door, opened it, and called. The corridor, it +seemed, was serving as repository for various properties required in +the drama which Mr. Starr had staged that day. The man who entered +wore a gold badge--and a gold badge marks the high sheriff of a +county. Starr handed a paper to the officer. "Serve it," he commanded, +curtly. + +The sheriff walked to Vaniman and tapped him on the shoulder. "You're +under arrest." + +"Charged with what?" + +"I'm making it fairly easy for you," explained, Starr, dryly, +appearing to be better acquainted with the nature of the warrant than +the sheriff was. "Burglary, with or without accomplices, might have +been charged--seeing that the coin has been removed--in the nighttime, +of course! But we're simply making the charge embezzlement!" + + + + CHAPTER XVII + + ON THE FACE OF IT + +Squire Hexter arranged for Vaniman's bail, volunteering for that +service, frankly admitting that he "had seen it coming all along"! But +the Squire was not as ready to serve as Frank's counsel and withstood +that young man's urging for some time. The Squire's solicitude in +behalf of the accused was the reason for this reluctance. "You ought +to have the smartest city lawyer you can hire. I'm only an old country +codger, son!" + +"Squire Hexter, I propose to let the other side have a monopoly of the +tricks. I'm depending on my innocence, and I want your honesty back of +it." + +In the hope that the folks of Egypt would recognize innocence when +they saw it, Vaniman daily walked the streets of the village. The +pride of innocence was soon wounded; he learned that his action in +"showing himself under the folks's noses" was considered as bravado. +The light of day showed him so many sour looks that he stayed in the +house with Xoa or in the Squire's office until night. Then he +discovered that when he walked abroad under cover of the darkness he +was persistently trailed; it was evident that the belief that he had +hidden the coin of the Egypt Trust Company was sticking firmly in the +noodles of the public. + +The bank, of course, was now forbidden ground for him. The affairs of +that unhappy institution were being wound up. Considering the fact +that the stockholders had been assessed dollar for dollar of their +holdings, and that, even with this assessment added to the assets, the +depositors would get back only a fraction of their money, Vaniman +could scarcely marvel at the hard looks and the muttered words he met +up with on the street. + +Furthermore, the insurance company took the stand that the bank had +not been burglarized. On the other hand, the security company behind +Vaniman's bond refused to settle, claiming that some kind of a theft +had been committed by outsiders. Only after expensive litigation could +Receiver Waite hope to add insurance and bond money to the assets. The +prospects of getting anything were clouded by the revelations +concerning President Britt's private entrance to the bank vault. But +Britt was not accused of anything except of presuming on too many +liberties in running a one-man bank. Under some circumstances Britt +would have been called to an accounting, without question. But all the +venom of suspicion was wholly engaged with Frank Vaniman, the son of +an embezzler. + +Squire Hexter, armed with authority and information given him by the +young man, had repeatedly waited on Tasper Britt and had asked what +attitude the president proposed to take at the trial. Britt had said +that he should tell the truth, and that was all any witness could be +expected to do or to promise, furthermore, so he told the Squire, he +had been enjoined by his counsel to make no talk to anybody. + +Vaniman was not sure of his self-restraint during that period of +waiting. There were days when he felt like slapping the faces that +glowered when he looked at them. He avoided any meeting with Britt. +That was easy, because Britt swung with pendulum regularity between +house and tavern, tavern and office. + +There were days when Vaniman was so thoroughly disheartened that he +pleaded with Vona to make a show of breaking off their friendship. She +had insisted on displaying herself as his champion; obeying her, he +walked in her company to and from the bank with more or less +regularity. His spirit of chivalry made the snubs harder to endure +when she was obliged to share them in his company. + +But Vona staunchly refused to be a party to such deception. She +borrowed some figures of speech suggested by the work she was doing in +the bank and declared that her loyalty was not insolvent and that she +would not make any composition with her conscience. + +In her zeal to be of service, one day she even volunteered to +interview Tasper Britt on the subject of what had happened to the +Egypt Trust Company. On that fresh April morning they had walked up +the slope of Burkett Hill, where the sward was showing its first +green. He had come to her house earlier than usual so that she might +have time for the little excursion. They hunted for mayflowers and +found enough to make a bit of a bouquet for her desk in the office. + +"One just has to feel hopeful in the spring, Frank," she insisted, +brushing the blossoms gently against his cheek. From the slope they +could look down into the length of Egypt's main street. "Why, there +goes Tasper Britt toward his office and he actually waved his hand to +a man--honest! The spring does soften folks. If he does know something +about the inside of the dreadful puzzle, as you and I have talked so +many times, I do believe I can coax him to tell me." + +"I don't want you to coax him, dear. Squire Hexter has put the thing +up to Britt, man to man, and I think it better to let it stand that +way." + +"But if we could get only a little hint to work from!" + +"I'm afraid you'll find him as stingy with hints as he is with +everything else. He does know--something! I would not put him above +arranging that frame-up that put me where I was found that night," he +declared, with bitterness. + +"No, Frank, I tell you again that I don't believe he knew it was going +to happen. When I stood there outside the curtain that night I was +looking straight at him, and at nobody else. I don't remember another +face. Tasper Britt is not actor enough to make up the expression that +I saw. It was simple, absolute, flabbergasted fright!" + +They started down the slope and walked in silence. + +"He's considerable of a coward," Vaniman admitted, after his +pondering. "I'm depending on that fact, more or less. I don't believe +he'll dare to stand up as a witness in court and perjure himself. +Squire Hexter has a line of questions that he and I have prepared very +carefully. Britt will have to testify that I did not have sole +opportunity. In considering crimes, it's proving sole opportunity that +sends folks to prison!" + +She turned away her face and set her teeth upon her lower lip, +controlling her agitation. + +"I'm trying to face the thing just as bravely as I can, Vona. On the +face of it I'm in bad! When I remember how Britt maneuvered with me, I +feel like running to him and twisting his head off his neck." + +When they arrived in front of Britt Block, Vaniman scowled at the +stone effigy in its niche. Then, when his eyes came down from that +complacent countenance, they beheld the face of Tasper Britt framed in +his office window. The Britt in the bank was distinctly in an ugly +mood. And there was a challenge in his demeanor, a sneer in the twist +of his features. + +"Vona, I'm going in there," Vaniman declared. "There's got to be a +showdown, but it's no job for you!" + +She offered neither protest nor advice. At that moment the young man +was manifestly in a state of mind which sudden resolution had inflamed +with something like desperation. When he strode in through the front +door Britt disappeared from the window. + +Vona, following her lover, put her hand on his arm when he arrived in +front of the office door. "Don't you need me with you in there?" She +could not hide her apprehensiveness. + +"I'm going to hold myself in, dear! Don't be worried. But it's best +for me to see him alone." + +He waited until she had gone into the bank office. + +He did not bother to knock on Britt's door. When he twisted the handle +he found that the door was locked. He called, but Britt did not reply. +He put his mouth close to the door. "Mr. Britt, I have some business +to talk over with you. Please let me in!" + +He waited. The man inside did not move or speak. "I'm coming in there, +Britt, even if I have to kick this door down." + +But the threat did not produce any results. Vaniman stepped back and +drove his foot against the panel, but not with enough force to break +the lock. His kick was in the way of admonition. After a few moments +Britt opened the door; he had an iron poker in his hand. Vaniman +marched in. "You don't need any weapon, sir." + +"I think I do, judging from the way you came rushing into this +building. Vaniman, I protest. I have said my say to your attorney. I +have nothing more to add." + +"I'm not here to try the case, Mr. Britt. I'll confess that I did not +intend to waste my breath in talking with you. But I could not resist +the feeling that came over me a few moments ago." He was standing just +inside the door. He closed it. "You informed Squire Hexter that you +intend to tell the truth at the trial. That's all right! I hope so. I +have no criticism to offer on that point. But there's a matter of +man's business between us two, and it belongs here rather than in a +courtroom. Do you intend to tell the truth about how you framed me?" + +"I don't understand what you mean," returned Britt, stiffly. + +"I'll put it so that you can't help understanding, sir. You rigged a +plan to have me sleep in the bank nights." + +"That was your own suggestion. You asked to be allowed to sleep here." + +"You intend to say that in your testimony, do you?" + +Britt took a firm hold on the poker. "I most certainly do." + +"You cooked up an excuse to send me off on a wild-goose chase in the +night." + +"I know nothing about your going anywhere in the night--except that +Files's hostler is saying that you hired a hitch for some purpose." + +Vaniman knew that appeal and protest would be futile--realizing the +full extent of Britt's effrontery. However, in his amazement he began +to rail at the president. + +Britt broke in on the anathema. "I was not nigh the bank that night. I +was asleep in my own house. You'd better not try any such ridiculous +story in court--it will spoil any defense Hexter may manage to put up +for you. Vaniman, it's plain enough why you hired that hitch! Why +don't you tell where you hauled that money?" + +"I'm not going to do to you what I ought to do, Britt. I'm into the +hole deep enough as it is! But let me ask you if any jury is going to +believe that I was lunatic enough to hire a livery hitch, if I was +hauling away loot?" + +"It's my idea, Vaniman, that you were trying to work a hold-up game on +the bank, knowing that you were done here," stated Britt, coolly. "But +something went wrong before you had a chance to offer a compromise. +Naturally, you thought we'd do 'most anything to keep our little bank +from failing." + +The young man beat his fist upon his breast. "Have you the damnation +cheek, Britt, to use me, the victim, to rehearse your lies on?" + +"I'm giving you a little glimpse of the evidence. If the hint is of +any use to you, you're welcome." + +"Britt, have you turned into a demon?" Vaniman demanded. He stared at +the usurer with honest incredulity. + +"I've had enough setbacks, in recent days, to craze 'most any man, +I'll admit. But I'm keeping along in my usual course, doing the right +thing as I see it." + +"Britt, I have never done you an injury. Are you going to ruin me +because a good girl loves me?" + +"I have too much respect for that young lady to allow her name to be +dragged into a mess of this sort," stated the amazing Britt. "And I +think that she'll wake up after she has come to a realizing sense of +what a narrow escape she has had." + +Vaniman stood there, his hands closing and unclosing, his palms +itching to feel the contact of Britt's cheeks. There was venom in +Britt's eyes. This outrageous baiting was satisfying the older man's +rancor--the ugly grudge that clawed and tore his soul when he sat +alone in his chamber and gazed on the girl's pictured beauty. Every +night, after he puffed out his light, he muttered the same speech--it +had become the talisman of his ponderings. "Whilst I'm staying alone +here he'll be alone in a cell in state prison." + +Vaniman understood. + +He turned on his heel and walked out of Britt's office. + +In the street the young man met Prophet Elias, who was adventuring +abroad under his big umbrella. Vaniman was in a mood to poke ruthless +facts against his aches. "Prophet, you ought to know whether any of +the folks in this town believe that I'm innocent. Are there any?" + +Elias, ever since he had flung to the cashier the sage advice about +keeping his eye peeled, had used texts rarely in his infrequent talks +with Vaniman. + +"Oh yes, there are a few," he said, with matter-of-fact indifference. +"But they didn't lose money by the bank failure." + +"What do you think about me?" + +The Prophet cocked his eyebrow. "'Can a man take fire into his bosom, +and his clothing not be burned?' Britt, the bank, the girl! Three hot +torches, young sir! Very hot torches!" He walked on. Then he turned +and came back and patted Vaniman's arm. "You didn't keep your eye +peeled! The young are thoughtless. But four good old eyes will be +serving you while you're--/away/! Mine and Brother Usial's." + +"Thank you!" said the young man, and he went on his way. He was +reflecting on that text the Prophet had enunciated. + +Might it not apply as well to Tasper Britt? + + + + CHAPTER XVIII + + A PERSISTENT BELIEF + +Vaniman was indicted; he was tried; he was convicted; he was sentenced +to serve seven years in the state prison. He refused to allow Squire +Hexter to appeal the case. He had no taste for further struggle +against the circumstantial evidence that was reinforced by perjury. +His consciousness of protesting innocence was subjugated by the morose +determination to accept the unjust punishment. + +The general opinion was that he was a very refractory young man +because he would not disclose the hiding place of the gold. + +Even the warden of the prison had some remarks to make on that +subject. The chaplain urged Vaniman to clear his conscience and do +what he could to aid the distressed inhabitants of a bankrupt town. +This conspiracy of persistent belief in his guilt put a raw edge on +his mental suffering. + +His only source of solace was the weekly letter from Vona. Her +fortitude seemed to be unaffected; her loyalty heartened him. And +after a time hope intervened and comforted him; although Vaniman had +only a few friends on the job for him in Egypt, he reflected that +Tasper Britt had plenty of enemies who would operate constantly and +for the indirect benefit of Britt's especial victim. The young man +felt that accident might disclose the truth at any time. But every +little while he went through a period of acute torture; he had a wild +desire to break out of his prison, to be on the ground in Egypt, to go +at the job of unmasking Britt as only a man vitally interested in the +task could go at it! + +Sometimes his frenzy reached such a height that it resembled the +affliction that pathologists call claustrophobia. He stamped to and +fro in his cell, after the bolts had been driven for the night; he +lamented and he cursed, muffling his tones. And a man named Bartley +Wagg, having taken it upon himself to keep close tabs on Vaniman's +state of mind, noted the prisoner's rebellious restlessness with +deepening interest and coupled a lot of steady pondering with his +furtive espionage. + +Wagg was a prison guard. + +After Vaniman was committed, Wagg complained of rheumatism and asked +the warden to transfer him from the wall where he had been doing +sentry-go with a rifle and give him an inside job as night warder. And +the warden humored Wagg, who was a trusted veteran. + +Wagg made regular trips along the cell tiers during the night. He +padded as noiselessly as a cat, for he had soles of felt on his shoes. +Many times, keeping vigil when his emotions would not allow him to +sleep, Vaniman saw Wagg halt and peer through the bars of the cell. +The corridor light showed his face. But Wagg did not accost the +prisoner. The guard acted like a man who, whatever might be his +particular interest in Vaniman, proposed to take plenty of time in +getting acquainted. + +Once, after midnight, Wagg found the prisoner pacing; Vaniman dared to +relieve his feelings by groans, for the chorus of snores served as a +sound-screen. + +"Sick?" inquired the guard, whispering. + +"No." + +"If you ever are, don't be afraid to call on me when I pass. I've got +a good heart." + +"Thank you!" + +"I've really got too good a heart to be tied up to a prison job," +volunteered Wagg. "I hate to see sorrow." + +"Sorrow is about all you have a chance to see in this place." + +"Yes," admitted the guard, sliding away. + +The warden had given Vaniman a bookkeeper's job. But the prison office +was a gloomy place and the windows were hatefully barred Through the +bars he could see convict toilers wheeling barrows of dirt. They were +filling up a lime-quarry pit within the walls. In the old days +convicts had quarried lime rocks. But in the newer days of shops the +quarry was abandoned and had been gradually filled with stagnant +water. When the prison commissioners decided that the pool was a +menace to health, a crew was set at work filling the pit. Vaniman +envied the men who could work in the sunshine. He was everlastingly +behind bars; the office was not much better than his cell. The bars +shut him away from opportunity to make a man's fight for himself. +Every time he looked at a window he was reminded of his helplessness. +It seemed to him that if he could get out into the sunshine and toil +till his muscles ached he would be able to endure better the night of +confinement in the cell. + +He blurted out that much of confession to Wagg when the guard +discovered him pacing in the narrow space a few nights later. + +"I sympathize!" whispered Wagg. "I know all about your case!" Then +Wagg passed on. + +The next night he halted long enough to say that, knowing all about +the case from what the newspapers printed, he realized just why +Vaniman found it so tough to be locked up. + +Then Wagg refrained from saying anything for several nights. The +prisoner was quite sure that the guard had something on his mind +outside of a mere notion of being polite; in the case of Wagg, so +hardened a veteran, politeness to a prisoner would have been heresy. +Wondering just what Wagg was driving at, Vaniman found the guard's +leisurely methods tantalizing in the extreme. One night the prisoner +ventured to take the initiative; he stuck out his hand to signal the +guard. + +Wagg, it was manifest, was not so much a master of facial control that +he could suppress all signs of satisfaction. He looked pleased--like a +man who had employed tactics that were working according to plans and +hopes. + +"Sick?" + +"Yes--heart and soul! Body, too! Isn't there any way of my getting a +job wheeling that dirt?" + +Wagg made his noiseless getaway. He departed suddenly, without a word. +Until the next night Vaniman was left to wonder to what extent he had +offended the official. + +But Wagg showed no signs of unfriendliness when he halted, after +midnight, at the cell door. "Feel any better?" + +"No!" + +"I reckon I understand. Of course I understand! Most of 'em that's in +here haven't anything special to look forward to when they get out. +Your case is different. Everything to look forward to! No wonder you +walk the cell." + +On he slid, silently. + +Vaniman had read the /Arabian Nights/ tales, as they were divided in +the literal translation. He reflected whimsically on the methods of +the story-teller who, "having said her permitted say," was wont to +stop right in the middle of a sentence for the sake of piquing +interest in what was to follow. + +The next night the prisoner's interest was heightened into real +amazement. Wagg stuck his hand through the bars and waggled it +invitingly. + +"Take it!" he urged, sibilantly. + +For a dizzy instant Vaniman was moved by the expansive hope that his +plight had appealed to this man; he hastened to take what Wagg +offered. It was a small cube of something. + +"Eat it!" said the guard. + +Holding it close to his face, to make an inspection in the dim light, +the young man caught the scent of the cube. It was a piece of soap. He +made sure by putting it to his nose. + +"Just a little at a time--what you can stomach," Wagg urged. He passed +on. + +But Vaniman did not obey; he was unable to comprehend what this sort +of fodder signified; he broke the cube into bits, thinking that a saw +might be hidden. It was only soap--common soap. He put the bits away +in the portfolio he was allow to have in his cell. + +Wagg was a bit testy the next night when Vaniman confessed that he had +not eaten any of the soap. + +"You've got to show absolute confidence in me--do what I tell you to +do," insisted the guard. + +"I can't eat that soap. It will make me sick!" + +"You've said it! But eat that soap--a little at a time--and see what +the prison doctor says. It isn't easy to fool prison doctors--but I've +been on this job long enough to know how." + +That was Wagg's longest speech to date. His earnestness impressed the +young man. He managed to eat a bit of the soap after the guard had +departed. He ate more in the morning before his release from the cell. +He put some crumbs of the soap in his pockets and choked down the +hateful substance when he found an opportunity during the day. + +That night Wagg had a few more words to say on the subject. "One of +the biggest birds they ever caged at Atlanta fooled the doctors and +got his pardon so that he could die outside the pen. Did he die? Bah- +bah! Soap! Just soap!" + +"So you think the pardon plan can be worked in my case, do you?" + +"Pardon your eyes!" scoffed Wagg. "That isn't the idea at all!" + +He fed the soap to the prisoner for many nights, but he did not give +any information. However, Wagg had the air of a man who knew well what +he was about, and Vaniman was desperate enough to continue the +horrible diet, having found that Mr. Wagg was a very touchy person +when his policies were doubted or his good faith questioned. + +Then, one day the prison doctor, who had been observing Vaniman for +some time, took the bookkeeper into his office and examined him +thoroughly; he gravely informed the warden that the young man had +symptoms of incipient kidney trouble and ought to be less closely +confined. + +When Vaniman found himself out in the sunshine, intrusted with the +sinecure of checking up barrow-loads of dirt which convicts wheeled +past him where he sat in an armchair provided by the warden from his +office, the prisoner perceived that the Wagg policies were effective +in getting results. + +Having added respect for Mr. Wagg's ability in general, Vaniman was +not surprised to find the guard following the favored prisoner into +the new field of operations. The young man was quite sure that the +guard had not opened up on his principal plan. + +One morning Wagg came with a stool and a rifle and located himself +close beside the armchair; he sat on the stool and rested the rifle +across his knees and smoked a corncob pipe placidly. And there was +plenty of opportunity for talk, though Wagg obtrusively kept his face +turned from Vaniman's and talked through the corner of his mouth. + +"Now you see, I hope! In a prison you've got to step light and go the +other way around to get to a thing. I'm favored here, and I'm supposed +to be nursing rheumatism." He leaned forward to knock out his pipe +dottle and found an opportunity to give Vaniman a wink. "I arranged to +come off the wall--knowing all about your case. I could ask to come +out here, having found that night work didn't help me! Sunshine is +good. But you couldn't ask for sunshine. When a prisoner asks for a +thing, they go on the plan of doing exactly opposite to what he seems +to want. From now on, having seen how I can operate, I expect you to +do just what I tell you to do." + +Vaniman looked at the rifle. Wagg waved it, commanding a convict to +hurry past. + +"Yes, sir! You've got to do just as I say!" insisted the guard when +the convict had gone out of earshot. + +"How can I help myself?" + +"Oh, I don't mean that I'm going to team you around with this rifle! I +want you to co-operate." + +"Don't you think I can co-operate better if you give me a line on what +all this means?" pleaded the prisoner. + +"Sure and slow is my policy. I'm not just certain that I have you +sized up right, as yet. I'm of a suspicious nature. But I'm finding +this sunshine softening." Mr. Wagg rambled on, squinting up at the +sky. "Seven years is a long while to wait for a good time to come. +Figuring that your time will be paid for at the rate of about ten +thousand dollars a year, while you're in here, helps to smooth the +feelings somewhat, of course. But now that you're in here you're +counting days instead of years--and every day seems a year when you're +looking forward. The newspapers said it was about seventy-five +thousand dollars in good, solid gold." + +Wagg bored Vaniman with a side glance that was prolonged until a +toiling convict had passed to a safe distance. The young man was +eyeing the guard with a demeanor which indicated that the tractable +spirit commended by Mr. Wagg was no longer under good control. +However, Vaniman did manage to control his tongue. + +After the silence had continued for some time, the guard slipped down +from the stool and marched to and fro with his rifle in the hook of +his arm, affording a fine display of attention to duty. + +After he had returned to his stool, Wagg gave the ex-cashier plenty of +time to take up the topic. "Considering my position in this place, I +reckon I've said about enough," suggested the guard. + +"I think you have said enough!" returned Vaniman, grimly. + +"What have you to say?" + +"I didn't take that money from the Egypt Trust Company. I don't know +where it is. I never knew where it went. And I'm getting infernally +sick of having it everlastingly thrown up at me." + +"I thought I had you sized up better--but I see I was wrong," admitted +Wagg. + +"Of course you're wrong! You and the chaplain and the warden and the +jury! I didn't take that money!" + +"I didn't mean I was wrong on that point," proceeded Wagg, +remorselessly. "But I had watched you bang around your cell and I +concluded that you was ready to make about a fifty-fifty split of the +swag with the chap who could get you out of here. If you're still +stuffy, you'll have to stay that way--and stay in here, too!" + +He took another promenade, pursuing his regular policy of starting the +fire and letting the kettle come aboil on its own hook. + +"What good would it do me to escape from this prison--to be hounded +and hunted from one end of the world to the other?" Vaniman demanded, +when Wagg had returned to the stool. "I do want to get out. But I want +to get out right! I have a job to do for myself when I'm out of here!" +Mr. Wagg nodded understandingly. "And that job is right in the same +town where I have been living." + +"Exactly!" agreed the guard. "And speaking of a job, you don't think +for one moment, do you, that I'd be earning a fifty-fifty split by +boosting you over that wall or smuggling you out of the gate to shift +for yourself? Small wonder that you got hot, thinking I meant it that +way. My plan will put you out right! My plan is a prime plan that can +be worked only once. Therefore, it's worth money." + +"Damn it, I haven't the money!" Vaniman, exasperated by this +pertinacity, was not able to control his feelings or his language. + +"It's too bad you are still at the point where you /think/ you haven't +got it," returned Mr. Wagg. "I'm a terrible good waiter. Reckon I have +showed that kind of a disposition already. When you get to the other +and sensible point where you want to be out of here, and out right, +with nobody chasing and hectoring you, you and I will do business on +the fifty-fifty basis. It may seem high," he pursued. "But all prices +are high in these times. They're so blamed high that I'm in debt, +simply trying to give my family a decent living. The state won't raise +my wages. The state practically says, 'You'll have to do the best you +can!' The state owes me a living. So I'll grab on to the assets that +the state has hove into my reach, and will speculate as best I know +now." + +"You think I'm your asset, eh?" + +"You're not worth a cent to me or yourself until I operate. And when +you're ready to have me operate--fifty-fifty--give me the high sign. +And something will be done what was never done before!" + +Then Wagg carried his stool to the lee of a shop wall, seeking shade-- +too far away for further talk. + + + + CHAPTER XIX + + AND PHARAOH'S HEART WAS HARDENED + +By the wiles of Wagg and a soap diet Frank Vaniman had been able to +secure his modest slice of God's sunlight. + +There was aplenty of that sunshine in Egypt. It flooded the bare hills +and the barren valleys; there were not trees enough to trig the +sunlight's flood with effective barriers of shade. + +Tasper Britt walked out into it from the door of Files's tavern. + +He had just been talking to the landlord about the tavern diet. His +language was vitriolic. Even Vaniman could not have used more bitter +words to express his detestation for soap as a comestible. + +Britt's heat in the matter, the manner in which he had plunged into +the diatribe all of a sudden, astonished Mr. Files tremendously. Britt +seemed to be acting out a part, he was so violent. Usually, Britt did +not waste any of the heat in his cold nature unless he had a good +reason for the expenditure. There seemed to be something else than +mere dyspepsia concerned, so Files thought. He followed Mr. Britt and +called to him from the door. Britt had stopped to light his cigar. + +"I've had my say. I'm all done here. Let that end it," declared the +departing guest. + +There were listeners, the usual after-dinner loafers of the tavern's +purlieus. Mr. Britt did not seem to mind them. He even looked about, +as if to make sure of their numbers. + +"All you needed to do was to complain in a genteel way, and I would +have been just as genteel in rectifying," pleaded Files. + +"The people of this town are still saying that I'm a hard man. If +that's so, I'm waking up to the reason for it--your grub has petrified +me. My real friends have noticed it." Here was more of Britt's +unwonted garrulity about his private concerns. "Some of those friends +have taken pity on me. I have been invited to board with the Harnden +family." + +Mr. Britt did not look around to note the effect of that piece of +news. He gazed complacently up into the sunshine. + +He made quite a figure--for Egypt--as he stood there. Mr. Britt had +"togged out." His toupee, when he first flashed it, had signified +much. But the manner in which he had garbed himself for summer was +little less than hardihood, considering the sort of a community in +which he lived. He was "a native." The style of his attire declared +that he was completely indifferent to any comments by his townsmen-- +and such a trait exposed in a New England village revealed more fully +than his usurious habits the real callousness of the Britt nature. +There was not a man in sight who did not have patches either fore or +aft, or both! Mr. Britt wore a light, checked suit with a fitted +waist, garishly yellow shoes, a puff tie of light blue, and a sailor +straw with a sash band. He was a peacock in a yard full of brown +Leghorns. But nobody laughed at Mr. Britt. Nobody in Egypt felt like +laughing at anything, any more. They were accepting Britt, in his +gorgeous plumage, as merely another strange item in the list of the +signs and wonders that marked the latter days in Egypt. + +More tawdry than ever appeared Prophet Elias's robe in that sunshine, +though his umbrella did seem to comport better with the season. He +stood in front of Usial's home. For a long time he had been keeping +his tongue off the magnate of the town. For some weeks he had been +away somewhere. To those who indulgently asked where he had been he +replied tartly that he had volunteered as a scapegoat for the woes and +sins of Egypt, had gone in search of a wilderness, and had come back +because all other wildernesses were only second-rate affairs compared +with the town from which he had started. + +The Prophet seemed to feel that the appearance of Mr. Britt required +comment. He raised his voice and made that comment: + +"'And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the +field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I +say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like +one of these.'" + +The Prophet bestowed a momentary benefit on gloomy Egypt--the +listeners did manage to crease their countenances with grins; Britt +surveyed those grins before he turned his attention to Elias. But all +he did turn was his attention--silent, bodeful, malicious scrutiny. +The onlookers were considerably surprised by Britt's silence; they +wondered what controlled his tongue; but they were not in doubt on one +point--every man of them knew that when Tasper Britt wore that +expression it meant that he had settled upon the method of his revenge +in the case of one who had offended him. + +After a few moments Britt turned from his stare at the Prophet and +dropped what was nigh to being a bombshell; it was more effective +because it had nothing to do with the matter in hand. + +"Listen, fellow townsmen! We all know that we ought to put our +shoulders to the wheel and do something for poor Egypt. I propose to +start off." He pointed to the old Britt mansion. "I'm going to tear +down my house." + +The men of Egypt goggled at him. + +"Aye! And start off with it?" queried the Prophet. "Good riddance!" + +But Mr. Britt was not troubling himself about the mouthings of Elias. + +"I shall put a crew on it to-morrow. A city contractor will arrive +here this afternoon with equipment and men. But he can also use all +the local men who want to work. All who will pitch in can hire with +him at the regular scale of wages. As soon as the site is cleared I +shall start work on a new house. The plans are drawn. I have them +here." + +He snapped the rubber bands off a roll which he carried under his arm. +He exhibited a watercolor facade elevation, stretching his arms wide +and holding the paper in front of his face. The men came crowding +around. They saw the drawing of a pretentious structure with towers +and porticoes. Britt, holding the architect's broad sheet so that his +features were hidden, explained the details of his project in regard +to rooms and grounds. There was a hateful expression on the hidden +face; it was the face of a man who hoped he was stirring jealous envy +in those whom he wished to punish. + +"It will be a mansion to the queen's taste, when you get it done," +observed one man; he took advantage of the fact that Britt could not +see him and winked at a neighbor. But if the man hoped to get a rise +out of the builder in regard to a possible queen, he was disappointed. + +Another citizen was more venturesome: "I'm taking it for granted that +you don't intend to keep old-bach hall in a house like that, Tasper!" + +Britt took down the shield. He displayed a countenance of bland +satisfaction. "I don't think I'll be allowed to do it," he retorted, +answering jest with jest. "You know what women are when they see a +good-looking house needing a mistress." He rolled the paper up +carefully. "And now, talking of something sensible, I hope you're +going to turn out in good numbers when that contractor begins to hire. +And pass the word!" + +Nobody showed much enthusiasm. One man with a querulous mouth +suggested: "It will seem like helping waste money, tearing down a +stand of buildings that ain't in any ways due to be scrapped; I ain't +sure but what it will seem like a worse waste of money, building a +palace in a town like this. Don't you expect to be taxed like Sancho?" + +"Until we get some kind of legislation or court action to make our +town acts legal, the taxation question isn't worrying me much," said +Britt, grimly. "I'll take my chances along with the rest of you on +getting an act allowing us to compound with creditors." + +"Probably can be arranged," said a man with the malice against the +usurer that prevailed in the oppressed town. "We're sending a good man +to the next legislature." + +But Britt, in that new mood of his, was refusing to be baited. He +began to look about. "Where is that person who calls himself a +Prophet?" + +The others joined with Britt in making a survey of the landscape. +Nobody had been paying any attention to Elias, whose voice had been +stilled since the one-sided affair with Britt. + +"There he is," announced a man. + +The Prophet was patrolling. He was marching to and fro in front of +Britt's house. Then he walked in through a gap in Britt's fence and +went to the house and peered in at one of the windows. He had lowered +and folded his big umbrella and carried it under his arm. + +"I call on all of you to note what he did then," called Britt. "He has +been doing that lately." + +The Prophet returned to the road. Then he seemed to be attacked by +another idea. He went back through the gap in the fence and peered in +at another window. + +"I repeat, he has been doing that. I was getting ready to take proper +measures to handle him. Something better than talking back to a +lunatic! But I didn't reckon I'd have such good luck as this! Twelve +men right here for my witnesses! Look hard at him, men!" + +They did look, though they did not comprehend what Britt's excited +insistence signified. He pulled out a notebook and pencil and handed +it to the nearest man. "Mark down two! Mark it down--and all of you +take due notice." + +The Prophet returned to the highway and came slowly pacing along +toward the group. + +"All of you saw, did you? All of you ready to bear witness?" demanded +the magnate. + +He stepped out in front of Elias when the latter came near. Britt +shook the roll of drawings under the Prophet's nose. "Listen here, my +man! I didn't bother to talk to you a few minutes ago. Now I'm +talking. You've been a vagabond in this town for a long time. The only +thing that has protected you from the law in such cases made and +provided has been the roof of a man who ought to be a tramp along with +you. Right now, before the eyes of a dozen citizens, you have +committed two separate and distinct breaches of the law. You have +trespassed on my property. In the past I have sent men to jail for +sixty days for one offense of that sort. On my complaint, backed by +these witnesses, you'll see sixty days on one case--and I'll have you +re-arrested on the other count the moment you step foot out of the +jail." He paused. + +"Yes?" said the Prophet, mildly inquiring. + +"I'm a fair man, and I call the attention of these witnesses to what I +say now. I'll give you a chance. Walk out of this town and stay out, +and I'll not prosecute." + +The Prophet shook his head. + +"Do you refuse to go?" + +For a man who dealt so exclusively in texts, the Prophet was rather +vulgarly blunt when he replied, "You bet!" + +Britt received that manner of retort with the air of a man who had +been tunked between the eyes. It was some moments before he could go +on. "Don't you realize what the judge will say when I show up your +willfulness?" + +The Prophet was even more amazing in his new manners. He stuck out his +tongue, put his thumb to his nose, and wriggled his fingers. + +"Well, I'll be condemned!" Britt gasped. + +"Sure! When all the evidence is in about you!" + +The magnate of Egypt lowered the roll that he had brandished so +constantly. After a few moments of silent challenge with the eyes, he +turned and walked away. + +But he heard the mumble of men's laughter behind him, and his anger +and the determination not to be put down in this style in his own town +helped him to get back some of his self-possession. He whirled on his +heels and strode to the enigma of Egypt. + +"Who are you, anyway?" he demanded. + +But Prophet Elias was his usual self once more. He had assumed that +air which a practical man like Britt found an aggravating, teasing +pose or a kind of lunacy with which common sense could not cope. Elias +slowly spread his umbrella. He stood beneath it and declaimed: + +"'And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh; and the +Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children +of Israel go out of his land.'" + +"You let me tell you something! There's one man going out of this land +mighty sudden--and he's going to the county jail in charge of a +constable." + +When Britt started away that time he kept on going. He went to the +office of Trial-Justice Bowman and swore out a warrant. A constable +served it and the Prophet was haled before the justice. On the +evidence presented, Bowman sentenced a person known as "the Prophet +Elias" to serve sixty days in the county jail. Within an hour after +the Prophet's defiance he was on his way with the constable in a side- +bar buggy. + +The Prophet had not opened his mouth to give out even one text. He had +not opened his mouth, either, to give his name; the writ designated +him merely by his sobriquet. But there was a queer little wrinkle at +each corner of that closed mouth. + + + + CHAPTER XX + + NO STRAW FOR THE BRICKS + +Mr. Harnden banged his pulpy fist on the board at which so he had +declared, Tasper Britt was to sit. + +"I have ruled a happy home by love in the past. Don't force me to rule +it otherwise now." + +He was obliged to lower his eyes to a level at last because his neck +ached. He was forced to turn those eyes in his daughter's direction, +for her gaze was of that compelling quality which causes the object of +regard to return the scrutiny. + +"I tell you, I'm not lowering myself by taking in boarders," the +father insisted. "I have become tied up in a business way with my +friend Britt. We need to be in conference right along. They're going +to tear down his house. Shall I let it be said that I left a friend +ahungered and without a roof? Shall--" + +"Father, I'm no longer patient enough to listen to any more of that +nonsense," said Vona. + +"But it isn't nonsense," put in the mother. "Poor Tasper is left +without a home. Files's vittles have nigh killed him. He was always +used to home cooking. He--" + +"Please! Please!" protested the girl, impatiently. "We're three grown- +ups. Let's be honest with one another. I, at least, have been honest-- +ever since I declared myself under this roof last winter." + +"If you're bound to put your father's and your mother's close +friendship for a man strictly on the business basis, we'll have it +that way," agreed Mr. Harnden, trying to straightedge his little +bunghole of a mouth and failing. + +"Very well, father! We shall get along better. I'm not in any position +to dictate in our home--" + +"Well, I should say not!" exploded the master. + +"But I have worked and turned in my money to help support it, and I +have my personal rights here." + +Mr. Harnden had more success in arranging the expression he assumed +then; he looked hurt; he had been very successful with that expression +in the past. "Any farseeing man has his ups and downs, Vona. Is it +kind to twit your father--" + +She protested more impatiently still. "I am simply presenting the +business side of the matter. I say, I have earned some rights to be +comfortable in my own home. On the plea of friendship for a man whom I +detest, you are proposing to destroy that comfort. Is your friendship +for that man greater than your love for your daughter?" + +Mr. Harnden rose and stuck out his frontal convexity and wagged a +forefinger. "Now you're getting off the question of business--just as +you accused me of getting off it!" He slapped his breast. "I'm a +business man these days. I'm no longer a man with visions, needing a +daughter's sacrifices, like you have twitted me of being. Keep still! +I'm talking!" he squealed. He was displaying more of the new and cocky +demeanor that had been his for some time. He had been especially set +up for a few days prior to his announcement that Tasper Britt was +coming into the Harnden home as lodger and guest at table. "Business +it is! Britt will pay board enough, seeing that he has come to my-- +/my/ terms, so that your mother can keep a hired girl for the first +time in her life. Are you so selfish as to want to have your mother-- +my wife--go on potwalloping in the kitchen for the rest of her days? +If that's so, you'll find that my pride will override your +selfishness." + +"Father, I will stay at home and do all the work, if you'll keep our +home from being desecrated by that man!" + +Mr. Harnden reared his crest and advanced one foot. "I have raised my +daughter to be a lady and will keep her so! I'm now in a position to +do it without any of her help." + +Vona stood up then. But not to fling angry retort at her father! She +knew that she was able to conquer the raging self that was urging her +to tell both of them what she thought of their idiotic persistency in +backing the attentions of Britt. Being victor over herself in that +conflict with self where so many fail, she felt courage to battle in +another quarter. Since Frank had been penned up where he could not +fight, she had felt that she was the champion for their mutual +interests, and she was resolved to keep on valiantly. "Father, you +know how I stand in the matter of Frank Vaniman." + +"I have broken your engagement with that jailbird." + +"Vona, I have told you repeatedly that I will never consent to your +marrying that man," shrilled Mrs. Harnden. "What does the Bible say +about obeying your parents?" + +The girl was tensely suppressing her emotions. "The outsiders merely +know that I am engaged to marry him. But both of you know that I am +married to him." + +Mr. Harnden sat down in order to express his emotions; Mrs. Harnden +stood up. Their duet of disavowal of any such knowledge was keyed +high. + +"You heard me when I married him--in your presence--under this roof. +The legal formality can wait. But I am married. In my heart I am +married. It is enough for me until he comes back to me. And what God +hath joined together let not man put asunder!" She said it reverently, +with all her soul in her tones, all her woman's resolution of loyalty +in her eyes. + +They tried to say something, but in the face of her demeanor of +firmness their opposition was futile, and they probably realized it, +for they became silent and allowed her to speak on. + +"If you do not choose to consider my feelings in the matter, I'll not +complain. You are master and mistress of the home. I tell you now, as +I have told you before, that if Tasper Britt had come out with the +whole truth Frank would not be in prison. You must not expect that I +will sit at table with a man who has so persecuted my--husband!" She +hesitated a moment before she spoke the last word. She caressed it +with loving inflection. A moment later her cheeks were burning hotly. +She went out into the hall, got her sunshade, and left the house. + +She still had her work at the bank; the progress of liquidation was +slow. Tasper Britt, from his office window, saw her coming. She wore +no hat. The parasol framed the face that was still glowing after her +battle for the sanctity of her love. + +"It's worth it!" he muttered; but not even to himself did Britt +mention what the price was. + +Mr. Harnden's comment, delayed for some minutes, was that the girl was +putting it almighty strong. + +"It's her loyalty. She can't help it. She takes it from me," declared +the mother, pouring another cup of tea for her shaken nerves. + +"She does, hey?" Mr. Harnden's voice indicated that he was not +commending the quality mentioned. + +His wife was decidedly tart in her retort that he ought to be thankful +for the loyalty that enabled her to put up with all the privations of +the past. + +"Well, let the past be the past. I've got my feet placed now--and that +hired girl is coming to-morrow." The idea of his new prosperity +revived Mr. Harnden's natural optimism. "That jailbird hasn't been +away from her long enough for her to be weaned from her foolishness +about him. He's safe away for seven years, and a whole lot can happen +in that time--even to that loyalty that women seem to set such store +by. My friend Britt comes here--into our family! That's understood. If +Vona wants to eat off'n the mantelshelf in her room, well and good +till she's tamed. And now--to work--to work!" + +Mr. Harnden was truly very much up-and-coming those days. He rose and +shook out first one leg and then the other, with the manner of a +scratching rooster. The movements settled the legs of his trousers. He +had a new suit of his own. It resembled Tasper Britt's. That new suit +and the yellow gloves and the billycock hat excited some interest in +Egypt; the new hitch that Harnden possessed excited much more +interest. He was driving a "trappy" bay nag, and his new road wagon +had rubber tires. Nor was Mr. Harnden doing any more inventing, so he +declared to the public. The public, however, did declare behind his +back that he must have invented something in the way of a system to be +able to wear those clothes and drive that hitch. To be sure, there +were some who insisted that the matter of Vona was still potent with +Britt and that Britt's money was behind Harnden. But there were more +who were certain that it was not the style of Britt to invest in any +such remote possibility as a girl who openly declared that she +proposed to wait seven years for the man of her choice. + +Harnden had a new business; he was selling nursery stock. But that +business did not account for his prosperity. He was taking town orders +for his goods--taking orders on the town treasury, orders that had +long been creased in wallets or had grown yellow in bureau drawers or +had been dickered about at a few cents on the dollar and accepted when +a debtor had nothing else with which to pay. Mr. Harnden said he was +ready to take town orders at any time. He optimistically declared that +his faith in the old town was firmly fixed. That optimism was entirely +in accord with Mr. Harnden's past professions; and nobody wondered +much, because he was so foolish. But he was not wholly a fool in that +matter. He had only about a fifty-per-cent faith in Egypt--he insisted +on that much discount when he took in a town order. Even at that rate, +Ossian Orne did insist that Harnden was a complete fool. Orne would +not take town orders for his nursery stock. But Orne's nose was out of +joint, it was generally agreed. Harnden's lithographs showed apples +twice as big as Orne's book did; the pears fairly oozed sweetness from +their plump, pictured mellowness; there were peaches that provoked +folks to make funny noises at the corners of their mouths when the +optimistic Harnden flipped a page and brought the fruit to view. +Nobody had ever heard of a peach tree growing among the rocks of +Egypt. On the other hand, nobody supposed that a town order on the +Egypt treasury was worth anything, as things stood. There were folks +who bought peach trees! + +And in the meantime there was much clatter in and about the old Britt +house, tumble of timbers and rip of wainscotings and snarl of drawing +nails. Out from the gaping windows floated the powdery drift of the +plastering which the broad shovels had tackled. The satirists said +that it was noticeable that the statue of Tasper Britt in the cemetery +had settled down heavier on its heels, as if making grimly sure that +Hittie was staying where she could not interfere. + +In the meantime, also, Tasper Britt and a hired girl had become +fixtures in the Harnden home--and the hired girl was quite in love +with Vona and in entire sympathy with her stand; the girl brought to +Vona's room the tidbits of all the meals and offered to put tacks in +Britt's doughnuts if that would help matters any. + +Vona was entirely serene in her companionship with her father and her +mother. As for Tasper Britt, in sitting room or hall, on the street or +on the lawn of the Harndens, he was ignored as completely, yet +sweetly, as if he were an innocuous dweller in the so-called Fourth +Dimension--to be seen through--even walked through--a mere shade, +uninterred, unhonored, and unwarranted. + +Tasper Britt, relentlessly on the job of punishing those who had +poisoned his pride and his peace of mind, acknowledged to himself that +the attitude of this girl was reacting on him in the way of more acute +punishment than he was dealing out to anybody just then, except to +Vaniman. Through the latter the girl was punished. But that punishment +had steeled her to the stand she was making in the case of Britt. The +god of the machine pondered on the case and constantly found himself +in a more parlous state of mind because he did ponder. + +Mr. Harnden tried his best to cheer the morose Britt. Some days the +usurer-suitor wanted to cuff the optimist; some days he felt that he +would go crazy unless Harnden could extend some hope, suggest some way +of changing the girl's attitude. + +All the time Mr. Harnden was very cheerful and extremely busy; his nag +kicked up the dust along all the roads. His book of lithographs was +dog's-eared with much thumbing, but he had served as a human vacuum +cleaner in sucking up most of the town orders. Mr. Harnden was very +free with information, customarily. But when folks asked him whatever +in the world he expected to do with those town orders he was reticent +as to any details of his plans. He considered that his optimism of +faith in the future of the town covered the matter. He said so. He let +it go at that. + +One day Harnden roamed far afield and went to the shire. + +The next day he came back from the shire. + +After supper he sat in a wicker chair on the lawn with Tasper Britt, +who was wearing a new suit of white flannel and who scowled when Vona +passed along the walk without even a glance in that direction, though +Britt had twitched up his trousers leg to show a particularly +handsomely clocked sock. + +Mr. Harnden did a lot of talking that evening. Every now and then, as +if to fortify his optimistic courage, he declared, "After all, +business is business--and the trend of the times is to make the most +of opportunity." + +Britt was showing interest in what Harnden was saying--interest and +satisfaction, too. But all at once that interest was diverted and the +smooth satisfaction was wrinkled by a scowl. Britt swore roundly and +struggled up from his chair. + +Prophet Elias was passing along the street. He flapped his hand in a +greeting contemptuously indifferent and went on his way toward Usial's +cot. + +"Oh! I was intending to tell you about him," avowed Mr. Harnden, "but +I've had more important things to talk over!" + +Britt gave to this blunderheaded news purveyor the tail end of the +malevolent stare that he had been bestowing on the Prophet's back. + +"I heard about it when I was over to the shire town. A city lawyer +showed up the other day and deposited cash bonds and got out a writ, +and got Elias out, too, and the case has been appealed. Looks like the +Prophet has footed it back here again. But I suppose you can arrest +him on that other case of trespass." + +Britt did not show especial alacrity in starting anything else in the +case of the new arrival in town. He sat down. "Who was the lawyer? Who +sent him?" + +"Guess he didn't say. Let the money do the talking for him. And money +can talk! Now, as I was saying, to get back to our regular business, +it's up to you to name the ones that Dowd will tackle. Say, where are +you going?" + +Britt was on his feet and moving rapidly. "Somewhere to do some +thinking away from that carpet-loom, shuttle-tongued, infernal mouth +of yours!" + +Mr. Harnden, astonished and much hurt, watched the usurer till he +tramped into Britt Block. + +But Mr. Harnden had too much important business of his own on his mind +to use time in wondering how a Prophet had managed to get out of jail. + + + + CHAPTER XXI + + BLOOD OUT OF TURNIPS + +In the past Mr. Harnden had regularly referred to Egypt as a good +jumping-off place; he emphasized the jest by pointing to the ledge +outcroppings which indicated that the landscape would not sag under +the weight of the most energetic jumper. Then away he would go! + +His detractors said that he was in the habit of coming home when +affairs were in such a bad way with him that he could not stay +anywhere else. + +His wife and daughter had never admitted anything of the sort, even to +each other. They affectionately welcomed Mr. Harnden when he came; +after he had stoked the fires of his faith, and they had darned his +socks and mended his shirts, they gave him the accustomed encouraging +and loving Godspeed when he went away again under a full head of +optimism. They always agreed with him, on each going-away, that this +was surely the time when Opportunity was waiting outside. + +But for many weeks Opportunity had seemed to be camping with Mr. +Harnden right in his own home town. He was brisk, radiant, and +apparently prosperous. + +Therefore, when he announced in the bosom of his family that he +proposed to go away for a time, his wife and daughter were frankly +astonished. + +It was directly after breakfast on the morning following Mr. Harnden's +return from the shire town. + +He did not display his usual jocose manner when he referred to Egypt +as a jumping-off place. Vona found a sort of furtive uneasiness in the +way he glanced out of the window and fingered his vest-pocket +equipment. And he trod to and fro with the air of a man stepping on +hot bricks. + +"But you have said you are doing so well in your new business, +father!" Vona's straightforward gaze was disconcerting. + +Mr. Harnden kept on with his patrol. "Confound it. I've got to get +into towns where there's more dirt if I'm going to sell any more +nursery stock!" + +"Oh, is that it? But I happened to go up in the attic and I found your +sample books thrown behind a trunk, and I was afraid--" + +"Afraid of what?" he demanded, with childish temper. + +"Afraid you were giving up what seems to be a sure thing. The other +ventures have been such uncertainties!" she returned, her business +woman's composure unaffected by his reproachful stare. + +"The books were all smutched up--too many dirty fingers afoul of them. +I shall get new ones--providing I stay in that line." He was not +convincing. "We'll see--we'll see! I've got to be moving. These are +busy times for me." + +"But you don't say when you're coming back, Joe!" quavered his wife. + +"Why should I begin to set dates now, when I never have in past +times?" + +"Oh, I suppose it's because we've got so used to having you at home," +she confessed. + +"I'm leaving matters in better shape than I ever did before," said Mr. +Harnden, pompously. "I have been worried about my home in the past +when I have had to be absent on my business. We have Tasper in the +house now. And he will not only guard and protect, but he will pay as +he goes. I may not go far or stay long. Just let it stand that way. +Tell inquiring friends that. I'll keep you posted. You know what my +business is; it takes me here--it takes me there." He gave his wife a +peck of a kiss and patted Vona's shoulder when he passed her. He +picked up a valise in the hallway. + +The girl followed him. "Father, always when you have been away, mother +and I have felt perfectly comfortable and safe here in our home. If +Mr. Britt hasn't the sense or the good taste to go somewhere else to +board, won't you suggest to him that he'd better do so?" + +"Nothing of the sort, Vona!" declared Harnden. "That contractor has +brought a lot of strangers here to work on Britt's house, seeing that +the men of this town are biting off their noses to spite their faces! +I wouldn't take a minute's peace, knowing that my home is unprotected, +unless I felt that a friend of mine was here as guardian. Oh, I know +what you mean! But I have the safety of my family to consider instead +of a girl's whims." + +She did not argue the matter. His peppery impatience was increasing. +This time he was not departing with his customary bland hopefulness. +She knew the sort of selfishness her father possessed and how he +avoided scenes that troubled his smug serenity. But on this occasion +he seemed to be impelled by some urgent reason outside of mere anxiety +to be away from complaining tongues. + +He hurried out of the house and went to the stable, and she said no +further word. + +Ten minutes later he drove away, flinging a kiss to his womenfolks +from the finger tips of the yellow gloves. + +He headed directly out of the village and drove at a good clip. + +However, one might have concluded that Mr. Harnden's destination was +not as clearly settled in his mind as the haste of his departure +suggested. When he came to four corners he pulled up and looked to +right and to left and to the straight ahead. Mr. Harnden was too well +acquainted with all the roads of Egypt and its environs to be confused +by anything except strictly personal and peculiar doubts which had +nothing to do with the matter of destination. He looked up into the +heavens, as if he really wished that he might be able to escape from +Egypt by flight. Then he did literally what the Yankee phrase suggests +by way of synonym for taking counsel--"he looked between the horse's +ears." He narrowed his eyes in meditation and spoke aloud. "I reckon +it's only general nervousness on account of overwork and women's +foolishness. There ain't one chance in ten that they'll get around to +it to-day." + +Arriving at that comfortable conclusion, Mr. Harnden lighted a cigar +and chirruped to his horse and drove straight on. + +The road zigzagged through an alder swamp for some distance, and the +horse footed along slowly because a portion of the way was patched +with sapling "corduroy." And with the impulse of a man who had been +obliged to waste time, and saw an opportunity to get on, Harnden +whipped up when he was again facing a smooth road. Therefore he came +suddenly around the bend of the alders into cleared country and +abreast a farm. It was a farm made up of the alluvial soil of the +lowlands and was a rather pretentious tract of tillage, compared with +the other hillside apologies of Egypt. And the buildings were in +fairly good repair. It was the home of Jared Sparks Grant, the first +selectman of the town. + +Mr. Harnden did not look to right or left as his horse trotted past. +He did not appear to be interested in the affairs of Egyptians that +day--even in the case of the town's chief executive. When Harnden was +hailed raucously he did not pull up, though he heard his name. After a +few moments a gun banged behind him. + +"I'm saving the other barrel," the voice announced, after Harnden had +steered his horse from the gutter into the road; the animal had been +frightened by the pattering of shot in the foliage of a tree overhead. +"You'll get it straight, Harnden, unless you drive back here!" + +When Harnden wheeled the horse and returned he perceived a dooryard +group which he had affected not to see a few moments before. + +There were Jared Sparks Grant, his son, his womenfolks, his hired man; +Mr. Harnden recognized all of them, of course. He also recognized +Deputy-sheriff Wagner Dowd from the shire town. Dowd had a couple of +helpers with him. It was plain that the shotgun which had halted Mr. +Harnden had been very nigh at hand and ready for use; there was a look +about the folks in the dooryard which suggested an armed truce, now +prolonged, for the handling of the new arrival. + +"Don't you realize what's going on here?" demanded Selectman Grant, +his weapon in the hook of his arm. + +"No!" asserted Mr. Harnden. + +"I know a blamed sight better! You can't look at this deputy sheriff +without turning redder than one of the apples in that fake picture +book of yours. You know what you have been doing in this town." + +The selectman's tone was offensively harsh and loud. Mr. Harnden was +moved to show a little spirit, having been cornered--and feeling +protected by the presence of an officer of the law. "I have been doing +business!" + +"Scooping in town orders, you mean!" + +"Taking them in the due course of my business, Mr. Selectman. I had a +right to do it!" + +"And what did you do with those orders?" + +"I passed them on--still in the course of my business." + +"And you don't know into whose hands they have come?" + +"Oh no!" + +The selectman stepped close to the carriage and brandished his gun. +"While this town was staggering along, trying to find a way out, only +a hellion would take and make a club out of those orders and hit us +the last and final clip with 'em. You've done it, Harnden! For the +sake of the dirty money you've done it. They were letting those orders +rest easy till we could get the legislature and have things put into +some condition where we'd know what's what. Through your work some +land pirate has got hold of those town orders. There isn't a cent in +the town treasury. You know it." + +He whirled away from Harnden and shook the gun at the deputy sheriff. + +"I sha'n't believe your law, Dowd, till I've been and talked with +Squire Hexter." + +"Go and talk! But in the meantime a good lawyer has told me what to do +and has given me the documents, and I'm not trying the case in your +dooryard. I have levied on those oxen and I shall take 'em along." + +"Do you hear that, Harnden? That's what you have done to your town," +bellowed the infuriated selectman. "He says there's a law allowing a +creditor to levy on the property of any citizen of a town to satisfy a +judgment. Judgment has been secured on those town orders. They are +jumping on me first." + +"It's what the lawyer told me to do," insisted the officer. "'Start +with the selectman,' says he. 'That shows the others where they get +off.' Grant, I'm here with the papers and the right to act." He +advanced close to the selectman, waggling admonitory forefinger. "I've +been excusing your feelings. I don't blame you! This is tough. It's +the penalty you pay for living in such a town. But I don't propose to +stand for any more of that gunplay. Hand it over!" + +Grant hesitated. The officer snatched away the gun, broke it down, and +pulled out the undischarged shell. He put that into his pocket and +shoved the gun under the seat of a wagon. "You can have this gun back +after the war is over. Now to business! You claim that the oxen are +exempt because you have no horses. All right! I see you have a dozen +cows. I'll take three of those. I'm fair, you see! You're only +entitled to one cow. But keep nine. I'm going to spread the thing +around town till I have enough to satisfy this judgment. It's for one +hundred and ninety dollars. What say, now? Do you want to pay a fine +for obstructing an officer?" + +Selectman Grant shook his head. The flame of his rage had died down +into sullen rancor. He went along to Harnden's carriage and suddenly +nipped that gentleman's nose between toil-calloused index and middle +fingers. "They tell me there's no law against doing this," he said +between his yellow, hard-set teeth, as he twisted at the nose, while +Harnden's eyes ran water. "If there is a law, I hope you'll stay handy +by in this town and prosecute while we're heating the tar and getting +the feathers ready." + +Sheriff Dowd took advantage of Selectman Grant's preoccupation with +Harnden. He gave off orders to his helpers and they lowered the bars +of the barnyard and started away with the cows. + +There was a general disintegration of the group. Mrs. Grant led the +lamenting womenfolk into the house. Mr. Harnden did not really +extricate his nose; Grant twisted so violently that he broke his own +grip, and his victim laced the whip under the horse's belly and +escaped. + +Within ten minutes Selectman Grant was whipping his own horse in a +direction opposite to that which Harnden had taken. Mr. Grant was hot +after law. + +Squire Hexter gave him the law, and cold comfort. + +"They can do it, Jared. Outsiders can get hold of unpaid town orders +and put on the screws if they're that heartless. It isn't done once in +a dog's age. But, as I say, it can be done when a creditor is ugly +enough. Harnden didn't say, did he, just who brought the orders?" + +"I wouldn't have believed him if he did say! But he didn't say." + +"And you don't know the man who secured judgment?" + +"Never heard of him." + +"I will try to trace the matter, Jared. No, keep your wallet in your +pocket. There's no charge. It's a case where the interests of the +citizens in general are concerned. I'm the regularly elected town +agent, as you know!" The Squire smiled. "I'll take a town order for my +pay." He looked out of the window. "It's about time for somebody else +to come larruping up here after law! Don't hurry, Jared! Wait and hear +what's happened to the neighbors!" + +The selectman sat gloomily, elbows squared on his knees, and waited. +Almost opposite the Squire's office the rattle-te-bang business on +Britt's premises was going on. + +"I wonder whether Tasper will dare to go ahead and build his palace +after he hears the latest news," suggested the Squire. "You must be +told, Jared, that after the live stock of the town has been thinned +down to the essentials permitted by law, then the farms and general +real estate can be levied on." + +Grant lifted his haggard face and stared at the Squire. "Then, outside +of the cook stove and my clothes, I don't know whether I'm worth a +blasted cent, hey? They can dreen me slow with a gimlet, or let it out +all at once with a pod auger, can they? That's what the law can do +/to/ me, you say! What can it do /for/ me, Squire Hexter?" + +"Well, Jared, they'll take your cows over to the shire and auction +them off for what they'll bring. You can sue this town and recover the +real value of the cows, along with interest at twelve per cent. That +is to say, you can get judgment against the town for that amount." + +"And then I can go over to my neighbor's and grab away any loose +property I can find of his?" + +"You can do it!" + +"Look here, Squire, that makes it nothing except a game of 'tag, +you're it,' and a case of 'I've got my fingers crossed'! The whole of +us running around in circles, and the lawyers picking up all the loose +change we drop from our pockets. Where do we wind up?" + +The Squire shook his head slowly and reached down and stroked one of +Eli's ears. "Eli was telling me that Jones thought he had invented +perpetual motion when he tied a piece of liver to a pup's tail and set +the pup to revolving; but the pup wore out." + +Grant sat for some minutes and harkened to the bang of the hammers +across the way. "I don't understand how a farseeing man like Tasp +Britt dares to build a good house here," he growled. + +"Oh, the pup may be worn out by the time it is finished--or those +towers may mean that he intends to list it as a meetinghouse and have +it exempted from taxation, Jared. We shall see!" + +But whatever it was that the selectman saw, as he sat there and stared +at the wall of Squire Hexter's office, it evidently was not serving in +the way of comfort. + +The Squire's prediction about other seekers for law was fulfilled +before long. The deputy sheriff had proceeded on his travels. The +afflicted parties came up the Squire's stairs. Arden Young reported +that three of his best cows were driven away. George Jordan and his +cousin J. O. Jordan each surrendered two faithful moolies. It was +plain that Sheriff Dowd proposed to make sure that there was auction +material enough to yield one hundred and ninety dollars, along with +the costs. + +"Jared," suggested the notary, "you'd better have an accounting and +find out how many of those town orders were issued when the reckless +spirit was on. Somebody has decided to milk the old town. It is being +done scientifically, seeing that this first mess is so modest. But we +need to know about how many messes we're expected to give down." + +Inside of a fortnight there were two more milkings. + +At about that time Tasper Britt started proceedings to foreclose a +couple of mortgages. The debtors despondently declared that they would +not attempt to redeem the property; they told Britt that he could have +it for what he could get out of it. The usurer tried to show +disinclination to take over real estate in Egypt, but he did not make +a very good job of the pretense. He had the air of a man who expected +to be obliged to tussle for something, but had had the something +dropped into his grasp when he merely touched the holder's knuckles. + +Britt had a map of the town in his office desk. He began to color +sections with a red crayon. According to Mr. Britt's best judgment in +the matter, he was in a fine way to own a whole town--a barony six +miles square--at an extremely reasonable figure. From the selectman +down, nobody seemed to feel that Egypt property was worth anything. As +to beginning suits against the town, nobody felt like paying lawyers' +fees and piling up costs. It was like tilting against a fog bank. And +in a veritable fog bank of doubt and despair the unhappy Egyptians +wandered around and around. + + + + CHAPTER XXII + + THE TAUT STRING SNAPS + +Frank Vaniman's mother was allowed to visit him once a month at the +prison. She was not present at his trial. She had respected his +earnest wishes in that matter. + +When she came to him she smiled--she did not weep. When she smiled he +wanted to weep. He realized how much that display of calm courage was +costing Martha Vaniman. He remembered how bravely and steadfastly she +had brought that same heroine's quality to the support of his father +when she had taken Frank with her to the prison; they used to walk in +through the gloomy portal hand in hand, and, though her face was +serene, her throbbing fingers told him what her heart was saying to +her. + +Her husband had thankfully accepted that little fiction of her +fortitude; her son, under like circumstances, did the same. Between +mother and son, as between husband and wife, was the bond of an +implicit faith in the innocence of the accused. Love was not shamed, +no matter how the outside world might view the matter. + +The prison warden was a fat man, full of sympathy. He gave the mother +and son the privileges of his office, and to those reassuring +surroundings the mother brought Frank's sister on one of the regular +visits. + +After Mr. Wagg's guile gave Vaniman his outdoor job, the mother +brought Anna each month, for the school vacation season was on. The +sun was bright out there in the yard. One could look up into the +fleecy clouds, over the walls, and forget the bars and the armed +guards. + +In fact, one day, Anna's ingenuous forgetfulness of the true situation +provoked real merriment for the little party--Guard Wagg included. +Anna surveyed apprehensively several particularly villainous-looking +barrowmen who passed and expressed the devout hope that Frank always +saw to it carefully that he locked his bedroom door nights. + +Before all the zest of that joke had evaporated, Mrs. Vaniman +departed; it was a part of her helpful tact in alleviating the +grievous situation in which Frank was placed. She always came with the +best little piece of news she could provide for the meeting; for the +parting she reserved a bit of a joke. + +Mr. Wagg chuckled for a long time after the visitors went away. +Gradually his face became serious. "Of course, I have to sit here and +listen to what's said, because that's my duty. But, as I have told you +before, all family matters simply pass into one ear and out of the +other." + +"I'm mighty grateful for the way you have treated us," said Vaniman. + +"The fact that we haven't done business as yet hasn't changed me-- +never will change me. That mother of yours is so fine a woman that she +deserves every favor that I can grant her, for her own sake. And, she +being so fine a woman, I was sorry to hear what you wormed out of her +this day--that she has gone back to work in the store again." + +"It was the one big happiness in my life in Egypt, Mr. Wagg, to feel +that at last my mother was having the little rest and comfort that she +deserved. I used to look ahead to the time when I could give her what +I was able to give her while I was at work. I had a dreadful struggle +with her, getting her to leave her work. The only way I ever did get +around her was to complain that she was spoiling my prettiest dream by +staying in the store. And now it's all to do over again. I haven't +even the realization of the dream to help me here." + +"It's tough--realizing what you could do if you had the chance, and +not being able to do it," averred Mr. Wagg. He lighted his pipe and +slid off his stool. "A woman earning her living these days has to do a +terrible lot of hard work in seven years." + +And having, after his usual custom, lighted a fire under the kettle, +Mr. Wagg went to a distance and allowed the contents to boil. + +The contents did boil that day, when Vaniman had an opportunity to do +some concentrated thinking. + +That morning he had received his weekly letter from Vona. She +confessed to him that for some weeks she had refrained from telling +him that Tasper Britt was a member of the household. She explained +under what circumstances Britt was there and what her attitude was and +would continue to be. She had not written anything about the matter, +she said, on account of her anxiety to keep petty troubles and worries +away from one who was suffering from such cruel injustice. But now +that her father had gone away for an indefinite stay, leaving Britt as +general guardian, she wrote to Vaniman to anticipate any rumors which +might reach the young man from another quarter. + +She did not state that this intrusion by Britt into her home was +perpetual persecution where she was concerned; Vaniman felt that she +did not need to say so. His imagination pictured the situation. He had +become morbid. He admitted it, but he could not help himself. He had +done his best to keep his judgments sane and his hopes untarnished. +But he was judging Britt by what Britt had already done, and he was in +a mood to believe that Britt would be able to go ahead and accomplish +a lot more in the way of hideous deviltry. The thought of Britt in +that house--a girl there with no other protection than the presence of +a silly mother--made for agony of apprehension that was excruciating. + +One of his most precious dreams had just melted into drab reality--his +mother was compelled to go back to her toil. + +His other dream--the one that was consoling him through the dreary +wait of seven years behind bars--was threatened by the malevolence of +a man who was showing himself to be a veritable fiend in his +machinations. + +Vaniman put some questions to himself. Who on God's green earth had a +more imperious call to be out--to be free to fight for himself and the +innocent? Would not a lie be holy if it should open prison doors and +allow a guiltless man to go forth and battle with the guilty? Did not +the end justify all the means? The state had declared that his liberty +must be forfeited. Had the state the right to take away his reason? +Vaniman told himself that he was on the straight road to lunacy. + +He leaped up, in the frenzy of his determination forgetting that there +were preliminaries yet to be attended to. + +"Sit down there, Convict Two-Seven-Nine, or I'll bore ye!" bawled +Guard Wagg, with a mighty volume of tone. A deputy warden was crossing +the yard. He flourished a commendatory salute to the vigilant warder. + +"Good stuff, Bart! Always on your job, eh?" + +"Always!" agreed Mr. Wagg. + +The warden went on his way and the guard marched to the convict with a +manner which expressed a determination to give No. 279 an earful. He +stood over Vaniman, who had dropped back to the chair, and the two of +them swapped stares. + +"I want to get out--I want to get out!" whimpered Vaniman. + +Mr. Wagg nodded. + +"What must I do?" + +"Whack up with me--fifty-fifty. Haven't I told you times enough?" + +"But, I mean, what must I do to help?" + +"I don't need any of your help. I only want you to say that you'll +lead me to that money." + +Vaniman drew a deep breath. "I will lead you to that money." + +"Some men would make you swear that you know just where the coin is," +proceeded Wagg. "But I'm playing my own hunch in this thing on that +point. Furthermore, I have talked with a chap named Bixby." He looked +hard at the ex-cashier. "Bixby tied your little game into knots, +didn't he?" + +Vaniman admitted that fact by a rueful sag of his chin. + +"Confidence--mutual confidence in each other!" Mr. Wagg walked away. +When he came back past Vaniman, patrolling, he snapped: "No more talk! +No more need of talk. Never can tell when talk may trip us. From now +on, sit tight!" + +After that, though days passed, Wagg had not one word for the +amelioration of the convict's impatience. Then, one day, Wagg changed +his job again. Vaniman was kept at the same work, if work it could be +called. He caught glimpses of Wagg. The guard was busy on the opposite +side of the big pit. He had two or three convict helpers. They began +to operate drills in the side of a rocky hillock which towered +considerably above the level of the yard. + +News circulates inside prison walls despite the inhibition on +communications between the inmates. Vaniman got information piecemeal +from convicts who stopped near him on the pretense of spitting on +their hands to get a new grip on their barrow handles. He learned that +the plan was to mine the hillock and rig a blast that would tip it +into the pit for filling. The barrow work was proving too slow an +operation and the prison commissioners wanted the outside men put back +into the shops where they could earn money for the state. + +It was evident that Guard Wagg was having a great deal of trouble with +his helpers. He was continually bawling them out with a violence whose +volume reached the ears of Vaniman. + +One day Wagg perceived the warden inspecting the work from the edge of +the pit near Vaniman; the guard came trotting around. + +"Warden, I'm an expert on quarry work, as you know," he panted. "I'm +doing my best to show you that I haven't forgotten what I learned over +at Stoneport, and to back up what I promised you and the commissioners +after I gave you the tip as to what could be done with that hill. Much +obliged to you for allowing me all the dynamite I need. But, demmit! I +haven't got anybody with brains to help me handle it. It's notional +stuff, sir. It hates a blasted fool." He pointed a finger at the men +across the pit. Their striped suits suggested the nomenclature he used +"Those potato bugs will do something to blow us to blazes sure'n +there's air in a doughnut hole!" + +The warden showed his concern. "Don't you know of some man who is used +to dynamite?" + +"That ain't it, sir. A fool gets used to it, till he's too cussed +familiar. I want a man with brains enough to be polite to it." + +The warden, making a general survey of the scene, beheld Vaniman. "A +man who knows enough to be a bank cashier ought to have brains, Wagg. +How about Number Two-Seven-Nine?" + +Mr. Wagg contemplated Vaniman and took plenty of time for thought. +"I'll try him," he said, without enthusiasm. "I hadn't thought of him +--but I'll try him." + +Directed to do so by the warden, Vaniman went to his new work with +Wagg. The latter exhibited no especial symptoms of satisfaction at +securing such a helper. He told the young man that his particular care +would be the dynamite--to handle the boxes, store them in the little +shed, unpack the sticks, and follow the drills, planting the rendrock +ready for the blast that was to topple the hillock into the pit. Mr. +Wagg explained to the warden, after a time, that the dynamite could be +planted more safely and to better advantage when the drillers were off +the job. Therefore, Vaniman was detailed to help during the noon hour +while the prisoners were at dinner. + +But, even when they were alone together, day after day, Mr. Wagg +maintained his reticence. Once in a while he did wink at Vaniman. The +winks grew more frequent when Mr. Wagg began to connect up the +dynamite pockets in the hill with wires. One afternoon, near knocking- +off time, he stepped into the shed where Vaniman was covering up his +boxes for the night. "When you leave your cell in the morning," said +the man who had promised freedom, "hide in your pockets all the +letters and little chickle-fixings you intend to carry away with you. +You won't be going back into that cell again, Number Two-Seven-Nine." + + + + CHAPTER XXIII + + NO VOICE FROM THE PIT + +It was a night of wakefulness and of tremors for Vaniman. His was the +acute expectancy of one who was about to set out on strange +adventures, but whose orders were sealed and whose destination was +unknown. Wagg's stolid appearance of knowing just what he was about +had been a steadying aid in helping the young man control his doubts; +in issuing his final, curt commands Wagg did not abate his confidence; +Vaniman felt that he was in no position to demand more candor. + +He forced himself to eat his breakfast when it was pushed under his +cell door. The messes that were daily dabbed into the compartments of +the tin tray were never appetizing; that morning his emotions made +everything as tasteless as sawdust. But he ate for strength's sake; he +did not know what form of endurance would be demanded of him. + +He put only a few of his letters into his pocket. Cells were inspected +every day after the convicts went forth to their toil. He did not dare +to excite suspicion by taking away any noticeable amount of his +possessions. + +The forenoon work went on as usual. And Mr. Wagg gave no signs that +this was the day of days according to his plans. He constantly warned +the convicts not to meddle with any of the wires. He was even +peremptorily short with a deputy warden who came poking around. The +warden asked if there was any danger. + +"There's always danger when a hill is full of wired-up, canned +thunder," stated Mr. Wagg. "I maintain, as I always have maintained, +that it's notional stuff. You'll kindly remember that I told you so." + +The warden departed with an air that revealed how much he had been +impressed. + +With the crisis so near, irritability pricked Vaniman's state of +nervous tension. He began to resent Wagg's contemptuous silence in +regard to details. That the guard's plans were concerned in some way +with the mined hillock was evident enough. But an explosion which +merely would create a diversion to assist in an escape was not a +device that would effectively solve his difficulties, Vaniman +reflected. Wagg's general stolidity made him seem rather stupid; the +young man felt that his own wits ought to be enlisted in the affair. +In the stress of circumstances he hankered to co-operate instead of +being a sort of Ludlam's dog, dumb and driven. + +However, toward noon, Mr. Wagg was displaying a certain amount of +tension of his own and his demeanor did not invite complaints or +recrimination. The convict decided that there was nothing for it +except to let Mr. Wagg do the wagging. + +When the noon bell clanged from the tower, the pit-job prisoners +filtered into groups from their occupation in the yard and others +filed from the doors of the shops. They shuffled their way in double +lines through the gaping door of the main building, received their +tins of food, and went to their cells. + +As usual, Vaniman remained with Wagg. + +The warders on the walls relaxed their vigilance when the heavy door +was closed behind the last men of the lines. The guards went into the +sentry boxes and set down the heavy rifles. + +Wagg made a general survey of the scene. No person was moving in the +open area of the yard. The veteran of the guard was well acquainted +with the customary habits and movements of the noon hour. He knew that +the men in the main guardroom were reduced to a shift of two while the +others went to their dinners; the two men were in the habit of giving +the deserted yard only indifferent attention. But Mr. Wagg had +provided against even casual glances. + +For purposes of his own, which a boss did not need to explain, he had +nailed boards together to form something like a door, six feet square. +The thing had been leaning against the dynamite shed for some days. + +Quite casually, Mr. Wagg went and lifted away this square of boarding, +holding to the traverse braces on which the boards were nailed. He +trudged along, carrying it, and came to where Vaniman was standing, +observing and wondering. + +"Scooch!" snapped Wagg. "Walk along. Don't show yourself past this +shield!" + +It was a true shield. Wagg carried it straight up and down. Vaniman +obeyed instantly. He had a mental flash that Wagg did know exactly +what he was about in his tactics. Lacking all idea of the scheme, +Vaniman had not the heart to begin to ask for any details of the big +plan at the crucial moment. He allowed himself to be an automaton. It +was easy to do one thing at a time, as Wagg commanded; knowing nothing +about what Wagg intended to do. Vaniman was not in a position to delay +matters by doubts as to the best way of doing the thing. He walked +behind the board screen, conscious that his movements were hidden from +the men in the guardroom and, for that matter, from the eyes of +anybody in the prison building. + +After a walk of a few rods Vaniman found himself close to a big +chimney; it served a shop which had been unused since the crew had +been at work on the job of filling the pit. Wagg set down the shield +on its edge, as if needing to rest for a moment. + +"Open that chimney door and dodge in. Pull the door to behind you." + +At the base of the chimney Vaniman beheld the iron door provided for +the convenience of cleaners and repair men. The padlock of the door +was unhooked. He lifted the door from its latch, crawled into the +chimney, and pulled the door shut. A moment later, waiting in the +stifling darkness, he heard the rattle of metal against metal and the +snap of the padlock. There was the tramp of departing feet. Gradually +he became able to see about him in some degree. Away up above him was +a square of sunlit sky at the top of the shaft. He saw in one corner a +large pail with a cover; inside it were several bottles. Also, there +was a bundle of clothing. + +Judging from the amount of food, it was rather evident that Mr. Wagg +expected prison-bird Two-Seven-Nine to play chimney swallow for some +little time! + +Wagg had made a quick job of locking in Vaniman. The guard tipped the +upper edge of the shield inward till it rested against the chimney. He +reached around the end of the boarding and snapped the padlock. Then +he lifted his burden and went on. + +About that time a lazy man in the guardroom rolled slow gaze upon the +yard. He saw Wagg moving with the burden and watched until Wagg laid +it down flat on the ground. He opined that it was a part of the bomb- +proof shelter that Wagg proposed to build in order to watch the +hillock-smashing at close range. The other guard confirmed that +opinion, having information straight from Wagg, himself. + +"When does she bust?" + +"Next week, so he cal'lates!" + +But Mr. Wagg, returning slowly, keeping to the side of the pit +farthest from the hillock, was at that moment down to seconds in his +figuring how long it would be before the crawling fire on a fuse would +reach and sever a cord and trip a certain trigger. + +"I reckon she's about due," muttered Mr. Wagg. He stopped without easy +jumping distance of the corner of a shop and slowly lighted his pipe +as an excuse for stopping. + +His reckoning was correct. + +The hillock heaved. The mining had been skillfully done; the mass of +rocks and earth was hoisted from behind and slid toward the pit. There +was a tremor of the ground under the prison and its yard as if Thor +had thunked viciously with his heaviest hammer. When startled men shot +glances from the windows that were handiest for observation, the hill +was toppling into the pit. In the forefront was the dynamite shed, +splintering under the tons of moving rock. Instantly the last sliver +of the shed was swallowed up, and then other tons of dirt and rock +went piling into the pit, burying the shattered structure in crashing +depths from which lime-rock dust came puffing in clouds. + +On the edge of the pit a man was dancing wildly in an aura of dust. +The man was Wagg. He came staggering away from the pit, his arms +folded across his eyes. + +"I saw him!" he squalled, when officers met him in their race across +the yard from the prison. "He was in the shed. I told him to keep away +from them wires. I've been telling everybody to keep off'n them wires. +But everybody has been bound and determined to fool with 'em." He +pulled down his arms and shot accusatory digit at the deputy warden +whom he had previously rebuked. "Only this day I had to warn you not +to fool with them wires. He must have done it. I saw him go under. +It's Gawd-awful. I'll never forget it--how he looked. Gimme water!" + +He sucked from the edge of the tin dipper which a man brought, +suffling like a thirsty horse. He rolled up his eyes and surveyed the +warden, who had arrived. + +"Number Two-Seven-Nine--you say he has gone?" The warden's countenance +registered honest horror; but Mr. Wagg's simulated horror was even +more convincing in its intensity. + +"He's gone! He's under the whole of it!" Wagg dropped the dipper and +collapsed on the ground. "My nerve is all busted, Warden. I sha'n't +ever have any more grit to be a guard. I ask to be discharged. Here +and now I beg to be fired!" + +"I'll arrange a furlough for you, Wagg," said the warden, with +understanding sympathy. "You're entitled to a lay-off with pay. It was +a terrible thing to see!" + +"And his mother!" mourned the guard. "Break it to her easy!" + +"A dreadful--dreadful affair," insisted the warden. + +He started toward the edge of the pit. "And the prison commissioners, +the way state finances are, will never go to the expense of having all +that rock moved to dig him out." + +"Probably not, seeing that he's under the whole of it," agreed Wagg. +"He was a likable chap, spite of what he had done to get in here. Poor +Two-Seven-Nine!" + +One of the inside guards had arrived at the scene of mourning. He was +greatly excited. "And I guess it's poor Two-Eight-Two! He's missing +from the noon count-up, Mr. Warden!" + +Wagg struggled upon his feet. He was not simulating the new phase of +his emotions. He looked distinctly frightened. "There's only one under +there. I saw him go. Who is Two-Eight-Two?" + +"One of the pair sent down from Levant for breaking and entering in +the nighttime." + +"He wasn't in my crew--he wasn't on outdoor work," shouted Wagg. + +"What was his job?" demanded the warden. + +"Harness shop," reported an officer. He called to another guard and +started into the building indicated. + +All those in the yard waited anxiously, their eyes on the door where +the guards had entered. Promptly the officers came out. One propelled +a convict, clutching the collar of the dingy prison coat; the other +carried a length of narrow ladder that was fashioned from strips of +leather. "I reckon he hid out to work on this," said the guard. + +"Didn't you know that you couldn't get away with anything of that +sort?" the warden demanded, angrily. + +The convict looked past the warden, straight into the eyes of Wagg. +"You never can tell what you can get away with till you try it," Two- +Eight-Two declared. There was a touch of insolence in his manner. + +"Into the doghole with him!" the warden commanded. + +Wagg surveyed the departure of the convict. The man contrived to twist +his head around and look behind him; and he disclosed a grin. But he +was hampered by the clutch on his collar and Wagg was not sure that +the grin was intended for him, though the consciousness that the +convict might have beheld what was on the inner side of that shield of +boards was a thought which troubled Mr. Wagg's complacent belief that +a good job had been well done. + +He continued to watch the man until the narrow door which opened from +the yard, admitting to the doghole cells, swallowed up the convict and +his guard. All that time a sort of quivery feeling was inside Wagg. He +actually found himself in frantic mental search of some kind of a lie +to be used in case the convict whirled and pointed to the big chimney +and got over an accusation. But the man did not look around again. + +"I can plainly see that you are in a bad way, Wagg," affirmed the +warden. Fervently did Mr. Wagg agree in his heart. "Your leave of +absence dates from this moment, if you say so." + +"I may have to go on to stone work again if I don't get back my grit, +warden. I'd like to have the run of the yard for a day or so, in order +to look over just how that blast worked. Seeing that it cost a human +life, I'd like to get full value of experience out of it." + +"Come and go as you like, Wagg. I'll lend you a key to the small door +beside the wagon entrance in case you don't want to ring in through +the guardroom." + +Mr. Wagg expressed his gratitude in proper terms and allowed that he +would go and lie down for a time in order to calm himself. Again he +urged the warden to break the news gently to Vaniman's mother and +respectfully requested that Guard Wagg's sympathy be included in the +condolence in the official letter. + +The newspapers of that afternoon contained an account of the tragic +happening at the state prison. + +That night, too, Vona Harnden kept vigil, her door locked against her +mother, whose fatuous commonplaces of commiseration were like files +against the raw surface of the girl's agony. + +The front parlor of the Harndens had been converted into a sleeping +room for Tasper Britt. Vona's room was over the parlor. She could hear +the rasping diapason of his snoring. He appeared to be sleeping with +the calm relaxation of a man who had been able to eliminate some +especial worries from his mind. + +Furthermore, that night, the chairman of the prison commissioners had +a talk with the warden over the telephone. The warden made a guess as +to how many thousands of tons of rock were piled above the body of the +unfortunate victim. + +"The taxpayers will never indorse the project of digging out that pit +to recover the body of a convict, no matter who he is," declared the +commissioner. "I don't mean to sound brutal, but we must let it stand +as it is. Enter the reports of witnesses and declare the man +officially dead. Here is one case, at least, Mr. Warden, when there's +no doubt about a man being dead." + +However, shortly after twelve o'clock that night--and the night being +particularly black with an overcast sky--Bartley Wagg opened the iron +door of the big chimney and called forth Frank Vaniman and led him out +through the little door at the side of the carriage entrance. + +There was a conveyance waiting there, a good-sized van, drawn by a +solid-looking horse. Mr. Wagg lifted the flap of the van's cover. + +"Crawl in!" he commanded. "You'll find plenty of room along with the +rest of the camping kit. Roll yourself up in the tent and take it +easy. My nerves have been shocked by the terrible affair and I'm going +into the mountains to recuperate. Doctor's orders!" He was grimly +serious. + +He mounted the seat of the van and drove away with his passenger and +the outfit. + + + + CHAPTER XXIV + + THE SHADE WHO STALLED + +Mr. Wagg did not hurry. He used several days for his trip to Egypt. He +drove leisurely along roads which led through small towns and out-of- +the-way places. That plan afforded him opportunity and excuse for +pitching a tent to serve as shelter during the night stops. And after +the tent was pitched and the dusk descended, Vaniman was able to come +thankfully from the hateful restraint of the van and stroll along the +woodland aisles and get the kinks out of his anatomy. + +But, although he eased his body, he was unable to ease his mind. He +had not expected to enjoy his questionable freedom, anyway. Liberty +was of value to him only as he might be able to use it in his fight +for his rights as an innocent man. He could not freely use his liberty +until he had cleared his name and thereby justified his escape from +the prison. Now he was wondering whether he would have allowed Wagg to +proceed as he did had the guard apprised him of the full details of +the plan. The sweat of anguish stood out on him as he pondered in the +jolting van; he found no pleasure in the respite of the peaceful +woods. + +By the plot of Wagg he had dealt his loved ones the cruel blow that +sudden death inflicts on the affections. In spite of what he hoped to +gain from his freedom, Vaniman was accusing himself, realizing what +his mother, his sister, and Vona were suffering. It was his nature to +draw fine distinctions in points of honor; he was ashamed in the +presence of Wagg; and in the consideration of the interests of self, +he felt that his liberty was exacting too great a price from others. +To all intents and purposes, outside the knowledge of one man to the +contrary, he was dead, and he had deprived his best beloved of hope +and peace of mind. The one man in the secret profanely declared that +if Vaniman made an attempt to communicate with any person in the world +until their particular business had been settled, the whole project +was in danger. "I don't care how much dependence you put in your +mother's good sense. She's a woman, and women slop over when they're +all wowed up! She'd have to tell your sister, wouldn't she? She +couldn't let your sister go on suffering. And your sister's too young +to be trusted. Vaniman, the toughest part is over for 'em. That's a +cinch! They'll go on sorrowing, of course, but they'll be feeling more +reconciled every day. Mourners always do. Mourners can't help seeing +the bright side, after a time. Think of that and quit your +foolishness. You have made a trade with me. Till your part of that +trade is carried out you ain't a free agent to do what you want to do +in your own affairs." + +The worry over his inability to carry out that trade was mingled with +the young man's general bitterness of regret because he had challenged +Fate so boldly. + +"There's one thing about it," Mr. Wagg pursued, "the quicker you come +across with me the sooner you can do what you darnation want to on +your own hook. I have worked a thing that could be worked only once. +You're out--and you're out right. Nobody is chasing you. Take another +name, show up in some other part of the country, and you'll live happy +ever after." + +He dwelt on that theme whenever the two talked, and he played all the +variations. Furthermore, he complained because Vaniman was not showing +his gratitude in more hearty fashion. "I catch you looking at me like +a youngster would look at a bumblebee crawling across his bare foot. I +don't ask to be taken into your bosom as your main and particular chum +--understand that! But while there's business on between us I expect +pleasant looks, even if you don't feel like handing me conversation." + +Mr. Wagg was doing practically all the talking on that trip. He had +emerged from his cocoon of taciturnity. He explained that naturally he +was a great talker, but that prison rules had pretty nigh paralyzed +his tongue and he was trying to get it back into good working order +once more. + +He made an especial point of vaunting himself upon the success of his +scheme of deliverance. He tackled the thing from all angles. He played +it up as the greatest achievement that ever had been worked in behalf +of a convict. Mr. Wagg, serving as board of appraisal of his own feat, +kept boosting the value. It was evident that he was suspecting that +Vaniman, out and free, was in the mood that is characteristic of the +common run of humanity: urgent desire is reckless about price; +possession proceeds to haggle and demur. + +"And there's one thing about it," insisted Wagg, "we've got to keep on +going ahead. We can't back up. We can't dissolve partnership. And the +trade has got to stand as it was made--fifty-fifty." + +"I'm not going back on the trade." + +They were sitting close to each other on a tussock behind their little +tent. Mr. Wagg leaned close and bored Vaniman with earnest gaze. +"We'll fetch Egypt on to-morrow's hitch. Of course, you're going to +stick close to me, and you can bet that I'm going to stick close to +you till the whack-up has been made. No shenanigan! Now, seeing how +far I have gone in doing my part, don't you think it's about time for +you to come across?" + +Vaniman spread his hands. "How can I? Wait till we get to Egypt." +Right then he had no notion of what he was going to do when he arrived +in Egypt. He had not dared to look the proposition squarely in the +face. He did not even analyze his feelings. He was dimly conscious +that he was pitying Wagg. That ambitious person was in for a grievous +disappointment. To be sure, Wagg had insisted on following a current +belief and persisted in building his hopes on a fallacy and had forced +human nature until weak human nature had snapped under the strain. +Wagg had refused to believe the truth; he had preferred to indulge his +own delusion in regard to the treasure of the Egypt Trust company. +Nevertheless, Vaniman was ashamed--and he was afraid. + +Britt was the crux of the situation--that was evident enough! Britt +knew where the coin was. Vaniman was sure on that point. Britt had so +maneuvered that wild-goose errand to Levant that he had made the +affair furnish opportunity to himself and fix the odium on Vaniman. In +spite of what the young man knew of Britt's lust for money, he +believed that the usurer had worked a scheme to ruin a rival instead +of merely operating to add to his riches. But Vaniman knew Britt well +enough to reach the conclusion that, once having the hard cash in his +possession, and the blame fastened on another man, Britt was allowing +avarice to stand pat on the play. + +But if, now being on the job in person, he could rig a scheme to make +Britt disclose, what could be done for coadjutor Wagg? There was a +reward posted for information leading to the recovery of the money. +Britt had offered that reward. He had made quite a show of the thing +in the public prints. He pledged himself to pay the sum of two +thousand five hundred dollars from his own pocket, and Vaniman +bitterly realized just why Britt had adopted that pose. Would Wagg be +content with the sop of the reward? + +The man who had been declared dead knew that he must play for time. He +ran over various plans in his head. He did not feel like blurting out +the truth to Mr. Wagg and asking what that effectually compromised +gentleman was going to do about it. He needed Mr. Wagg. He thought of +pleading that the summer landscape was so much different from the +winter lay of the land, when the snow was heaped in the gullies and on +the hills, that he was bothered in remembering just where he had +planted the treasure that night; he reflected that he might show Mr. +Wagg a hole in the rocks and assert that some of the persistent +Egyptian gold hunters had undoubtedly located the money and taken it +for themselves; being moved to more desperate projects, he meditated +on the plan of coming across to Wagg with the whole story, showing him +that Britt must be guilty, and thereby turning a blackmailer loose on +the magnate with plenty of material to use in extorting what Wagg +might consider fair pay for the work he had put in. + +But Vaniman was freshly free from prison walls. Just then he was +psychologically incapable of standing up for himself as a real man +ought. His sense of innocence had not been able to withstand that +feeling of intimidation with which a prisoner becomes obsessed. Right +along with him was the man who had been persistently his guard in the +prison. Wagg's narrow rut of occupation had had its full effect on his +nature. His striated eyeballs had a vitreous look; they were as hard +as marbles. Vaniman knew that he could not look at those eyes and tell +a convincing lie. In view of Wagg's settled convictions in the matter +of the treasure, the real truth might be harder to support than a lie. + +Vaniman went into the van like a whipped dog into a kennel and lay +awake and wrestled with his difficulties. + +During the progress of the pilgrimage the next day Wagg halted +frequently. Vaniman could hear the conversations between his +charioteer and the natives of the section. Mr. Wagg was seeking +information and at the same time he gave out a modest amount of +revelation about himself and his need of a retired spot where he might +recuperate. He explained that he wanted to find a camp in some place +so remote that nobody would be coming around jarring his nerves. + +Eventually he got on track of what he wanted. A native told him about +an abandoned log house on the top of a mountain called "Devilbrow." + +"They used it for a fire-warden station in the days when Egypt had +enough timber to make it an object to protect it," said the man. +"You'll be plenty lonesome up there. You can get your wagon within +half a mile. Pack your truck on your hoss's back and lead him the rest +of the way. That's what I used to do. I was warden till I found myself +trying to carry on conversations with tumblebugs and whippoorwills." + +When Wagg had driven along far enough so that the native could not +overhear, he hailed Vaniman through the trap in the top of the van. + +"Did you hear that?" + +"Yes." + +"Is that Devilbrow within grabbing distance of what we're after?" + +Vaniman returned a hearty affirmative. He had been able to see those +craggy heights from his window in Britt Block. The thought that what +he wanted to grab and what Mr. Wagg wanted to grab were not exactly +mated as desired objects did not shade his candor when he asserted +that Devilbrow was just the place from which to operate. + +"All right!" chirruped Wagg. "Us for it!" He displayed the first +cheeriness he had shown on the trip. He whistled for a time. Then he +sang, over and over, to a tune of his own, "Up above the world so +high, like a di'mond in the sky." This display of Wagg's hopeful +belief that the fifty-fifty settlement was near at hand served to +increase Vaniman's despondency. + +Obeying the native's instructions as to the route, Wagg soon turned +off the highway and drove along a rutted lane which whiplashed a slope +that continually became steeper. Soon he pulled up and told Vaniman to +get out and walk and ease the load on the horse. Wagg got down and +walked, too. + +The trail up Devilbrow was on the side away from the village of Egypt. +The way was through hard growth. There were no houses--no sign of a +human being. Wagg's cheerfulness increased. And he said something +which put a glimmer of cheer into Vaniman's dark ponderings. + +"There's no call to hurry the thing overmuch. If I recuperate too +sudden and show up back home it might look funny, after the way I +bellowed about my condition. There's plenty of flour, bacon, and +canned stuff in that van. I reckon we'd better get our feet well +settled here and make sure that nobody is watching us; the money is +safer in the hole than with us, for the time being. My pay is going on +and the future looks rosy." + +A cock partridge rose from the side of the lane and whirred away +through the beech leaves that the first frost of early autumn had +yellowed. + +"And I've got a shotgun and plenty of shells! Son, let's forget that +we have ever been in state prison. In the course of time that place is +about as wearing on a guard as it is on a convict." + +The log camp was behind a spur of the rocky summit and was hidden from +the village below. Wagg commented with satisfaction on the location +when they had reached the place. The van had been concealed in a +ravine which led from the lane. The work of loading the horse with the +sacked supplies, and the ascent of the mountain, had consumed hours. +Twilight was sifting into the valleys by the time they had unloaded +the stuff and stabled the horse in a lean-to. + +There was a stove in the camp, and the place was furnished after a +fashion with chairs and a table fashioned from birch saplings. The +blankets of Wagg's camp equipment made the bunks comfortable. + +Wagg had been the cook as well as the captain of the expedition. He +did better that evening with the wood-burning stove than he had done +with the oil stove of his kit. + +After supper, before he turned in, Vaniman went out on a spur of +Devilbrow and gazed down on the scattered lights of the village of +Egypt. As best he could he determined the location of the Harnden +house. He felt as helplessly aloof as if he were a shade revisiting +the scene of his mortal experiences. + + + + CHAPTER XXV + + THE FIRST PEEP BEHIND THE CURTAIN + +The next day Wagg went out and shot two partridges and contrived a +stew which fully occupied his attention in the making and the eating. +He had suggested to Vaniman that he'd better come along on the +expedition after the birds. Vaniman found a bit more than mere +suggestion in Wagg's manner of invitation. With his shotgun in the +hook of his arm he presented his wonted appearance as the guard at the +prison. It was perfectly apparent that Mr. Wagg proposed to keep his +eye on the promiser of the fifty-fifty split. But Wagg did not refer +to the matter of the money while they strolled in the woods. + +As a matter of fact, days went by without the question coming up. + +Wagg had previously praised himself as a patient waiter; the young man +confessed in his thoughts that his guardian merited the commendation. +Wagg was plainly having a particularly good time on this outing. He +displayed the contentment of a man who had ceased to worry about the +future; he was taking it easy, like a vacationer with plenty of money +in the bank. On one occasion he did mention the money in the course of +a bit of philosophizing on the situation: + +"I suppose that, when you look at it straight, it's stealing, what I'm +doing. I've seen a lot of big gents pass through that state prison, +serving sentences for stealing. Embezzlement, forgery, crooked stock +dealing--it's all stealing. They were tempted. I've been tempted. I've +fell. I ain't an angel, any more than those big gents were. And you +know what I told you about mourners chirking up, after the first blow! +I figure it's the same way in the bank case. They have given up the +idea of getting the money back. They're still sad when they think +about it, but they keep thinking less and less every day. They've +crossed it off, as you might say." + +The two who were bound in that peculiar comradeship were out on the +crag where they could look down upon the distant checker board of the +village. Vaniman, in the stress of the circumstances, wondered whether +he might be able to come at Wagg on the sentimental side of his +nature. + +"The little town must have gone completely broke since the bank +failure. Innocent people are suffering. If that money could be +returned--" + +He did not finish the sentence. Mr. Wagg was most distinctly not +encouraging that line of talk. + +"Look here, Vaniman, when you got away with that money you had +hardened yourself up to the point where you were thinking of your own +self first, hadn't you?" + +The young man did not dare to burst out with the truth--not while Wagg +was in the mood his expression hinted at. + +Wagg continued: "Well, I've got myself to the point where I'm thinking +of my own self. I'm as hard as this rock I'm sitting on." In his +emphasis on that assertion Wagg scarred his knuckles against the +ledge. "After all the work I've had in getting myself to that point, +I'm proposing to stay there. If you try to soften me I shall consider +that you're welching on your trade." + +Wagg made the declaration in loud tones. After all his years of soft- +shoeing and repression in a prison, the veteran guard was taking full +advantage of the wide expanses of the big outdoors. + +"What did I do for you, Vaniman? I let you cash in on a play that I +had planned ever since the first barrow of dirt was dumped into that +pit. There's a lifer in that prison with rich relatives. I reckon they +would have come across with at least ten thousand dollars. There's a +manslaughter chap who owns four big apartment houses. But I picked you +because I could sympathize with you on account of your mother and that +girl the papers said so much about. It's a job that can't be done over +again, not even for the Apostle Peter. Now will you even hint at +welching?" + +"Certainly not!" + +But that affirmation did not come from Vaniman. It was made in his +behalf by a duet of voices, bass and nasal tenor, speaking loudly and +confidently behind the two men who were sitting on the ledge. + +The younger man leaped to his feet and whirled; the older man +struggled partly upright and ground his knees on the ledge when he +turned to inspect the terrifying source of sound. + +So far as Vaniman's recollection went, they were strangers. One was +short and dumpy, the other was tall and thin. They wore slouchy, +wrinkled, cheap suits. There was no hint of threat in their faces. On +the contrary, both of the men displayed expressions of mingled triumph +and mischief. Then, as if they had a mutual understanding in the +matter of procedure, they went through a sort of drill. They stuck +their right arms straight out; they crooked the arms at the elbows; +they drove their hands at their hip pockets and produced, each of +them, a bulldog revolver; they snapped their arms into position of +quick aim. + +Wagg threw up his hands and began to beg. Vaniman held himself under +better control. + +But the men did not shoot. They returned the guns to their pockets and +saluted in military fashion, whacking their palms violently against +their thighs in finishing salute. + +"Present!" they cried. Then the dumpy man grinned. Wagg had been +goggling, trying to resolve his wild incredulity into certainty. That +grin settled the thing for him. It was the same sort of a suggestive +grin that he had viewed on that day of days in the prison yard. + +"Number Two-Eight-Two!" he quavered. + +"Sure thing!" The dumpy man patted the tall man's arm. "Add one, and +you have Number Two-Eight-Three--a pal who drew the next number +because we're always in company." + +"And we're here because we're here," stated the other. + +The short man fixed his gaze on the ex-cashier. "You don't realize it +yet, but this is more of a reunion than it looks to be on the surface. +You two gents have seen how we're fixed in the gun line, and we hope +the understanding is going to make the party sociable." + +"You may be thinking that this is only another case of it being proved +how small the world is, after all," remarked the tall man. "Not so! +Not so! We have followed you two because we have important business +with you. We have had a lot of trouble and effort in getting here. +Bear that in mind, please!" + +The new arrivals were quite matter-of-fact and Wagg was helped to +recover some of his composure. "The two of you are three-year men-- +robbery in the nighttime," he declared, out of his official knowledge. +"What in blue blazes are you doing outside the pen?" + +"Attending to the same business as you are--after a slice of the bank +coin," replied the short man, carelessly. + +Wagg got to his feet and banged his fists together. "Do you dare to +walk right up to a guard of the state prison and--and--" He balked in +his demand for information; Mr. Wagg was plainly afflicted with a few +uncomfortable considerations of his own situation. + +"We do!" the convicts declared in concert. Then the dumpy man went on: +"And whatever else it is you're wondering whether we dare to do, we'll +inform that we dare. Once on a time we had occasion to express our +opinion of a bank. I wrote out that opinion and left it where it would +be seen. Not exactly Sunday-school language, but it hit the case." He +turned away from Vaniman's frenzy of gasping interrogation. He +confined his attention to Wagg. "A prison guard, say you? You're a +hell of a guard!" + +"Opinion indorsed!" said the other convict. + +For a few moments there was complete silence on the summit of +Devilbrow. Somewhere, on an upland farm in the distance, a cow mooed. +Then a rooster challenged all comers. + +"That's the word, old top!" agreed the tall man. "It expresses my +feelings," He clapped his hands against his legs and cried in his +tenor, imitating the singsong of the rooster, "We're here because +we're he-e-ere!" + +Then he and his fellow sat down on a ledge outcropping that overtopped +and commanded the position of the other men. The convicts surveyed +Vaniman and Wagg with a complacent air of triumph. "Are you willing to +take things as they stand, or do you feel that you can't go ahead till +your curiosity has been scratched?" inquired the short man. + +"Curiosity!" stormed the ex-cashier. "Do you dare to call the feeling +I have in me curiosity?" He thumped his fist against his breast. + +"And how about my feelings, with escaped convicts racing and chasing +all over this country?" shouted the guard. "What has happened to that +prison since I've been off my job?" + +"One at a time!" The dumpy man put up his hand to shut off the stream +of questions that were pouring from Wagg. "The young fellow has his +innings first. He has more good reasons for rearing and tearing. It's +easy enough to get out of a state prison when you have a trick that +can be worked once." He winked at Wagg. Then he directed his remarks +strictly at Vaniman. + +"I'm going to talk free and open. We're all in the same boat. We're a +couple of pots, and both of you are kettles, all black. Now, listen! +I'm Bill." He stuck his finger against his breast and then tagged with +it his pal at his side. "He's Tom. Bill and Tom have been humble and +hard-working yeggmen, never tackling anything bigger than country +stores and farmers' flivvers. Once on a time they were in a barn, +tucked away waiting for night, and they heard a man running a double +shift of talk--beating down the farmer on the price of cattle and +blowing off about gold coin hoarded by the bushel in a rube bank." + +Stickney's unruly mouth! Vaniman understood. "So, says Bill to Tom: +'Why not go up like everything else is going up these days?' Says Tom +to Bill: 'I'm on.' We took our time about it, getting the lay of the +land. We went down to the big burg to buy drills and soup and pick up +points on how to crack a real nut. Equipment up to that time had been +a glass cutter and a jimmy for back windows and padlocks." + +He was humorously drawling his confession. He stopped talking and +lighted a cigarette. Impatience that was agony urged Vaniman, but he +controlled himself. Wagg did not venture to say anything. His thoughts +were keeping him busy; he was mentally galloping, trying to catch up +with the new situation. + +"And let me tell you that when Bill and Tom got back up here, they had +colder feet than the weather accounted for. General headquarters, that +camp!" He jerked thumb gesture toward the log cabin. "It had been our +hang-out in times past when we operated in this section. Handy place! +Finally got up courage enough to go to the job. Fine night for it! +Deserted village. Peeked into Town Hall and saw the general round-up. +Light in the bank. Bill was boosted up by Tom and got a peek over the +curtain. One fellow inside adding figures--much taken up. Bank-vault +door wide open. Front door unlocked. Crawled in. Kept crawling. +Crawled into bank room. Grille door wide open. Bill up and hit fellow +with rubber nob-knocker--it snuffs, but is not dangerous. Tom is handy +by with the chloroform--always carried it for our second-story work." + +The young man began to stride to and fro, striving by using his legs +to keep from using his tongue. + +The narrator snapped the ash off his cigarette. "Bill and Tom looked +at each other. Did they expect such easy picking? They did not. The +stuff had been fairly handed to 'em. They dragged the stuff out--all +the sacks of it. Transportation all planned on. Couple of handsleds +such as we had seen leaning up against the houses in the village. +Slipped the fellow into the vault with his hands tied and shut the +door with a trig so that he couldn't kick it open right away. Idea was +that anybody stepping in later would think he had gone home; we +intended to put out the light; nothing desperate about us; we wouldn't +shoot the bolts. Bill said to Tom that there'd be a hunt for the +fellow when he failed to show up at home, wherever he lived, and he'd +sure be pulled out of the vault in good season. Thoughtful, you see! +Not bloody villains. Simply wanted time for our getaway. Slow pulling +up this hill with handsleds! But we slit a bag to make sure of what we +would be pulling. And we kept on slitting bags. And--" the short man +shook his head and sighed. "You say it, Tom. I'm trying to be sociable +in this talk with these gents--showing a full and free spirit in +coming across with the facts. But I don't trust myself!" + +"Nor I!" declared Tom. "We'd better not spoil a pleasant party." + +"Well, Bill wrote his sentiments, as they occurred to him at the time. +Then we heard somebody hollering at the front door that we had left +open. We ran and jumped behind the door of the bank office. The fellow +who galloped in ran a few times in circles and then he galloped out. +He might have noticed a rhinoceros if the rhino had risen up and bit +him. But he paid no attention to Bill and Tom behind the door. And +Bill and Tom walked out. And we managed to get clear of the village +just as that Town Hall crowd broke loose. + +"Says Bill to Tom, when they were on their way: 'It's plain that banks +are bunk, like everything else these days. Let's stick to our humble +line where we know what we're doing.' But, having been studying bank +robbing, we had got ourselves nerved up to take desperate chances--and +we bulled the regular game in Levant. Coarse work, because we were off +our stride. All due to the bank. The bank stands liable for damages. +We're up here collecting. Cashier, consider what regular and desperate +cracksmen would have done to you! Considering our carefulness where +you were concerned, and the trouble we have been put to in getting out +and chasing you, what say?" + +Again Vaniman got a strong grip on his emotions. He was a fugitive; +these cheeky rascals had his fate in their hands; he was not in a +position to reply to their effrontery as his wild desire urged. He did +not dare to open his mouth just then with any sort of reply; he did +not trust himself even to look their way. + +"Think it over," advised the short man, composedly. "But please take +note that there are now four of us in on the split, and that +quartering it makes easy figuring." + +Mr. Wagg was not composed. This threat to disrupt his fifty-fifty plan +brought him out of something that was like stupor. "You belong back in +state prison, and I'll see to it that you're put there." + +The man who called himself Bill was not ruffled. He waved his arm to +indicate the spread of the landscape. "Doesn't being up here above the +world lift you out of the rut of petty revenge? Can't you see things +in a broader way? I can. I feel like praising you for that job you put +up to get our valuable friend out where he can help all four of us. +For many a day, after I saw that you had this friend out in the yard +and were interested in him, I tended less to making harness pads and +more to watching you through the shop window. I was interested in the +gent, too. Tom and I had made up our minds to be as patient as +possible for seven years--and then be rusticating up in these hills, +right on hand to help him in the chore of digging it out of whatever +hole it's hidden in. Couldn't let you monopolize him--absolutely not, +Mr. Guard! Do you think I was hiding out that noon only by luck and +chance? No, no! I saw you monkeying with the chimney door that +forenoon. I saw how you were hopping around and I got a good look at +your face. Says I to myself, Tom not being handy, 'There's something +to be pulled off, and I'll make sure how it is pulled.' That's how I +happened to be on the business side of that shield, Mr. Guard. It was +good work. It leaves our friend pretty comfortable, so far as the +dicks are concerned. Tom and I have got to keep dodging 'em. We didn't +have your advantages, you know--Tom and I didn't! We simply did the +best we could in getting out--realizing the value of time." + +The short man was employing a patronizing tone, as if accomplishing an +escape from state prison was merely a matter of election of methods. +All of the guard's official pride was in arms. He advanced on the +convict and shook a finger under his nose. "How did you get out? You +don't dare to tell me. It was an accident. You didn't use any brains. +You don't dare to tell, I say!" + +"Oh yes, I do!" The convict was placid. "I'll tell you because you'll +never dare to open your mouth on the matter. Furthermore, you've got +to understand the position Tom and I are in right now in regard to a +third party. That party is a trusty--he gets out in three months from +now and has been having the run of the corridors as a repair man." + +Wagg growled something. + +"Oh yes, he will!" asseverated the convict. "He'll come out on time! A +fine show of yourself you'll make trying to dutch him. The pen is +mightier than the sword, but inside a prison pen the little screw +driver has 'em all faded when a trusty is the repair man. Cell door, +tier door, attic door--all attended to; ventilator grating likewise. +Rope in ventilator, up rope--out goes rope and down rope! Roof, wall, +drop! Rear window of second-hand shop. Outfit! Hike! Good start, till +morning shows the cot dummies! Truss rods of Wagner freight, blind +baggage to Levant on the 'tween-days train. Into the bush--and here!" + +"With this added by me," put in the other convict. "That trusty was a +pal in the old days. He understands his friends' financial interest is +in this thing, and how we needed to get out sudden to tend to that +interest. We have given him our word. He took that word like it was a +certified check. And he's going to cash in on that word!" + +"He sure is!" declared the short man. "We pass words instead of checks +in our business, and a man who lets his promise go to protest is +crabbed for keeps. We have incurred obligations so as to get in at the +split." He spread out his palm and tapped a digit into the center of +it. "Cash--here!" + +"Strictly on a business basis, of course," said the tall man. "We +don't call for a special split for that trusty. It's a personal debt +incurred by Bill and me. We ask nobody to pay our personal debts. All +we ask is that debts due us be paid. And we're drawing a sight draft +on you gents. Bill and I are probably only a few jumps ahead of the +dicks. Where's the coin?" + +He brutally thrust the question at Vaniman. The young man turned to +Wagg, seeking support in that crisis, believing that the affair could +be held on the basis of two against two in the interests of further +dilatory tactics. Wagg had been showing indignant protest against the +demands of the interlopers. But his corrugated face was smoothed +suddenly. He had evidently decided to cash in on the new basis. +"That's what I want to know--and what I have been trying to find out. +Where's the coin?" + +The realignment--three against one--was menacing. Vaniman surveyed the +faces--the glowering demanding countenances, the eyes in which money +lust gleamed. He knew that the men were in a mood where the truth +would serve him in sad stead. He had no knack as a liar. He understood +how little chance he had of convincing those shrewd knaves by his +inept falsehoods in that extremity. He had already meditated on the +plan of running away from Wagg. His reasons for escaping from this +intolerable baiting were now threefold. + +"It's too near sunset for a job that will take us a long way through +the woods," he blurted. + +"I'll admit I'm so tired I can't count money till I've had a night's +sleep," confessed the short man. "But you make your promise now and +here, Mr. Cashier. When?" He emphasized the last word. + +"To-morrow!" + +"A promissory note--dated and delivered. Don't let it go to protest. +That's language you can understand, Mr. Bankman." + +Vaniman walked off toward the cabin and the three men followed him. + + + + CHAPTER XXVI + + THE SHOW-DOWN + +His troubles and his trials had not wholly dulled youth's sense of the +ludicrous in Vaniman. He sat down that evening to the meal that had +been prepared by Guard Wagg, late of the state prison, for three +fugitive convicts, also late of that institution. The chimney of the +kerosene lamp was smoky and the light was dim, therefore Vaniman's +grin was hidden from his companions. Undoubtedly it would have +produced no especial wonderment in them if they had noted his cheerful +visage. They were decidedly cheerful, themselves. Mr. Wagg was no +longer exhibiting the official side of his nature; he was receiving +compliments on his biscuits. The three who had aligned themselves +against Vaniman seemed to be getting along in a very friendly fashion, +being bound by a common interest. + +From biscuits in hand the conversation passed to the prison fare in +retrospect. Wagg admitted that the fare was a disgrace to the state. +From that point it was easy to go on and agree with the short man and +the tall man that the prison was mismanaged generally and that a man +was lucky in being able to get away from such a place--no matter +whether he was a guard or a prisoner. The incongruous friendliness +increased Vaniman's amusement. + +He looked at the two knaves who had recently enlightened their victim +in such a matter-of-fact manner. He admitted that the comedy +overbalanced the tragedy, in view of the fact that the job had +resolved itself into petty sneak-thievery. Taking into consideration +the trick money they had found, there was considerable farce in the +affair. However, Vaniman, looking ahead to the threatening to-morrow, +perceived tragedy looming again. + +Victim, criminals, guard of the criminals, they were breaking bread in +a temporary comradeship of a bizarre nature--a money quest. But that +money interest which bound them of an evening would be a disastrous +problem on the morrow, if one man attempted to stand out against +three. + +The one man made up his mind that there was a risky resource for him-- +to flee and take his chances alone in the woods; he had decided to put +his own personal interpretation on the promise, "To-morrow!" + +Right after supper he turned into his bunk, in order to simulate +slumber and avoid the questions that he could not answer. + +The two new arrivals had had much to say about their weariness. He +expected that they would promptly eliminate themselves as obstacles to +flight. Mr. Wagg, at any rate, had shown a confiding disposition all +along. + +But the tall man and the short man conferred /sotto voce/ and let it +be known that they had suspended payment of confidence currency for +the time being. + +"The idea is," explained the short man, "this being a pleasant party, +and all interests being common, it would be a shame to have it broken +up. Tom will sit there in the door for two hours--then he wakes me and +I sit there. We're not accusing anybody inside of wanting to leave; +but who is sure that somebody from the outside may not stroll along +and want to come in? Seeing that we went down to the pen from Levant, +it may be thought--providing they do any thinking at the state prison +--that we have come back here to start in where we left off. On the +other hand, providing they don't do any thinking, they may come up +into this section because a reasoning man never would believe we'd +take chances by coming back into an old stamping ground. Either way +it's looked at, we've got to be careful. Therefore, we hope that gents +of a pleasant party will consider this double-shift arrangement as +being for the general good of all hands." + +Mr. Wagg was pleased. He said so unhesitatingly, but not tactfully. He +declared that he would mortally hate to be surprised keeping the +company he was in. + +Vaniman was able to stay awake through most of the two watches. But +the short man on sentry go was more vigilant than the tall man had +been; two hours of sleep and the keen hope for the morrow conspired to +keep the guard alert. In despair the young man loosed his hold on the +hateful verities and slipped into slumber. + +He was suddenly awakened by a pinching grip on his arm. He opened his +eyes upon broad day and upon the face of the tall man. He was aware +that the short man was shaking Wagg awake in the next bunk. "Two men +coming up the side of the mountain; got a slant at 'em through the +trees; they're after us!" + +"Sho!" demurred Wagg. "They're only bird hunters." + +"We're taking no chances on 'em being jailbird hunters! Are there any +holes here in the rocks?" + +"Plenty," stated Wagg. "And the three of you better hunt them holes, +no matter who is coming." + +The short man, the tall man, and Vaniman needed no urging on that +point. They ran, crouching low, and scrambled out of sight among the +ledges of the craggy peak of Devilbrow. + +Wagg lighted his pipe and went out and sat on the bench beside the +camp's door, and when the two early visitors came puffing up the hill +and confronted him he was to all appearances enjoying the delights of +a bland fall morning and the comfort of an unruffled conscience. He +jumped to his feet and hailed one of the men with a great show of +cordiality; the man was one of the deputy wardens of the state prison. + +Mr. Wagg hopefully and guilelessly expressed the conviction that the +officer had followed along into the wilderness in order to join in the +process of recuperation. + +The deputy asserted that Mr. Wagg was wrong to the extent of a +damsite, or something of the sort, and reported some recent happenings +at the state prison, Mr. Wagg listening with appropriate, shocked, +official concern. He opined that it was a long shot, figuring that the +convicts had fled back to the region of Levant. The warden agreed. +"But the Old Man is bound to have us tip over every flat rock, Bart. +He got a call-down for that accident--and this matter on top of it has +made him sore. I'm up here this far because I got a line on you at +Levant." + +"You did, hey?" Mr. Wagg gazed off across the landscape, as if +wondering how much of a trail he had left. + +"You dropped 'recuperates' like a molting rooster drops feathers, +Bart," averred the warden, jocosely. "That was my trail. Reckoned I'd +come and tip you off so that you can do a little scouting for the good +cause." + +Mr. Wagg threw out his chest. "You can leave this hill section to me. +Always on the job! That's my motto." + +The deputy said he knew that, stated that he would probably spend a +week along the highways and in the villages of the section, got a +drink of water from a spring near at hand, and departed with his aide. + +And after the two were far down the slope, Mr. Wagg called in his +campmates with the caution of a hen partridge assembling the brood +after the hunter has passed. "It means that we've got to stick close +by this camp and mind our business for a week, at any rate," he said, +after he had reported the conversation. + +Vaniman could not keep the complacency out of his countenance. He +caught the short man squinting at him with a peculiar expression. "It +would be mighty dangerous for any one of us to go far from this camp," +said the young man. + +"It sure would!" agreed the convict, sententiously. + +Vaniman was promptly conscious that his innocent air had not been +convincing. + +He became more fully aware of that fact when the tall man and the +short man resumed guard duty that night, turn about. It was plain that +they proposed to hang grimly to the token in their possession until +the token could be cashed in for the coin. + +The confinement behind prison bars had tested Vaniman's powers of +endurance; this everlasting espionage by the men who had set +themselves over him tried him still more bitterly. They lacked the +sanction of the law which even an innocent man respects while he +chafes. While that situation continued he was prevented from taking +any step toward clearing up his tangled affairs. He could look down on +the roofs of the village of Egypt and meditate savagely--and that was +all. Vona had apprised him of Britt's plans regarding a mansion. He +could see that structure was taking shape rapidly. Men swarmed over it +like bees over a hive. He did not doubt the loyalty of the girl. But +he was left to wonder how long her loyalty to the memory of a dead man +would endure. + +Day by day, through dragging hours, he suffered from the agonizing +monotony of the camp. But the future offered only a somber prospect. +After this respite in the insistence of the treasure seekers, he could +expect only ugly determination when they dared to make a move in the +matter. They had plenty of leisure for talk. They were already +spending that money! Wagg was even more impatient than the others. + +Through Vaniman had been cruelly tortured by thoughts of the injustice +that had been visited on him, by his reflections that the Egyptians +had shown him no consideration, he had nursed the hope that he might +contrive to give them back their money after he had dragged from Britt +the truth. + +But at last, in his new spirit of loneliness, in the consciousness +that no man's hand was offered to him in the way of help, he entered +upon a new phase of resolution. He had gone into prison with youth's +ingenuous belief that the truth would prevail. He had permitted a lie +to aid in prying his way out, and now he was paltering with evasions +and making no progress except toward more dangerous involvement. One +afternoon sudden fury swept the props out from under caution. + +He leaped up from the rock on which he had been sitting, pondering, +the rumble of the conspirators' conversation serving as obbligato for +the cry his soul was uttering. He was between them and the sunset sky. + +"The truth!" he shouted. + +The three men peered at him, shading their eyes. He seemed to tower +with heroic stature. He came at them, shaking his fists over his head. + +"You are thieves and renegades. I don't believe you know the truth +when you hear it. But you're going to hear it." + +He tackled Wagg first. He set the grip of both of his hands into the +slack of the shoulders of the amazed guard's coat and yanked Wagg to +his feet and shouted, with his nose barely an inch from Wagg's face, +"I told you the truth at first. I said I didn't know where the money +was. You gave me a chance to get out by a lie. I'm human. I took the +chance." + +He threw Wagg from him with a force that sent the man staggering; the +guard stumbled over a rock and fell on his back. + +He turned on the convicts. By his set-to with Wagg he had gained their +full attention. "You low-lived scoundrels, do you know an honest man +when you lay eyes on him? I declare that I am one. Dispute me, and +I'll knock your teeth down your throats--guns or no guns. I don't know +where the money is. I never touched that money. I didn't know what was +in those sacks. If you were decent men, with any conception of an oath +before God, I'd swear to the truth of what I say. I won't lower myself +to make oath! I make the statement. And now let some of you--or all +three of you--stand up in front of me and tell me that I'm lying. Come +on! It's an open field!" + +They did not stand up. Wagg merely sat up. + +"Say something! Some one of you! Say something!" pleaded Vaniman +through his set teeth. + +The convicts kept their sitting. Vaniman went on adjuring them to +stand up and say something. They showed no resentment when he called +them names, and they indicated no relish for battle. + +"Hold on a minute!" pleaded the short man. "You seem to have your mind +well made up as to what we'd better not say. I may have to eat state- +prison grub again, and I'll need my teeth. Won't you kindly drop a +hint as to what would suit you in the line of talk?" + +"You can tell me whether you think I'm handing you the truth or not." + +"I think you are," agreed Bill, readily. + +"So do I," asserted Tom. + +"How about you, Wagg?" Vaniman demanded, resolved on clearing the +matter up once for all. + +But the lethargic Mr. Wagg was manifestly unable to turn his slow wits +on the single track of the mind and start them off in the opposite +direction. + +"No matter about him now," said the short man. "Give his mind time. A +toadstool grows fast after it gets started." + +This meek surrender helped Vaniman to regain his poise. "If you're +willing to take the truth from me, men, I'll meet you halfway. You +have been frank and open with me. Men who pretend to be better than +you, they have lied to me and about me. That's why I was sent to state +prison." + +"Tom and I couldn't do business like we do if we lied to folks of our +kind. Didn't we cash in our word to the trusty? Being in the hole, as +you are right now, you'll excuse me for saying that we consider you +one of our kind." + +"Thank you," returned the young man, accepting that statement at face +value. + +The short man lighted a cigarette and pondered for a few moments. "You +didn't take the money. Tom and I believe what you say. Wagg will catch +up with the procession later. All right, Vaniman! But seeing how +anxious you were to get out and up here, it's likely that you have a +pretty good idea as to who did take the money. If you need any help in +squaring yourself, I'll call your attention to the fact that here are +a couple of gents who have a little spare time on their hands." + +Vaniman was then in no mood to balance the rights and the wrongs of +the case. "I have started in on the basis of the whole truth, and I'm +coming through, men. I'm following your lead. I was framed in that +bank matter. There was a man who had the opportunity to exchange junk +for that gold. He made that opportunity for himself by working on my +good nature. The man is Tasper Britt, who was the president of that +bank. He took the money. He knows where it is." + +"Do you think he is the only one who knows?" + +"Naturally, he wouldn't be passing the word around." + +"You're a bank man--you had the run of the premises--you had a chance +to know the general style of his ways! What do you guess he did with +it?" + +"I'm sticking to the truth--and what I actually know. I'm not +guessing." + +"Not even when you say he took the money?" + +"I didn't see him take it. But he had a private entrance to the vault. +Everybody was so determined to plaster the guilt on to me that no move +was made against Britt on account of that back door of his. I was +railroaded by perjurers--and Britt was the captain of 'em." + +"There's a corner on 'most everything these days, but it's really too +bad for a man like Britt to have a corner on so much valuable +knowledge," sighed the short man. + +And the tall man sighed and agreed. + +Mr. Wagg was catching up. With the appearance of a man who had been +running and was out of breath he panted, "What's--what's gong to be +done about it?" + +Vaniman made no suggestions. Having cut the knot of his own +entanglement where these men were concerned, he felt no spirit of +alacrity about inviting them farther into his personal affairs; he +realized that he had merely shifted the course of their dogged pursuit +of that money. In spite of his feelings toward Britt, he was dreading +what might come from the disclosures he had just made. He had reason +to distrust the tactics such men might employ. His relief arising from +the show-down was tinged with regret; he was still sorry for the +innocent losers in Egypt. To employ two escaped convicts and a +recreant prison guard in his efforts to prevail on Britt and secure +the rights due an innocent man promised to involve him more +wretchedly. + +"Vaniman, suppose you take command and give off your orders," said the +short man. + +"I haven't any sensible plans. I admit that. I have been so pestered +and wrought up by the everlasting bullyragging about the devilish +money that I haven't had a chance to figure out a way of getting at +the man who has ruined me," Vaniman complained. He strode to and fro, +snapping his fingers, revealing his sense of helplessness. + +"Suppose we sleep on the thing--the whole four of us," suggested the +short man. "I said sleep, please note! This general show-down has +cleared the air up here a whole lot, I'll say! And Wagg has steered +away the dicks! They won't be strolling in, and till we have settled +on a plan I'm sure nobody will feel like strolling out. The night +watch is disbanded." + +He marched off toward the camp. The others trailed on behind him. + + + + CHAPTER XXVII + + THE STIR OF THE YEAST + +Mr. Delmont Bangs was naturally of an observant nature. While he was +in Egypt he was keeping his eyes particularly wide open. He was +looking for two men wanted by the state. Mr. Bangs was the deputy +warden who had gone up to the summit of Devilbrow in order to view the +landscape o'er and pass the word to Mr. Wagg. Mr. Bangs rode along +every highway and byway, day after day, not missing a trick. He was +not especially sanguine in regard to locating the missing convicts in +that section, but he was obeying the warden's orders; after a day or +so he was also obeying an impulse to satisfy his curiosity in lines +quite apart from his official quest. + +He spent his nights at Files's tavern and grabbed his meals wherever +he happened to be. + +But after a time he found that housewives were unwilling to give him +anything to eat. He was sure that they had not soured on him because +he was a state catchpole. When he first arrived in town and gave out +the news of his mission and issued a general call for tips he was +welcomed heartily by everybody; the women, especially, hoped that he +would find the villains and put them where they could not threaten +unprotected females. Mr. Bangs had not been able to spend his money +for food at farmhouses; the women would not accept any pay, and gave +him their best. + +However all at once they could not be induced to give food or even to +sell it. They acted as if they did not care to be bothered; some of +them declared that they were too busy to do cooking. They would not +allow Mr. Bangs to stick his nose into their houses; they snapped +refusal at him from behind doors only partially opened and foot- +braced. + +Men with whom Bangs conversed wore an air of abstraction. They plainly +were not interested in Mr. Bangs or in the convicts whom he was +pursuing. He tackled them on all sorts of subjects, hoping to hit on +the topic which was absorbing so much of their attention. He went so +far as to ask them bluntly what they were carrying on their minds +besides hair. Those who were not surly looked scared. + +Even the barn doors were no longer frankly open. There was a +mysterious sort of subsurface stir everywhere. There was expectancy +that was ill disguised. Mr. Bangs, a stranger, perceived that +strangers, for some unexplained reason, had ceased to be popular in +Egypt. One day a man gruffly told him that detectives would do well to +go off and do their detecting in some other place. That was pretty +blunt, and Mr. Bangs informed his helper that he, personally, had had +about enough of the gummed-up, infernal town. He declared that he was +going to leave. Mr. Bangs was more certain about his departure when he +arrived back at Files's tavern that evening. Mr. Files informed him +that there would be no more accommodations at the tavern after that +night. Mr. Files, questioned, refused to say whether he intended to +close the tavern or was merely going away; he would reveal nothing +about his further plans. + +Mr. Bangs went out and sat on the porch bench with his helper, and +irefully asked that bewildered person what the ding-dong the matter +was with the dad-fired town, anyway? + +In default of specific knowledge the aide tried to be humorous. He +told Mr. Bangs that it looked as if the hive was getting ready to +swarm. His facetiousness fell flat; Mr. Bangs scowled. The helper +became serious. + +"I've been watching the old hystrampus they call the Prophet. +Everywhere we've been the past few days, he seems to be just coming or +just going. Noticed him, haven't you?" + +"Of course I've noticed him." + +"I don't know what his religious persuasion is, because he hasn't done +any talking where I could overhear him. But he seems to be getting +busier all the time. Do you know what he preaches?" + +"I'm working for the state prison, not the state insane asylum." + +"Well," drawled the other, "though I don't know what he's preaching, +the general fussed-up condition here in this town reminds me of what +happened in Carmel when I lived there as a boy. One of them go-upper +preachers struck town. He finally got most of our neighbors into a +state of whee-ho where the womenfolks made ascension robes for all +concerned and the menfolks built a high platform and they all climbed +up on it and waited all one night for Gabr'el's trump to sound." + +"What's that got to do with this town?" demanded Mr. Bangs, +impatiently. + +"Why, considering how near busted the town is--and all the timber cut +off and the farms run out--I wouldn't wonder a mite if the right kind +of a preacher could get 'em into a frame of mind where they'd be +willing to start for anywhere--even straight down, provided they +couldn't arrange matters so as to go straight up, like the Carmel +folks planned on. Not as how I say that these folks are going to get +up and hump it out of Egypt! But there's a whole lot of restle-ness in +'em! That's plain enough to be seen!" + +"If there's half as much of it in 'em as there is in me, right now, +they'll all follow me when I drive out of town in the morning," +declared Mr. Bangs. "And what that king pin, name o' Britt, is +building that palace over there for is beyond my guess." + +"Expects to grab off the girl of the Vaniman case," said the aide, who +had put himself in the way of hearing all the local gossip. + +Mr. Bangs lighted a fresh cigar. "Say, I'd like to find out whether +this stir here is a go-upper proposition. I'd join the party and go +up, too, if I thought I could locate that cashier and find out where +he hid that mess of gold." + +"Try the ouija board," giggled the aide. + +However, in his desperate desire for information in general Mr. Bangs +proceeded to try something which suited better his practical turn of +mind. + +He hailed Prophet Elias, who had appeared in the open door of Usial +Britt's shop. The gloom of the autumn evening was deepened by vapor +which came drifting from the lowlands after the night air had chilled +the moisture evoked by the sun from the soil. The open door set a +patch of radiance on the dun robe of the dusk. The light spread upon +the vapor, was diffused in it, furnished an aura of soft glow in the +center of which stood the robed figure. + +Deputy Bangs's first hail, when Elias opened the door and stood +revealed, was contemptuously brusque; he used the tone he commonly +employed toward his charges in prison; he perceived at first only the +queer old chap, the dusty plodder of the highways, the man of cracked +wits. Bangs spoke as an officer, peremptorily: "Say, you! Come over +here. I want to talk with you!" + +The Prophet made no move, either with his feet or his tongue. In the +haze that lay between him and Bangs, the man of the robe seemed to +tower and to take on a mystic dignity which had been lacking in the +candid light of day. After the silence had continued for some time +Bangs spoke again. His new manner showed that his eyes had been +reprimanding his tongue. "Excuse me! I didn't mean to sound short. But +would you kindly step across here? Or"--the eyes certainly had shamed +the tongue and had humbled it--"or I'll come over there, if you'd +rather have it that way." + +The Prophet strode along the misty path of light and stood in the +middle of the road. "Talk--but I must ask you to talk to the point and +in few words. I have no time to waste on gossip." + +"All right! Few words it is! What's the matter with this town all of a +sudden?" + +"Ask Pharaoh. The kingdom is his." + +"I don't get you!" + +The deputy's helper pulled his chief's sleeve and hissed some rapid +words of explanation, more fruit gathered from local gossip. + +"Oh, so that's what you call him? However, I'm asking you. You ought +to know. I've seen you all over the lot, talking with everybody." + +"Ask Pharaoh!" repeated the Prophet, sonorously. + +The helper nudged Bangs with a swift punch. "If you feel like taking +that advice, boss, here's your chance. There's Tasper Britt." + +The magnate of Egypt was revealed suddenly, coming from the direction +of his new mansion. He strode past Elias. "Ask Pharaoh!" advised the +Prophet once more, and Britt halted. He came back a few steps and +addressed the men on the tavern porch: + +"Can't a man who is deputy warden of our state prison find something +for amusement better than stirring up a lunatic?" + +"I'm not trying to find amusement--not in this town," returned Mr. +Bangs. "I'm after information. He refers me to you--or so I take it!" + +"What information?" + +"There's something the trouble in this town and I'd like to know what +it is." + +"There it is," barked Britt, pointing to Elias. "That's the principal +trouble--a lunatic spreading lunacy like smallpox." + +"But what is it all about?" insisted Bangs, "What's this new +excitement?" + +"I know nothing about any excitement, sir. I attend to business +instead of gossip. If you can make it your business to take this pest +to state prison, where he probably belongs if his record could be dug +up, the town of Egypt will be all right again." + +"Pharaoh, I have a message of comfort for you," stated the Prophet. +"This night do I depart from the land of Egypt. I go and I shall not +return." + +For some moments Britt did not find words with which to reply. Then he +mumbled something about good riddance and shaking the dust from the +feet. + +"I shall shake all the dust from my feet this side of the border +line," said Elias. "Your land of Egypt cannot spare any soil." + +"You are getting away just in time," rasped the usurer. "I have been +tolerating you since you got back from jail because I've been too busy +to tend to your case." + +"Ah!" commented Elias, mildly. + +This subtle humility goaded Britt's wrath more effectually than the +Prophet could have prevailed with resentful retort. + +"The next time it wouldn't have been a bailable trespass case. Do you +dare to tell me why you kept looking in at the windows of my house?" + +"I was looking for the closet." + +"What closet?" + +"For the closet where you keep the skeleton. But rest this night in +peace, Pharaoh. I am going away." + +"I can sleep better for knowing that you are out of this town." + +"Then promise me that you will sleep to-night--sleep soundly. That +thought will cheer me as I go on my way." Britt started along, making +no reply. "I bespeak for you sleep without dreams," the Prophet called +after him. "Your dreams, Pharaoh, might be colored with some of the +realities--and that would be bad, very bad for your peace of mind." + +Once more Britt strode back from the vapors. "Are you trying to +provoke me to smash my fist into your face? Are you trying to cook up +a blackmail damage suit by the advice of that crook lawyer who bailed +you out? I'm beginning to see why a lawyer was enough interested in +you to get you back into this town." + +"You guess shrewdly, Pharaoh. You have avoided the deep plot against +your wealth. Let the thought make you sleep soundly to-night. I'm glad +to make my confession and hope it will add to your peace of mind." + +Usial Britt had appeared in the door of his cottage; he leaned lazily +against the jamb. "It will be a fine night for sleeping," he remarked, +amiably. "This fog is sort of relaxing to the nerves!" + +"Hold one moment, Pharaoh!" pleaded Elias. The appearance of the hated +brother had started the magnate off once more. "I am anxious to make +your night a peaceful one. If you see me go away, knowing that I shall +not return again before your face, the comfort of your knowledge will +lull you to sleep. Wait!" + +He stepped to the door of the cottage, reached inside, and secured a +long staff. He picked up from the floor a huge horn--a sort of trump. +He settled the curve of the instrument over his shoulder. He blew a +long and resounding blast. Then he marched away, taking long strides. +He loomed in the first stratum of the vapor, the radiance from the +open door showing him as an eerie figure; then the fog swallowed him +up. Every few moments he sounded a mighty blast on the trump. The +blare of the horn rolled echoes afar in the murk. Steadily the volume +of the sound decreased; it was plain that the Prophet was traveling at +good speed. + +"Well, I'll be dimdaddled!" grunted Mr. Bangs. His was the only +comment on the departure of Prophet Elias from the land of Egypt--that +is to say, the only comment passed by the group in front of Files's +tavern. Tasper Britt went his way toward the Harnden home, his +lodgings still. Usial Britt closed his cottage door. Bangs found the +sticky chill of the fog uncomfortable. He and his helper went in and +upstairs to their rooms. + + + + CHAPTER XXVIII + + THE SHADE WHO MEDDLED + +Sometime in the night Vaniman awoke, not suddenly, or with the sense +of having been disturbed, but torpidly, with the feeling that he had +been especially deep in slumber. He recovered his senses slowly. +Therefore, only gradually did he become aware of a peculiar new +condition of affairs in the camp. He wondered idly, trying to make up +his mind as to what was different in the place this night. He heard +the "yeak-yeak" of the crickets outside. He heard nothing else. Then +he understood. His three comrades were not vocalizing their slumber in +snores. He had endured the torture philosophically night after night. + +His surprise awakened him fully. He listened, but he could not hear +the sound of breathing. He rolled out of his bunk and investigated. +The light in the camp was merely the reflection of the paler hue of +the night outside, filtering through the open door and the single +window. But he perceived that he was alone in the place--the bunks +were empty. + +His primitive life in the camp had inured him to new habits; he had +been removing only his shoes and his coat when he went to bed. He +pulled on his shoes--he did not bother with coat or hat. He rushed out +of doors and called aloud, hoping that his panic was exaggerating his +apprehensions. There was no answer. + +Then his fears took definite shape and sought for confirmation. He ran +to the horse hovel. The animal was gone. + +Standing there, bitterly conscious of what had happened and acutely +aware of what was likely to happen with those three miscreants on the +trail of the treasure that they coveted, Vaniman accepted his full +measure of responsibility. He did not excuse the passion which had +prompted him to open his heart in regard to Tasper Britt. It was plain +that they intended to unlock the secret of the money by the use of +Britt, going to any lengths of brutality the occasion might demand. To +get at Britt they would be obliged to invade the Harnden home. The +thought of what might develop from that sortie wrought havoc in +Vaniman's soul! His fears for Vona and her mother spurred him to +action even more effectively than his conviction that his own cause +was lost if the men were able to force the money from Britt. If they +were captured it would be like them to incriminate Vaniman as an +accomplice; if they got safely away with the treasure there could be +no revelations regarding Britt's complicity in its concealment. Britt +certainly would not tell the truth about what had happened to him; the +fugitives would hide their secret and their plunder. + +If ever a victim of devilish circumstances had a compelling reason to +play the game, single-handed and to the full limit of desperation, so +Vaniman told himself, he was the man. + +He ran from the hovel to the peak of the crag that overlooked the +village of Egypt. He beheld below him a vast expanse of grayish white, +the fleecy sea of the enshrouding vapor. He heard no sounds, he saw no +lights. He had no notion of the hour. Wagg had accommodated him with +the time of day, when he asked for it, just as Wagg loaned him a razor +and doled his rations, persistently and with cunning malice working to +subdue the young man's sense of independence. + +But in this crisis all of Vaniman's courage broke from the thralls in +which prison intimidation and a fugitive's caution and despair had +bound it during the months of his disgrace. + +No matter how long the others had been on their way! They would be +obliged to go the long route around the hill, and were hampered by the +van; their grim forethought in taking the vehicle to transport their +booty, as if they were sure of succeeding, was another element that +wrought upon Vaniman's temper. + +As he was, without coat or hat, he leaped from the crag, as if he were +trying to jump squarely into the middle of the village of Egypt. He +had taken no thought of the steepness of the slope or the dangers of +descent. He slipped and rolled for many rods and a rain of rocks and +earth followed him and beat upon him when he caught a tree and clung +to it. He went on more cautiously after that; blood trickled from the +wounds on his face where the sharp edges of rocks had cut. He thrust +himself through the scrub growth, opening a way with the motions of a +swimmer, his hands scarred by the tangled branches. There were other +steep places that were broken by terraces. When he was down from the +rocky heights on which the vapor did not extend and had entered the +confusing mists, he was obliged to go more slowly still, for he +narrowly missed some nasty falls. + +Fierce impatience roweled him. He would not allow himself to weaken +his determination by thinking on what he would do after he arrived at +the Harnden home. He had set that as his goal. Above other +considerations he placed his frenzied resolution to protect Vona. He +realized that he must protect her even from himself--from the shock +she would suffer by his unprefaced appearance, this lover who would +come like one risen from the dead! The scoundrels who came seeking +Britt in her home would not be as terrifying as the visitor who would +seem to be a specter--the shade of the convict whom a mountain had +crushed, so said the official reports of the tragic affair. + +The fact that he was rushing to meet in combat three men, armed and +desperate, worried him less than his anguished concern in behalf of +the girl who was unprepared for his advent by hint or warning. + +At last he came to the pasture slopes where he was more sure of his +footing. He ran. When he heard the rumble of wheels he stopped in +order to listen, trying to distinguish the location of the sound in +the fog, which made direction uncertain. He knew it must be late. Few +vehicles were moved in Egypt after dark. He suspected that what he +heard was the van. + +However, he was puzzled by what he was hearing. Either there were many +vehicles, or else the echoes were playing pranks in the mists which +enwrapped all objects. Under the pall of fog all sounds were +exaggerated. To right and left, near at hand and far away he heard the +rumble of wheels, the creak of whiffletrees, and the plodding feet of +animals. + +He heard, too, an occasional, dust-choked bleat or a plaintive lowing. + +But a sound that was repeated regularly he could not understand, nor +could he determine the direction from which it came. It was sound +diffused like the fog itself. It was mellowed by distance. He +recognized the notes as the winding of some sort of a horn or trump. + +Vaniman's ears were telling him nothing definite. He hurried on down +the hill so that he might make his eyes serve him at closer range. In +order to see what was going on in the highway he was obliged to go +close to the wall which bordered it; though the fog hindered, it +helped, for in the obscurity he was well hidden among the bushes. + +First he saw a hayrack go past. Two horses drew it. It was piled high +with household goods, and women and children were on top of the load. +Two cows were hitched on behind. By the time the fog had hidden this +conveyance a wagon of the jigger type rumbled past. It was as heavily +loaded as the hayrack. He heard other vehicles coming--he heard still +others far down the road on their way. + +He was urged by a furious desire to shout--to ask what all this meant. +But he did not dare to run such risks. There was a wall between him +and the rest of humanity until his sorry affairs could be +straightened. + +The highway gave him a clew as to his whereabouts; he had been lost in +that wallow of vapor, unable to distinguish north from south. He +retreated from the wall and stooped as he ran along behind the screen +of the wayside alders. He had an affair of his own to look after, no +matter what the rest of Egypt was doing. + +In spite of his haste, he carefully scrutinized each item in this +singular parade of the night, keeping near enough to the road for that +purpose. It seemed like some sort of a migration. He wondered how +comprehensive it was. He wanted to be sure that nobody in whom he was +especially interested passed him without his knowledge. There was +every kind of an equipage that would convey people or property. Nobody +was talking. So far as was possible, the human beings in the +procession seemed to be trying to make a secret of the affair. Mothers +hushed their children when the youngsters chattered or whimpered. Men +merely whispered commands to the horses. + +All at once Vaniman beheld the van. It was holding a place in the +parade and was moving with the decorous slowness of the other +vehicles. On the driver's seat with Wagg were the two convicts. The +comrade whom they had deserted waited until it had passed; then he ran +out into the road and ducked along close to the rear of it. + +They were coming away from the village of Egypt. To what extent had +they succeeded in their rascally errand? What burden were they +conveying? Vaniman could not curb his wild desire to find out. He had +had plenty of experience in dodging into that van. He lifted the flap +and leaped in. There was black darkness in there. He put out his hand +cautiously. It touched a man. The move that the man made was a sort of +fruitless struggle, indicating that his limbs were secured in some +way. + +Vaniman, in that crisis in his affairs, was not affected by +squeamishness. He used his hands. He immediately discovered that the +man was tied up hand and foot with torn cloth, strips of sheets or +something of the kind. The man's only apparel was a nightshirt. Around +his neck, so Vaniman's touch told him, was a leather cord to which +keys were attached. Tasper Britt had told his cashier that he always +carried his keys to bed with him in that fashion, and he had advised +Vaniman to employ the same caution. + +This prisoner in the van was certainly the magnate of Egypt. Vaniman +found that a towel was bound tightly across the bearded mouth; the +young man even ran his hand over the bald pate, now divested of its +toupee. + +There was no gold in the van. Vaniman made sure of that after he had +satisfied himself as to the identity of Britt. + +While the young man was endeavoring to steady his whirling thoughts, +striving to plan some course of action by which he could turn the +situation to his personal benefit, his attention became taken up in +another quarter. Through the trap he heard the voice of the short man. +"Quick! Off the road. Nobody's in sight!" + +The van lurched and the front of it dipped with a violence that drove +Vaniman and Britt against the end. Up came the front and the rear +sagged. Then the van went bumping and swaying over uneven ground. The +claw-clash of the branches of trees against the sides informed Vaniman +that the men had driven into the woods. + +When the vehicle halted, the young man crawled forward and huddled +down into as compact a ball as he could make of himself. + +He heard the three men dismounting. "I'll tell the world that this is +a handy night for us, whatever it is that's going on in this burg!" It +was the voice of that ever-ready spokesman, the short man. "There +would have been a head at every window if we had been obliged to go +teaming around all by ourselves, in the night. But they wouldn't have +noticed a couple of giraffes and a hippopotamus in that procession." + +"I couldn't see that they even paid any attention to those women +squalling upstairs when we did the job," was the tall man's opinion. +"Handy night, say you? Why, that man we braced up to and asked where +was Britt's boarding house, he seemed to have so much of his own +business on his mind that he wasn't wondering a mite what our business +with Britt might be." + +"Get busy!" said the other convict. "That business is only just +beginning." + +There was a stir of feet. + +"Hold on!" It was the voice of Wagg, mumbling cautiously. "Tie your +handkerchiefs over your faces like I'm doing." + +"Right!" the short man agreed. "Always leave 'em guessing when you say +good-by!" + +A few moments later Wagg lifted the flap; Vaniman saw him outlined +against the fog. The convicts reached in and pulled Britt out, and the +flap was dropped. + +"Look out!" the short man warned. "Loosen that towel only a little and +hold your clutch on his gullet, bo! We're not any too far from that +road, and we'll understand the good news if he'll only whisper it." + +After a few moments he went on. "Man, we've got you--got you foul! You +know where that gold coin is. Shut up! No argument. You tell us where +it is. Then you won't get hurt. If you don't tell us, you /will/ get +hurt. Get busy with your mouth!" + +In spite of his abhorrence at this method of extorting the truth, +Vaniman was conscious of a feeling of comradeship with the three +rapscallions at that moment. They were merely seeking loot. He was +seeking the re-establishment of his honor and his love. He waited in +the tense silence, straining every nerve to hear. No sound came to +him. He wondered whether Britt, cowed, was whispering the information. + +"Get busy, I tell you!" + +Evidently the prisoner was obstinate. + +Minute after minute the short man labored with the captive, the snarl +in his insisting voice deepening into the diapason of malevolent +threat. + +But Britt said no word. + +Vaniman, feeling that all the prospects of his life were at stake, +decided to play a waiting game. In spite of their culpable motive, the +men outside were serving as his aides in the crucial moment. They were +demanding information which the usurer owed to the innocent. + +"Oh, very well," said the master of ceremonies. "We'll go on with the +rest of the program, then. One of you bring that side lamp and light +it. And help me get this towel tighter. He's going to try some +squalling." + +Vaniman saw the flare of the lamp past the edge of the flap. He set +his teeth and decided that he would not interfere. When he heard +sounds which, muffled in the towel, were like the whines and grunts of +a tortured animal, he stiffened his determination to await the issue. + +"Now loosen the gag and let him talk! I reckon he has found something +to say." + +Vaniman heard louder groans. But Britt gave out no information. + +"Back with the talk-tickler! Hold it closer! The same foot! We've got +a good start on that one." + +The man in the van felt his gorge rising, in spite of the fact that +the victim was a relentless persecutor of others. The stifled accents +of agony were dreadful. + +After a time the short man spoke. Into three words he put the venom of +a malice that would not be gainsaid. "Now, damn you!" His tone hinted +at no regret for what had gone on before; it suggested that there was +more to come; it was compelling demand that the captive should employ +the respite that was offered. + +Britt began to babble; there was a suggestion of partial mania in his +tones. Vaniman could not understand what he was saying, but the sharp +questions that were interjected by the manager of the affair--the +queries that gimleted for additional information--suggested the line +of confession that Britt was giving forth. + +"Yes--in the bank! Where in the bank? . . . I heard that, but where? +. . . In the basement, hey? Well, where in the basement? . . . +Concrete block hey? . . . Come across! . . . Along here with that +lamp, bo! . . . Exactly where is that block?" + +Through Vaniman there flooded something that was almost a delirium of +derring do. He did not know just what he would be able to perform--one +against three. He did not dare to wait for any farther developments in +the thing. He was possessed by the frantic fear that the knaves would +use their information and beat him to the treasure. That the money was +somewhere in the basement of Britt Block was enough for him at that +juncture. He decided that the time for stealth was past. He would +proclaim the news. He would tell his story. He would trust the case to +the fair judgment of men. + +He scrambled forward in the van and made a hasty survey of the +situation. Britt was stretched on the ground. The two convicts were +kneeling side by side, bending over their captive, and the short man +was still plying Britt with questions. Their backs were toward the man +in the van. Wagg was kneeling at Britt's feet, holding the carriage +lamp, shielding the flare with a curved palm. + +The posture of all three of them invited the attack that Vaniman +instantly decided on. He could not hope that he would be offered a +better opportunity. + +He flung aside the flap, he leaped from the opening. Spreading his +knees, he landed on the convicts, a knee on each back, and then he +brought his hands toward each other with all his strength, cuffing +their skulls together with a resounding crack. They fell across Britt. +Vaniman was on his feet while Wagg was rising; the guard's slow mind +was operating ineptly on his muscles. The young man felled Wagg with a +vicious blow under the ear. + +The convicts, knocked senseless, were on their faces, pinning Britt to +the ground. The butts of the bulldog revolvers in their hip pockets +were exposed. Vaniman snatched out the weapons. He aimed one of the +revolvers at Wagg, who had struggled to his knees. "Your knife! Throw +it to me! Quick!" + +Under the menace of the gun Wagg obeyed. + +The young man pocketed the guns for a moment. He rolled the reviving +convicts off Britt and slashed the prisoner's bonds and tore the towel +from his face. It was in his mind to force Britt to crawl into the +van. He was regarding Britt as his chief witness and principal exhibit +in the exposure he proposed to lay before the people of Egypt. In the +back of Vaniman's head there may have been some sort of consideration +for the man who had ruined him--scruples against leaving him with +those renegades who had tortured him. However, the young man was +conscious of the more compelling motive--to carry Britt along with +him, to force Britt, before the eyes of men, to uncover the hiding +place of the treasure. + +He trained his guns on the three men, backing away from them in order +to have them at a safe distance. Britt was on his knees. He was +staring at Vaniman with unblinking eyes in which unmistakable mania +was flaming. The attack on him in his bed that night, the blow that +had stunned him so that the assailants might tie him up, the ride in +the strange conveyance, the dreadful uncertainty of what it was all +about--these matters had wrought cruelly upon the victim's wits. The +torture by the flame had further unsettled his mind. And at that +moment, coming down from the heavens, so it seemed, a dead man had +appeared to him. + +Britt's recent experience had rendered him incapable of surveying the +thing from a normal viewpoint. He saw the man whom he had disgraced by +plot and perjury, the man who was buried under tons of rock, so the +state had officially reported, the man to whose return after seven +years of punishment Britt had been looking forward with dread. He had +slept more peacefully since that tragedy had been enacted at the +prison. Britt was not admitting that this was a human being in the +flesh. Already partially crazed by the manhandling from which he had +suffered, he peered at this apparition, a mystic figure in the aura of +the fog--the shade of Frank Vaniman, so his frantic belief insisted-- +and leaped up, screaming like a man who had gone stark, staring mad. + +Before Vaniman had time to issue a command Britt ran away along the +lane by which the van had entered the wood. He was an extraordinary +figure in flight. His night robe fluttered behind as he ran. For the +most part he hopped on one foot; he yelped with pain when he was +obliged to set the blistered foot on the ground in order to recover +his balance. + +Vaniman did not stay to threaten the three men. He had their weapons +and he did not fear them. + +He ran after Britt. + + + + CHAPTER XXIX + + THE FOX WHO WAS RUN TO EARTH + +Vaniman's first impulse was to overtake the fugitive. He wanted to +have Britt in his grip, holding to him, forcing him to confess and +restore. + +But when Britt reached the highway and started in the direction of the +village, saner second thought controlled the pursuer. Britt had become +a self-operating proposition; Vaniman felt that, although sudden +fright were spurring Britt, a fear more inherently characteristic was +pulling the usurer on his race to the village--he had betrayed the +hiding place of hard cash! He was rushing to protect it. By running to +the treasure Britt would be betraying something of more moment to +Vaniman than gold. The young man kept his distance, keeping the quarry +in sight, running a few feet behind Britt in the fog. + +In the mist the two were like the flitting figures of a fantasy. The +road was still well filled with wains and pedestrians, following after +those who had gone on ahead. The wains stopped; the pedestrians halted +and gaped and gasped. Women cried out shrilly. Vaniman and Britt +furnished an uncanny spectacle. The eyes which beheld them saw them +only for an instant; the fog's curtain allowed each observer scant +time to determine what these figures were. Britt, hairless, his face +sickly white, his night gear fluttering, was as starkly bodeful as if +he were newly risen from the grave, garbed in death's cerements. +Vaniman's presence on the scene added to the terrifying illusion +produced by Britt. + +This pursuer had been officially proclaimed dead. They who beheld +believed they saw a dead man. The face was smutched with blood. The +eyes were wide and were set straight ahead. Vaniman was taking no +chances on losing the man whom he was chasing. + +After the first thrill of horror, wild curiosity stung the men of +Egypt. They dropped the reins, those who were driving horses, and +joined those who had turned in their tracks and were following the +phantoms of the night. + +In this fashion, with the rout and rabble behind and Vaniman close on +his heels, Tasper Britt arrived at Britt Block--and even the statue in +its niche seemed to goggle with amazed stare. + +Britt did not stop to lift the loop of the leather thong over his +head; with a fierce tug he broke the cord. He unlocked the door and +rushed in. + +After Vaniman followed, the men outside hesitated only momentarily. +Their numbers gave them courage. They crowded into the corridor. Some +of them were carrying the lanterns which they had used to light the +way of the procession of carts. + +Britt did not enter his office; he ran the length of the corridor and +flung open the door which led to the basement. The pursuers kept on at +the heels of Vaniman. But they took the precaution to allow the men +with the lanterns to go ahead. + +Britt went frantically at his work, paying no attention to anybody. In +fact, he did not seem to realize that others were present. There was a +heap of furnace wood in one corner of the basement; he began to heave +that wood in all directions. One of the lanterns was smashed by a +billet. The men in the place were obliged to dodge the flying sticks. +Britt worked as if he were alone in the place. He talked to himself. +"Demons are after it. Demons and dead men! The demons sha'n't have it. +I told 'em where it was. But I'll take it away. The demons brought +hell fire to make me tell. They brought a dead man. But they sha'n't +have it." + +"He's gone raving crazy!" cried an onlooker in shrill tones. + +"Come on, men! Let's catch him and tie him up," suggested somebody +else. + +But they were prevented by fears which were made effective by +influences which did not seem to partake wholly of human qualities. + +In their concentrated interest in the active Britt they had been +disregarding Vaniman, who was restraining himself, standing outside +the radiance of the lanterns. + +The next instant he leaped into the sight of all of them. He stood +between them and Britt. He pulled his weapons. His blood-spotted face +seemed a vision of the unreal; but the guns were unmistakably the +agents which a human being would employ in an emergency. And there was +a businesslike click in his tone. "Stand back, the whole of you! This +is a show-down. Tasper Britt is confessing that he is a thief and a +liar. Use your eyes." + +They cowered back from the threat of the guns and did use their eyes. +They saw Britt uncover a section of the basement floor of concrete. +They saw him locate an iron ring that was cunningly concealed under a +little square of concrete which he pried up with his finger nails. He +tugged at the ring and lifted a slab. The men with the lanterns raised +them high. The light glinted on gold--gold coins in bulk, naked of +sacks. + +A man had come thrusting through the crowd in the basement, hurrying +in from the outside. It was Squire Amos Hexter. It was hard to +determine from his expression which spectacle he found the more +astounding--Frank Vaniman at bay, in the flesh, or the gold coins that +Tasper Britt was dipping with both hands, sluicing them upon the +concrete in jingling showers. + +Squire Hexter did find his voice. "Good God!" he shouted. + +"God is good!" said Vaniman. He threw the weapons into a far corner of +the basement. "Squire Hexter, take charge of this thing. Here are +plenty of witnesses." + +The Squire went forward slowly. His lips moved without the sound of +spoken word. He set the clutch of his hands on Vaniman's arms. He +stared long and earnestly into the young man's eyes. + +"I can't talk now," Vaniman quavered. + +And the Squire seemed to know, out of his sympathy with men, that +there was something for that case better than words. He put his arms +around Vaniman and kissed him. "Come along home with me to Xoa, +sonny." + +Britt struggled to his feet, and groaned when his weight came on the +tortured flesh. He looked about as if searching for something. "A +basket!" he muttered. "I must find a basket." + +He started forward and saw Vaniman in the hook of the Squire's arm. +Whether increase of his mania or some sort of remorse prompted his +utterance was not clear. "Take it back to Tophet with you! I didn't +mean to keep it. I didn't know how to give it back. I took it so that +they'd pen you up, out from under my feet. But even a thousand tons of +rock can't pen you. I'm done trying. If this is what you're chasing me +for, take it! Keep away from me." + +He went through the crowd, beating his way with his fists. + +"Shall we hold him, Squire?" called a man. + +"Let him alone for just now! He can't go far in that shape. We'll +attend to him after a little while." The Squire pulled himself +together with the air of one who saw that the situation needed a +commander. He singled responsible men from the crowd and ordered them +to take charge of the coin. + +"Come away with me," he urged Vaniman. "This is no place for our +talk." + +When they walked out of the building they saw no sign of Britt. "We'll +let him alone," insisted the Squire. "There'll be no use in asking him +questions till he's in his right mind. He'll probably get back his +wits when he gets back his clothes." + +"Squire Hexter, what's happening in this town to-night. What--" + +"All in good time, sonny! Let's get home where Xoa is." + +There were lights in the Squire's house. In spite of the fog, Vaniman +perceived that there was a gray hint of dawn in the heavens. More +acutely was he wondering what this universal vigil in Egypt signified. +But reaction had overtaken him. He was in the mood to accept commands +of any sort. He walked on in silence. + +"You must stay out here till I break the thing to Xoa!" + +The young man clung to the trellis of the porch for a few moments +until Xoa flung wide the door. Supported in her embrace, he staggered +into the sitting room. + +"Cry, sonny! Cry a little," the Squire adjured him. "Put your head on +Xoa's knee and have it out. It will tide you over till your own mother +can comfort you." + +But wild desire for knowledge burned the sudden tears out of Vaniman's +eyes. "Where is Vona? What is happening?" + +"We'll see to it mighty quick that Vona knows, sonny. The right word +must get to her in the right way. Mother will know how. Mother, you'd +better attend to it." + +She agreed with that suggestion, but first she brought a basin and +water and soft cloths and solicitously made more presentable the young +man's face. + +While she ministered to him he told them what had been happening in +his affairs. + +"You're alive. That's the main point. Now, Xoa," urged the Squire, "go +to Vona before some lunatic tells her something to scare her to +death!" + +The good woman hastened away, her smile reassuring the lover. + +For some time the Squire regarded Vaniman with an expression into +which some of the old notary's whimsical humor began to creep. "So it +struck you, did it, that you had dropped back into town on a lively +night? I was expecting quite a general stir, myself. But I'll confess +that the thing hit me as livelier than what I had looked for when I +was sitting here and heard a man holler outside that your ghost had +chased Tasper Britt into his office. You see, the plan was not to have +Tasper disturbed by any human beings this night. We all hoped he would +sleep sound. Everybody proposed to tiptoe when passing in the +neighborhood of the Harnden house. But to have a ghost come and chase +Tasper around town was wholly outside the calculations of the human +beings in Egypt this night." + +"I'm afraid I don't see any joke hidden in this proposition, Squire," +the young man complained. + +"Son, it's a joke, but it's so big and ironic that only one of those +gods on high Olympus is big enough and broad-minded enough to be able +to laugh at it. Some day the folks of this town will be able to look +back on this night and laugh, I do hope. But not now. They're too much +wrought up. They're too busy. Hold on! I'm going to let another man +explain the thing. He's in a position to pass out information more to +the point than anything I can hand you. I'll simply say this. When you +saw what you beheld in the fog this night, you were seeing a revised +version of the Book of Exodus acted out in real life. The Children of +Israel, of this day and date, are departing from the land of Pharaoh, +current edition. With their flocks and their possessions, their wives +and their children, they are on their way to The Promised Land. And +now, if you'll step into the parlor with me I'll introduce you to the +promiser." + +Vaniman followed + + + + CHAPTER XXX + + THE PROMISED LAND + +There was a big man in the parlor, a hearty-looking man, manifestly of +the metropolis, patently of the "good sport" type. He was walking up +and down. With his tweed knickerbockers, his belted jacket, his +diamonds in his scarf and on his fingers, he was such an odd figure in +the homely surroundings that he produced on Vaniman a surprise effect. +The young man surveyed the stranger with the interest one might take +in a queer animal in a circus van; the big man's restless pacing +suggested a caged creature. But he took not the least interest in +Vaniman, an unkempt individual without a coat. + +"Hexter, what did happen, anyway? I thought you were never coming +back. I had a good mind to chase you up, though it would be poor +judgment for me to show myself to-night." + +"This has happened!" The Squire pointed to Vaniman. The big man cocked +an inquiring eyebrow, looking at the Squire's exhibit with +indifference. "Colonel, this is Frank Vaniman. You know all about the +case!" + +The stranger stepped back so hastily that he knocked over a chair. + +"Know about the case!" he bawled. "No, I don't know about it, either, +if this is the man the mountain fell on--or whatever it was that +happened. What kind of con is this you're giving me, Hexter?" + +"This is the man, sir. What I mean by saying you know about the case +is that you have agreed with me that an innocent man was railroaded +into prison, after I gave you the facts. He is out through a trick +worked by a prison guard. He'll give us the details later. Just now +it's more important for you to be told that Tasper Britt, by his own +acts, has confessed that he robbed the Egypt Trust Company." + +"Well, I'll be damnationed!" blurted the big man, with such whole- +souled astonishment that the mode of expression was pardonable. "And I +thought that plenty and enough was happening in this town for one +night!" + +"Frank, this is Colonel Norman Wincott. He has well understood your +case from what I have told him. Now he will understand better. +Colonel, won't you allow Frank's story to wait? He is in a dreadfully +nervous state, poor chap. And I'm afraid he'll go crazy on our hands +if he isn't enlightened right away about what is going on here +to-night." + +Colonel Wincott strode across the room and slapped Vaniman cordially +on the shoulder with one hand and pumphandled with the other. "Plenty +of men have escaped from state prison. There's a special novelty about +a story of that sort. But let me tell you that I'm the only man in the +world who has ever put over a proposition such as this one that is on +the docket right here and now. I don't blame you for being +interested." It was plain that the colonel entertained no mean opinion +of himself and his projects. "All is, Vaniman, I hope your making a +two-ring affair of it hasn't taken the attention of the folks off the +main show." + +"It has only added to the general effect," affirmed the Squire. "It's +a clincher. Folks don't care now because Tasper Britt is awake. He has +got plenty of business of his own to attend to without calling in +sheriffs to slap on attachments." + +"Very good! The easier the better," returned Colonel Wincott. "But +when I hired you to look after the law part, Hexter, I reckoned you +could counter every crack he made. Sit down, Vaniman!" He picked up +the chair he had overturned and took it for himself. "You have seen +the parade, some of it?" + +"I saw a great deal of it, sir." + +"And you don't know where it's headed for?" + +"No." + +The colonel leaned back and regarded the Squire with the satisfied +contentment of a cat who had tucked away the last morsel of the +canary. Then he winked at Vaniman. "Young man, did you ever hear of +Wincott's Pure Rye?" + +"No, sir." + +"Glad of it! Hope you never were familiar with any other brands. +However, enough men did know about it in those dear, damp days beyond +recall to make me independent of the pawnshop, to say the least. And, +having cleaned up a good pot with whisky running down men's gullets, I +reckoned I'd see what I could do with water running downhill. Do you +get me at all so far?" + +"No, sir." + +"Didn't suppose you would. I'm only shuffling the deck. Now for the +deal! Awhile ago I came up into this state from the South and I bought +the unorganized township that bounds this town on the north. It had +gone begging for a buyer because it's mostly pond and water power. But +it's what I wanted. And, having bought it, I used my check book and +got some good lobbyists on the job and I got a conditional charter +from the legislature. That is to say, it becomes a town charter +automatically the moment I can report a certain number of inhabitants +--not mere men, but families, regularly settled. Do you see?" + +"I surely do begin to see, Colonel Wincott." + +"Vaniman, if I had gone to the cities and advertised for settlers, +what kind would I have got? Probably only a bunch of aliens +dissatisfied already; if they weren't sore on general conditions I +couldn't coax 'em to move. And aliens are always moving. I wanted some +of the old breed of Yankee pioneers. That's what my folks were, 'way +back. I took a sly peek into the town of Egypt. Good folks, but no +opportunities here. Everything gone to seed. Up in my township a new +deal with a fresh deck! Plenty of timber, plenty of rich land--and +mills going up. Confound it! I propose to be boss of a real town--not +a wild land plantation!" + +He suddenly shifted his posture. He came forward in his chair and set +his elbows on his knees. "Say, Vaniman, I got Hexter's opinion a few +days ago when I opened up to him and hired him to attend to the law. +But I want to ask you now what you think of my real-estate agent?" + +The young man shifted his bewildered gaze from the colonel's jovial +and inquiring visage to the Squire's equally cheerful countenance. + +"Known to Pharaoh and the modern Children of Israel as the Prophet +Elias, Frank," explained the notary. "I have heartily indorsed his +good work. Furthermore, he knows well how to keep a secret and how to +train others to keep one. Tasper Britt went to bed this night without +one inkling of what was about to happen. He did not know that he was +to be left here without men to toil and pay him his twelve per cent. +He has town debts. He has the bare acres he has foreclosed on--he has +the tumble-down houses. He has the paupers on the poor farm. He--" + +"Hold on, Squire! I forgot about those paupers," broke in the colonel. +"I want a town that's fully rounded out. A few paupers belong in a +town so that they may serve to remind others folks that they must keep +busy and avoid the poor farm. And even the paupers will wake up and go +to work in my town! Work will be in the air. I'm going to send a wagon +after those paupers. Britt is no sort of a man to be allowed pets; +he'll let 'em starve." + +"Undoubtedly," agreed the Squire. "I'll say, further, Frank, that when +the Prophet started off last evening, blowing his trump to sound the +signal for the migration, Britt stood and saw him go--and never +guessed what it meant." + +"I heard that horn--I wondered." + +"He's a good blower," stated Colonel Wincott. "He blew all the props +out from under the man Britt. Solidly grounded on texts, Elias is! +Vaniman, a brand-new scheme needs a resourceful operator." He patted +the top of his head. "Pardon me for flattering myself. I invented the +system and the Prophet played it." + +Then Colonel Wincott leaned back, stuck his thumbs into the armholes +of his vest, and rocked on the hind legs of the chair. "I played a +hunch," he went on. "I was going through Scollay Square in Boston one +evening and I heard a street evangelist holding forth. He was +preaching on the subject, 'Bondage.' Sin he called Pharaoh. And he was +hammering the hearers with texts from Exodus. The idea hit me. I hung +up beside the curb till he was through preaching, then I invited him +to take a ride with me in my car. And a wise old bird I found him to +be! No hypocrite! Doing his best to help his fellow-men, but always +hep! Never out of a city till I pulled him up here. Likes the country +now. Going to be the regular preacher in my new town. No more robe- +and-umbrella business, of course. That was my idea. I'm inclined to be +a little circusy in my notions. He stood for it. The scheme helped him +to put over what he couldn't have got away with by ordinary means." + +Vaniman remembered those flashes of worldly wisdom in the Prophet, and +was enlightened. His countenance revealed his thoughts. + +"Had you guessing?" demanded the colonel. "Nothing like starting folks +to guessing. Keeps up the interest. One by one Elias snipped the cords +that bound the folks to the soil of this place. Did a fine job. +They're going to thrive after they are transplanted. Even Squire +Hexter is going to bring up the rear guard, after he has finished here +with the loose ends of the law needed in the case." + +"It's to be a clean sweep, Frank," the Squire affirmed. "Even Usial +and his press; the new town will be in his legislative class." Then he +looked long at Colonel Wincott, who was rocking on the legs of his +chair. + +"I know mighty well what you want to say to me, Squire Hexter," stated +the object of the regard. "You don't need to say a word, though. I'll +do the saying. Vaniman, you have had a raw deal. But you'll soon be +through the woods. I'm going to have a bank in my new town. You're +going to be the boss of it." + +"Just a moment before you say anything, Frank," expostulated the +Squire when Vaniman, choking with doubts and gratitude both, attempted +to speak. "I propose to start at once for the shire town. I'll begin +with the county attorney. I'll have your name cleared inside of +twenty-four hours." + +"And don't bother with any Dobbins for that job," declared the +colonel. "Use my car. My chauffeur is hiding it in the bush a little +ways from here. And now, Vaniman, give me all your attention," he went +on, with the pride of a successful performer. "I'll tell you what's +going to happen over across the line in my town. It's going to +interest you. You have been a man of affairs and you can grasp what +I'm saying." + +But Vaniman did not seem to be grasping even that introduction of the +subject. He had heard hurrying footsteps outside the house. + +"You'll never listen to anything that will stir your blood like what +I'm going to tell you of my plans for the future," insisted the +colonel. + +But a tremulous voice called: "Frank! Frank!" + +Vaniman leaped from his chair and turned his back on the man who +proposed to stir the blood of the listener. + +Squire Hexter hurried to Colonel Wincott and whispered information +which caused the master of The Promised Land to elevate his eyebrows +understandingly. + +"Great Caesar! Why, sure!" he blurted, and popped up out of his chair. + +Following the Squire, he tiptoed to the door and stood on one side +when the notary opened and peeped out. + +"Vona!" called the Squire, gently. "The boy is in here. Come!" + +She ran past them into the room. + +Colonel Wincott ducked out and the Squire followed and closed the +door. He closed it slowly, softly, reverently, and then turned a +smiling face of compassionate understanding toward Xoa and the +colonel. + + + + CHAPTER XXXI + + THROUGH THE GATES OF THE DAWN INTO "LIBERTY" + +There was a hush in the Squire's house. The three who were in the +sitting room discussed affairs, subduing their tones almost to +whispers. + +When somebody tramped on to the porch and pounded on the door, the +interruption was startling. + +The Squire went and opened the door and disclosed Deputy-Warden Bangs +of the state prison. But when Bangs made a step forward the notary +bulked himself in the doorway with all the dignity his modest size +would permit. + +"I'm led to believe that you have in this house an escaped convict, +name of Vaniman," declared the officer. + +"Don't your prison records show that the convict named Vaniman is +officially dead, sir?" + +"I'll admit that; but if what I have heard since I was routed out of +my bed is so, those records will have to be revised." + +"I have no control over your records," returned the Squire, grimly. + +Mr. Bangs made another step forward. + +"But I have full control over my own house, sir. You cannot come in." + +"Do you stand in the way of a deputy warden of the state prison?" + +"I certainly do until he presents himself in my door with a proper +search warrant, instead of coming here on the strength of mere +hearsay." + +"I tried to get a warrant," the officer confessed. "But I can't locate +the trial justice." + +"I hear that he is moving," was the Squire's dry retort. + +"You seem to be the only one in the place who isn't moving," said +Bangs, craning his neck to peer past the keeper of the door. + +"Oh, I'm simply delaying my departure a few days in order to close up +some matters of business." + +"Let me tell you that if you're concealing a convict in this house +you'll have more business than what you plan on. I'm up here--" + +"As you have reported to me and all others, you're up here to find two +escaped prisoners, sir. Very well! They are not in my house. But I +have heard from them. They were seen a very short time ago in the +stretch of woods near here known as Baniman's Bower. If you hurry you +may catch them." + +Bangs displayed prompt interest. He showed more when the Squire added: +"They may be already captured. I learned, also, that a man who has +been a prison guard was in the same locality. You officials seem to be +very vigilant!" + +Mr. Bangs choked back some sort of a threatened explosion. He stood +there, shifting from foot to foot. Then he blurted: "Say, you seem to +be the most level-headed man in this town. I'll go chase those +convicts if your tip is a straight one. But tell me! Am I having the +nightmare, or are all these things really happening around here?" + +However, Squire Hexter did not try to comfort the perturbed Mr. Bangs +just then. The notary stepped out on the porch, closing his door +behind him. He stared into the graying murk of the night and the fog. +That fog was showing a light which was not that of the dawn. It was a +spreading, baleful, reddening glare, and after a few moments it +covered all the sky. + +Then men began to shout. There was an especial uproar from one +quarter. The Squire knew that in the direction of the hullabaloos were +located the camps in which were lodged the imported workmen who had +wrought into solid structure the plans of the mansion that Britt had +held in pictured form before the eyes of Egypt. + +The feet of running men pounded along the highway. Somebody cried, in +clarion tones, "It's Tasp Britt's new house!" + +The Squire ran into the road, and Bangs followed. + +The notary hailed a little group of men who came rushing from the +direction of the main part of the village. "Why aren't you bringing +the tub? Fetch Hecla! Quick, men!" + +"She's gone!" panted one of the group. + +"Gone?" + +"There wasn't any wagon left behind, Squire, and they had to haul that +gold. They hove it into Hecly's water tank and formed a guard, and +she's been a whole half hour gone!" + +At that juncture a man came running to them from the direction of the +fire. The Squire recognized him as the boss of the carpenters. "Mr. +Britt is in that house. I saw him through a window. But it's a furnace +from top to bottom." + +The Squire opened his mouth as if query, urgently demanding utterance, +had pried apart his jaws. "How do you think the fire--" But he +promptly closed his mouth and set his lips tightly. He shook his head +with the manner of one who did not require information. Then he turned +and hurried to his house. + +Colonel Wincott and Xoa were on the porch, lighted by the great, red +torch whose radiance was flung afar by the reflector aid of the fog. + +"It's Britt's house--and Britt is in it," he told them. "Colonel, your +man Friday had over many times one text that fits this thing. 'Can a +man take fire into his bosom, and his clothing not be burned?'" + +He went to Xoa and patted her arm. "Better go inside, mother. It isn't +a good thing to be looking at. Where are the children?" + +Frank and Vona answered that question by appearing in the door. They +were honestly affected by the news the Squire gave them. Vona hid her +face against the young man's breast. + +"It seems to be a self-operating proposition," stated Colonel Wincott. +"And about all anybody can do is to let it flicker!" + +Vaniman was clearly not the captain of his soul in those distressing +circumstances. He was displaying symptoms of collapse. Squire Hexter +noted and acted. + +"Wincott, this boy must not stay here in this town any longer. If that +prison guard runs afoul of him before I get matters under way at the +shire, Frank will be galloped back to his cell in order to make a +grandstand play. I've got to be going. Take Frank under your wing. Get +him over the border." + +"Surest thing in the world!" declared the hearty colonel. "Got a +hitch?" + +"My horse and double-seater. Come along to the stable--you, too, +Frank. Xoa, bring him one of my coats and a hat!" + +Vona leaped away from her lover and faced the Squire. "I shall go with +him, wherever he may go!" she said, with the fire of one who expected +to meet opposition. + +But the Squire grinned. "Why, girl, of course you'll go! I wouldn't +grab life-saving medicine away from a sick man. Take your mother +along, and God bless the whole of you on the way." + +That way was toward the north, on the heels of the wains and the +flocks and the herds and the men and women and children of the +migrating population of Egypt. + +Colonel Wincott occupied the front seat with Mrs. Harnden. By the time +he had teamed the Squire's fat little nag along for a mile he had +succeeded in calming Mrs. Harnden's hysterical spirits. He induced her +to quit looking over her shoulder at the great torch that lighted +luridly the heavens above the deserted town. "It's a pillar of fire by +night, madam, as you say! But that's as far as it fits in with the +Exodus sentiment. It's behind us--and behind us let it stay." + +At the end of another mile Mrs. Harnden was extolling the capability +of her husband. + +"I've heard about him," said the colonel. "Optimist? So am I. Get in +touch with him and tell him to come to my new town. He'll have +something that he can really optimize over." + +Colonel Wincott sedulously kept his attention off the two who rode on +the back seat; he obliged Mrs. Harnden to do the same. + +After a time the trotting nag overtook the trailers of the procession. +The colonel hailed and passed one wain after another, steadily +calling, "Gangway!" They recognized his authority; they obeyed; they +gave him half the road. + +He had an especially hearty greeting for the hand tub, Hecla, +trundling on its little wheels, men guarding its flanks, men pulling +on the rope by which it was propelled. Ike Jones was one of the +guards. He gave the colonel's party a return greeting by a flourish on +the "tramboon." + +"The stage starts from your town this morning, Colonel! Runs express +through Egypt." + +"Good idea! Nothing but scenery left there," agreed the colonel. "Take +good care of that gold, boys! The receiver of the Egypt Trust Company +will be able to cut /some/ melon!" + +But Prof. Almon Waite, toddling behind the treasure, had a metaphor of +his own. "This gold will gloriously pave the streets of the New +Jerusalem, sir!" + +They went on in the growing dawn, threading their way among the +vehicles and the folks on foot. + +In all their progress they met only one party headed in the opposite +direction, coming back toward the town that had been deserted. Vaniman +beheld Bartley Wagg teaming along the two convicts. They were tied +together and he was threatening them with a club. They merely flashed +on the screen of the mist and were out of sight. It was evident that +Mr. Wagg had determined to grab a couple of straws, at any rate, in a +desperate attempt to buoy himself officially in the flood of his +misfortunes. + +The sun was burning away the mists when Colonel Wincott's turnout +topped a hill; he waved his whip to invite the attention of his +passengers. "There she lies, folks! I've been calling it my town. From +now on it's our town. Some daisy on the breast of nature, eh?" + +There was a lake on the facets of whose ripples the sunlight danced. +White water tumbled down cascades. Beside the lake there was a nest of +portable houses. "Homes till we build bigger ones," explained the +master of The Promised Land. "I'm giving building lots free. The class +of settlers warrants it!" + +Then Colonel Wincott called their attention to something else-- +something that was not visible. He wrinkled his nose, but his sniff +indicated gusto. "Smell it? It's food for the Children of Israel. Not +manna. But it will fit the occasion, I hope. It's a barbecue. A whole +ox and all the fixings." + +Then they came to a high arch, fashioned from boughs of fir and spruce +trees. The wains were rolling under it. + +Frank and Vona lifted up their eyes. At the top of the arch, in great +letters that were formed of pine tassels fastened to a stretch of +canvas, was the word, "LIBERTY." + +"The name of our new town," said the colonel. + +But for the two on the rear seat it was more than the name of a town. +Vaniman pressed the girl's trembling hand between his palms. They +looked at each other through the lenses of grateful tears. + +Just inside the arch stood Prophet Elias, welcoming all comers. He had +put off his robe and had laid aside his fantastic umbrella. He wore +the sober garb of a dominic, and his face, above his tie of white +lawn, displayed shrewd and complete appreciation of the occasion. + +He took off his hat and bowed low when Colonel Wincott's party passed +under the arch. And this sonorous proclamation followed Frank and +Vona: + +"'And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead +them in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light +before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto +them, and not forsake them.'" + +"Amen!" responded Colonel Wincott, fervently. + +The two persons on the rear seat did not speak. In silence they had +reverently prostrated themselves at a shrine of thanksgiving in their +souls. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of When Egypt Went Broke, by Holman Day + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT WHEN EGYPT WENT BROKE *** + +*******This file should be named wngpt10.txt or wngpt10.zip******* + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, wngpt11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, wngpt10a.txt + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnypg@yahoo.com + and John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz + + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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