Читать книгу The Victors; a romance of yesterday morning & this afternoon - Robert Barr - Страница 8

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For the next few days Maguire was the busiest man in the state of Michigan. He went about his work with great cheerfulness, hail-fellow-well-met with everyone, a good story to tell where a story was appreciated, as was the case nearly everywhere, yet equally ready to talk serious politics with those of an argumentative turn of mind. If ridiculed, as he often was for working in a contest that did not concern him, he took everything said with the utmost equanimity, often returning as good as he received in the way of banter, but always with a spice of kindliness that left no sting in a hard-hitting retort. Yet no matter how distant a part of the district he was canvassing he managed to return every afternoon to the farm parlour, “trying to wear down the feeling of being a stranger entirely,” as he said.

When a week had passed he announced to farmer Byfield that they must call a meeting of the anti-ditchers at the schoolhouse. “I know everybody in the district and want to be sure, if possible, that we get none of the opposition there. The other side is working hard, but they’re working quietly. We must get up a fund, or we’re a beaten crowd. I’ll give the word round, and invite only the right people who are in earnest against the ditch.”

On the night of the meeting the audience gathered slowly and casually, as if they did not expect it would do any particular good or harm, but that anyhow they might as well be there to see what was going to happen. When at length the schoolroom was nearly filled and Maguire with energetic effort had persuaded those who were lingering round the gate and gossiping to come inside, pushing down those contentedly sitting on the fence, Byfield was unanimously voted into the chair, and the meeting was called to order.

“I don’t know just exactly what we’re here for,” said the chairman in non-committal fashion; “but I guess it’s to hear what the canvasser’s got to say, and if he’s got anything to say now’s his chance.”

This could scarcely be called an enthusiastic introduction, but Maguire stepped forward as briskly as if it had been a most flattering eulogy of his oratorical powers.

“Gentlemen,” began the speaker, “I’ve been riding and tramping round this neighbourhood for over a week and have had a good time and have met a lot of nice people that I didn’t know before, and they’ve met me, so we’re even on that score. I’ve had a meal at most of your houses, and never had so much that was good to eat before, so that’s where I’m ahead. Now, I’ve called this meeting to let you know just how the case stands. Boys, we’re licked!”

“That’s encouraging.” “You didn’t need to call a meeting to tell us that. We’d a found it out soon enough,” came cries from different parts of the room, amid general laughter.

“Yes, you’d have found it out the day after the voting, but I thought it was a pity to keep you waiting that long. People these days like to get news as soon as they can. I’ve got this thing down fine, and if the polling was to take place to-morrow we’d be snowed under by six votes.”

“Not much of a snow-under,” was someone’s comment.

“No, but a majority of one against you is as good as a northern Michigan blizzard. The taxes will be just as heavy for the next ten years as if the majority was a thousand. But there isn’t any need to let it go at this. A contest’s never won or lost till the last vote’s counted.”

“Yes, it is. It’s lost or won when the last vote’s dropped in the ballot box, some little time before the counting ends.”

The self-evident truth of this interruption brought forth cheers.

“You’ve got me there,” admitted Maguire good-naturedly, “and perhaps the case is really decided some little time before even the last man puts in his paper. But what I wanted to say was that while there’s life there’s hope, or to put it to suit the times, while there’s cash there’s hope. Now there’s between twelve and fifteen votes in this district that’s against us to-night, but not very strongly against us. I have reason to know that the other side is putting up a little of the spondulix, wherever it’s coming from. That’s the reason there’s six votes against us. They’re doing it on the cheap and on a very narrow margin, but they think it’s enough, and so it is, unless we go them a little better, but now if we put up a little pile and keep quiet about it till polling day comes, they won’t get suspicious until it’s too late to do anything. They don’t think I’m working this racket, and even if they did I don’t suppose they’d be afraid of anything I could do. I tell ’em I’m a pedlar, and that’s the truth. They ask me what interest I have in this thing, and I tell ’em that I like to see a fight, on general principles.”

“We could tell ’em bettern that,” cried a farmer in the audience. “You’re interested in getting up an election stake purse. That’s what you’re interested in. I saw it coming this while back and suspicioned what this meeting was called for, but you don’t get a cent out of me, ditch or no ditch.”

There was a murmur of approval which welcomed the sentiments of this outspoken man, and the tide seemed setting in against the industrious Maguire. A subscription is never popular, and these rural residents had a keen scent for a beggar.

“You said last meeting,” continued the objector, “that organisation would be enough, and said you didn’t want no cash. I’ll leave it to the chairman if you didn’t, for he asked you.”

The chairman made no response, but sat there glum and uncomfortable, thinking he was going to lose the week’s boarding money, as, indeed, he had long since suspected would be the case. Maguire put on a look of injured innocence that was seraphic to behold.

“There was a man in New York that made a bet he would go to one of the country fairs that fall and peddle genuine ten-dollar bills for ten cents each, and the bet was that he would get no takers among the farmers, although the three-card-monte sharp would be driving a roaring business. Well, he got a lot of brand new crisp suspicious looking bills outen the bank, each one as good as the United States that backed them, and sure enough he never got an offer, till a policeman came and ran him in on charge of trying to pass counterfeit money. Next day when the farmers found out that the money was genuine, they was all a-kicking themselves, but then it was too late. Now I’m peddling ten-dollar bills to-night and offering ’em at ten cents and this man in the corner says, ‘You don’t get a cent out er me.’ P’raps I don’t, but neither did the other fellow that was peddling the real bills. Now the ten-dollar bills I’m offering you to-night are not in my pockets, but in yours. They’re the bills that will come out year after year, as you’re paying taxes on this ditch. And then there’s another thing that I want you to pay attention to. This here business—”

“Just wait a minute, Mr. Maguire, and let me speak. We all admit that we don’t want to pay taxes on this ditch. There’s no use wasting talk on that subject, but I take it that what my friend in the corner means, and what we all mean, is that we’re not such jays as to get up a fund for some stranger to spend as he likes and give us whatever account he pleases of the blowing in of the money. I’m not saying that the money wouldn’t be properly spent, but some might think there was a leak, and I don’t see how we could prove there wasn’t.”

“Now that’s the way I like to hear a man talk,” cried Maguire, enthusiasm and admiration for free speech beaming from his countenance. “You see, some of you folks are going off at half-cock. You’re shooting off your mouths before giving me a chance to tell you what I’m at. There’s a right and a wrong way of doing everything and I’m going to show you the right way of going about this affair, and so far as wanting any money you subscribe to leak into my pocket, what little money I’ve got is going to leak the other way.” The speaker pulled from his purse a dollar bill, and waving it in the air slapped it down on the teacher’s desk with a resounding crack of his knuckles on the board, in front of the chairman. “Money talks, as the old woman said when she kept tavern,” he continued in a loud voice, “and nowhere does it talk more to the point than at an election. There’s my dollar, and it’s just as good a dollar as any man’s dollar in this crowd. I head the subscription list: ‘Patrick Maguire, Es-quire, one dollar!’ Now, how am I going to prevent this dollar that I have earned going into some pocket where it doesn’t belong? How am I going to be sure that this here bill goes to keep down taxation in this district? I’ll tell you how, and it’s as easy as rolling off a log. You appoint right here and now a finance committee of three members or more or less, and see that you put in men you can trust; men that can’t be fooled by me or any other man. Can such men be found in this meeting? Well, I should smile! It would be an insult to the honesty and intelligence of the community if any one here said they couldn’t. Now the subscriptions will be paid in to this committee and paid out by this committee. They’ll look over every item before it is paid and see that it is right before they settle it. If any man can get money that doesn’t belong to him from three hard-headed, common-sense farmers, why, hang it, he has a right to it, that’s all I’ve got to say. I know I haven’t brains enough to try it on. And now while I’m on my legs, anyhow, here’s a funny thing I’d like to call your attention to. You seem to have got it in your heads that a man can’t have an interest in a contest unless there’s boodle in it for him. I’ve been asked a hundred times if I’ve been asked once, ‘Whatter you going to make out of this thing?’ Can’t a man have an interest in a horse-race without having a bet on? Can’t a man have an interest in a presidential election without expecting to be made secretary of the treasury? Why, there’s not a man in this room but has spent time and shouted himself hoarse and helped put up a liberty pole and tore around promiscus when he wasn’t making a cent or standing in to get the office of pound-master, just because he had an interest in the way things were running, and knew durned well he wasn’t going to make a cent by it. Well, that’s the way with me about this here ditch. It doesn’t matter a red cent to me which way the thing goes, but I tell you, gentlemen, I don’t like to get licked, even if it was only my pup in a dog fight, and that’s what’s the matter with me. Now, gentlemen, appoint your finance committee.”

The eloquent Maguire, with a wave of his hand that seemed to shift all responsibility from his shoulders to the shoulders of the meeting, took his seat, and for a few moments there was silence; then a buzz of whispers; finally the previous objector arose and said:

“I think the last speaker has talked like a man, and has spoken straight from the shoulder, as one might say, and I agree with him that if he can get the money from the committee’s pocket into his own he deserves it, and we deserve to lose it. I move that Mr. Byfield, our present chairman, be appointed chairman of the finance committee, and that he nominate two others to assist him.”

“I second the motion.” “Seconded, seconded,” came from all parts of the hall.

“Gentlemen, I’d ruther have nothing to do with it,” protested Byfield, half rising. “Mr. Maguire is staying at my place, and so I think it would be better all round to have some outsider. I don’t want the job.” There were cries of “Go it, Byfield.” “Don’t back out.” “Put the motion.” “Moved and seconded.” But Byfield sat there shaking his head, until the man who made the motion got on his feet again.

“There’s something in what Mr. Byfield says. I’d forgotten that Mr. Maguire was staying at his house, and of course it wouldn’t be pleasant to have to keep watch on a guest, for when all’s said and done, that’s what our action amounts to. For my part I would be perfectly willing to trust Mr. Maguire, for he talks the way I like to hear a man talk, but we want to satisfy everybody, and simply because I believe in him I want to see the game carried on according to his own proposal, which strikes me as perfectly fair to himself and everybody else and leaves no chance for saying ‘I told you so’ after the thing’s over. Now, who was it made the first objection? I think it was you, Mr. Slade, over in the corner. All right; Mr. Slade nods his head. Very well, I move that Mr. Jonas Slade be finance committee all by himself, or call him secretary and treasurer if you like. I’ve just been thinking that committees are rather cumbersome affairs, and it will be difficult in these busy times to get three men together very often, while if Mr. Maguire has to visit them separately that will take a lot of time and also no decisions will be arrived at, for one man will say he’s willing to do what the other two agree to, and so we won’t have any end to the running back and forward, and we will have divided responsibility, if there is a dispute later about the disposal of the cash. A will say he never agreed to this or that, and B will say he thought that was what A and C wanted, and so there we will be in the dangdest muddle, everybody blaming someone else. I know how it is, because I’ve served on committees myself and mighty thankless work it is. Now we all know Mr. Slade, and we know that if any man wants a dollar outen him he didn’t earn he has to get up pretty early in the morning.”

There was laughter at this, in which Slade himself joined. He was evidently proud of his reputation, and his character appeared to be well understood by his neighbours.

“Therefore I move that Mr. Slade be appointed to take charge of whatever money is collected and see that it is properly disbursed.”

The motion being as vociferously seconded as the other the chairman put it, and it was carried unanimously.

“Now, gentlemen,” said Maguire, stepping forward to the desk as cheerfully and briskly as if everything was going his way, “you’ve done exactly the right thing, and after hearing the reasons for one man rather than three or five I have to admit that the mover’s plan is better than mine. I’ve put my own name at the head of this list because I subscribed a dollar, but I’m quite ready to put it below any name that has bigger figures opposite it. I think I see five dollars in Mr. Slade’s eye because of the handsome unanimous vote he got. Come up to the captain’s office and settle, Mr. Slade.”

But the cautious Slade contented himself with putting down another dollar, being ashamed to make it less, although he cursed the generous stranger in his heart and wished someone had started the list with twenty-five cents. Others objected that they had no money with them; but Maguire said all they had to do was to put down the sum they wished to subscribe, and he would be only too pleased to call round for the money and pay it in to the treasurer. So, once the ball started to roll, none escaped, although few put down a larger amount than Maguire. All in all, there was given and promised the sum of fifty-seven dollars before the meeting broke up and its members went home.

During the next few days Maguire saw much of Slade, for he industriously collected all the outstanding money and brought it to the treasurer bit by bit until the full amount was coralled in the latter’s safe-keeping. The farmer always greeted the energetic young man with a cunning, knowing leer, as much as to say: “You haven’t got any of this cash yet.” But Maguire displayed no anxiety about the money, never mentioned it, in fact, except to say once or twice that he did not think it would be enough, and that if he found it failed to bridge the chasm he proposed to return it to the subscribers, as Slade had the list, for there was no use in throwing good money away uselessly, a sentiment with which Mr. Slade cordially agreed. Slade experienced some difficulty in understanding this frank open-hearted young man who worked without ceasing in what he was beginning to regard as a lost cause, and who never even hinted that he would like something on account.

Early on the morning before polling day Maguire arrived at the Slade homestead just as the farmer was about to set out for the fields with his men. He did not seem too well pleased at the incursion of a visitor at such an important moment.

“I’ve got this thing coppered at last, Mr. Slade!” cried the young man, in high feather. “I’ve got it all down fine, but I tell you it has cost a lot of work, although now we are sure to win.”

“Yes? Well, that’s all right,” said the farmer, without enthusiasm.

“Now, I’ve got to have a talk with you right away,” persisted Maguire.

“Couldn’t you come back in the evening? I’m busy now.”

“I know it; but I’ve got to have you in the evening, too, and I called round so that there would be no hitch about that. It’s important. You’d better tell your hired men what to do, if they don’t know already, and come into the house with me for ten minutes.”

“Can’t you walk out to the fields with me, and talk as we go along?”

“Well, now, Mr. Slade, I’ve tried to save you all the bother I could about this whole affair; but to-morrow the polling takes place, and I’ve got to have a talk with you right now.”

“If you want any money, I give you fair warning that I won’t part with a cent except for accounts shown and receipts taken. And if you want to see me for anything else, you can talk to me as well going to the fields as in the house.”

“Why, of course; that’s the arrangement and that’s right. I can’t be hired to touch a dollar of the money, and you can bet your boots on that. You were nominated and elected unanimously to handle this cash, and, what’s more, you accepted. It was because I didn’t intend to have anything to do with the fund that I proposed a committee, for you mustn’t forget that the reason you were appointed was because I proposed it. You have had a wrong idea about what I wanted done all along. I saw that, but it didn’t matter to me, and I said nothing. You couldn’t hire me to handle the money.”

“Oh, of course not,” sneered the farmer.

“I’d do anything to oblige a friend, Mr. Slade, or almost anything, and you know it, for I’ve taken the whole burden of this thing so that you wouldn’t have any trouble, but now it’s come to the point where you must act; you must do what you were ’lected to do.”

“And what was that?”

“Why, see that the money goes where it was intended to go, of course, which is where it will do the most good.”

“Well, I’m ready.”

“Of course you are. I knew you wouldn’t take a job and funk out at the last minute, leaving all your friends in the lurch.”

“Oh, I’ve never done that and don’t intend to begin now.”

“Bully for you. You know some of the fellows have been saying to me, ‘Slade’ll back out when it comes to the pinch,’ but I told ’em they didn’t know what they were talking about.”

“Who said that?”

“I’ll tell you after the voting, but come into the house now, for there is a lot to do.”

The farmer reluctantly gave some orders to the men who were waiting for him on the wagon, and they drove off to their work. Then he conducted the canvasser into the house.

“Now,” said Maguire, cheerfully, “we can talk without anyone overhearing us, and that’s something these times. I’ve got a list of eleven men who will vote our way—for a little consideration. That will give us all the majority we want to-morrow. I’ve promised ’em five dollars apiece.”

“Five dollars apiece! Why, jumping ginger, you can buy the whole state for that.”

“No, you can’t. And, what’s more, if the other side get an inkling of this, they’ll see our rise and go us one better. The only reason we can do it for this money is that the other side thinks there’s no work being done by us. I’ve let on I was peddling, and they’re watching Byfield and you and some of the rest. They see you working away in your fields and not taking much interest in the thing, so they think they’re safe. It will cost you twice as much, or three or four times, if they get a hint of what’s going on, and it’s a blessing for us that the voting’s to-morrow, for we couldn’t have kept things quiet much longer. As it is, two of this eleven knew of the money subscribed at the meeting and wanted more; but I told them no one was getting more than five dollars and they ain’t, either.”

“Five dollars! Why did you make such a bargain before telling me?”

“I didn’t make any bargain. You will have the last say-so about it. If you can get them any cheaper, all right, but you’ll risk everything. They’ll be able to get ten dollars each to-morrow if they get the slightest hint how things are going.”

“Well, then, what do you say I’m to do?”

“I want you to take the list and pay the men. I think the best plan will be to take this money that’s all in quarters and half dollars and greasy bills in to town and get them changed for new five-dollar bills, then you can slip one out of your vest pocket without any one knowing what’s being done.”

“I don’t see the need of all that trouble. We can make this money into piles of five dollars each, or count it out right there.”

“Well, just as you like. The other way would be safer, for there would be no marked bills among it. Old hands at this sort of business always handle new money.”

“What for?”

“They seem to think it’s the best way. But of course you do it any plan that suits you.”

“Where’s your list of the eleven men?”

“I’ve got it right here in my pocket, but before I show it to you I’ve promised these men that I’d take your word of honour that you would never breathe a word about it to a living soul.”

“Why, what’s all this fuss about a simple little matter?”

“That’s exactly what I told ’em, but you know what men are when they’re just a little scared. I said to them, says I, ‘Why, Slade will never whisper a word, as much for his own safety as for yours.’ ”

“My safety?”

“Of course. That’s what I said. ‘It’s six of one and half a dozen of the other. It isn’t likely a sensible man like Slade is going to put himself into a box merely to make things unpleasant for you.’ I told ’em that all right enough, but they made me say I’d get you to promise.”

“I don’t know what the devil you’re talking about,” exclaimed the farmer, staring across the table in bewilderment at his visitor, while his visitor looked with equal bewilderment at him.

“Talking about? I’m talking about buying votes for five dollars each.”

“Well, what of it?”

“Nothing, except that it’s bribery, and a state-prison offence in Michigan. I tell you a man can’t be too careful monkeying with that sort of business, and some of these men know it. I guess they’ve been there before.”

“What? In state prison?”

“No. In the bribery business, but of course they know the law on the subject. Still, it’s all serene enough if a man goes the right way about it, and I told them they were as safe as a church. ‘You don’t need to be afraid of Mr. Slade’s saying anything,’ I says to ’em, ‘because if you were to get up and shout that Slade give you five dollars for your vote, he’d have to deny it in self-defence.’ ”

“But I never undertook to bribe men.”

“Why, yes, you did, Mr. Slade. What else was the money got together for? There weren’t no other expenses. I told ’em at the first meeting that they were defeated if they didn’t get the men on the fence to come down on our side. Well, how were you to get them down if you didn’t use money? There ain’t no other expenses except that in this campaign, and everybody knows there ain’t. That’s why the second meeting was called. I wanted a committee chosen because I didn’t want to handle this money for buying votes. That’s why old Byfield refused. That’s why they didn’t get the other two men on the committee; they knew it was safer the fewer there was in it, and I saw that the minute it was proposed, and said so.”

Slade, with jaw dropped and plain consternation written on his face, looked steadily across the table at the earnest talker. In a general way he knew that bribery was contrary to law, but never before had the matter been brought home to him in this direct way. After every election and during the contests accusations of bribery and corruption were hurled indiscriminately by one party at the other, and the papers were full of the subject, until the crime was so familiar to him that he looked on it as a matter of course and never connected its commission with the interior of a prison.

“I don’t know as I ever heard of anyone going to jail for buying a vote,” he said at last.

“Why, no. That’s just what I’ve been a-telling ’em. You don’t hear of it once in a blue moon, and you wouldn’t then if people weren’t so fond of babbling. A man that takes care and keeps quiet is all right nine times out of ten. That’s what I told old Byfield when we were going home from the meeting. ‘You needn’t a been scared,’ I said to him, ‘you’d a-come through all right,’ and he says to me, ‘Why didn’t you take it? Why was you so mighty anxious to get a committee appointed?’ ‘Oh, well,’ I says to him, ‘ ’twasn’t on that account; I simply wanted one of yourselves to handle the money and see that it was spent right,’ and then he laughed. You know that mean little laugh of his.”

“See here,” said Slade with emphasis, bringing his fist down on the table, “all this money’s going back to them that subscribed it.”

Maguire’s eyes opened wide and a slight sarcastic smile parted his lips. He gazed at the troubled farmer with an expression partly merriment, partly curiosity.

“Say, that would tickle old Byfield more’n anything that’s happened in a year. It ’ud be better than a horse to him. That’s just what he said you’d do, but the man that moved you claimed that if you did chuck up the job it ’ud be in plenty time to appoint somebody else; but two or three more agreed that you’d do it the very last minute, and the man that moved you said: ‘Well, if he does, it’s “good-bye, John,” for him at any election in this district.’ ”

“This money’s going back all the same,” the farmer repeated, but with less certainty in his tones than before.

“What excuse are you going to make?”

“Excuse? Why, I’ll tell ’em truth, that I didn’t undertake to bribe people and break the law. I’ll tell ’em I’m a law-abiding citizen, that’s what I’ll tell ’em. I’d like to see any of ’em censure me for standing by the laws of my country.”

“Oh, they wouldn’t none of ’em do that. No, they’d take back their money all right enough, and they’d laugh to beat the band. There’d be lots of fun over it for a few years; but I suppose by and by it ’ud be forgotten, unless you ever ran for office, and then some one ’ud be sure to remember it. You see, Mr. Slade, to give back the money is simply out of the question, because you must then either admit you’re a coward or a fool, as the old woman said. Half’ll believe the one and half t’other. They’ll all want to know why you didn’t let some other fellow tackle the job—why you didn’t refuse as Byfield did—shrewd old fellow, Byfield is—he’s a lot deeper’n I thought, for I expected him to take it, but of course with other two helping him to share the risk or the blame. Well, as I was saying, them that believe you didn’t know will think you were a fool, and the rest will think you just got skunked at the last. Why, look here, Mr. Slade, there ain’t a bit of danger in going right on as we intended to do from the first. I’ll go with you, but I won’t go into the houses. I won’t see the money paid, so there ain’t no witnesses, except the man you pay it to, and he won’t squeal unless somebody makes it worth his while to turn state’s evidence, which ain’t a likely thing to happen.”

“What’s the matter with me staying outdoors and you paying the money inside, if it’s so safe as all that?”

Slade looked cunningly at Maguire, and as this method of settling the difficulty had never occurred to the young man he wrinkled his brow thoughtfully and turned his eyes upward toward the ceiling, as if by meditation he might accustom himself to the novelty of an unexpected proposal. Then, with a sigh, he shook his head.

“No, that wouldn’t do. I told the men you would hand them the money, and if I were to pay them they might think there was some shenanigan about it. No, you’re the treasurer. The meeting appointed you, and this is the only thing you’ll have to do, for I’ve done all the rest. Not that I’m afraid at all, because as I told you there’s no real danger if everyone buttons his lip and keeps his mouth shut. The men won’t care as long as they get the money.”

Slade spoke more eagerly, “Let’s see the list.”

Maguire handed him a paper, and he scrutinised it minutely.

“Yes, you’ve struck the right crowd. I know that gang, and a gallous lot they are. They’d vote against their grandmothers for a dollar.”

“Well, if you think I’ve offered them too much, you can beat ’em down while I’m waiting outside.”

“No, no. That’s all right. But say, Maguire, I’m pretty busy, and I’ve lost a good deal of time sitting and talking here when I ought to be out in the fields; so I don’t see how I can go round with you this afternoon; sure pop I don’t. Now, you’ll write me a receipt for fifty-five dollars and I’ll hand you the money. You tell ’em that you thought it was better not to have too many in this business, and so’s you had made all the arrangements you had come round to pay them the money. I suppose you couldn’t get a receipt out of each one of ’em, not to show round much, you know, but just to have everything businesslike?”

“Well, I don’t think they would be such fools as to do a thing like that. Still, you can never tell. This is a mighty queer neighbourhood, and, anyhow, it would do no more harm if you would ask them when you give them the boodle.”

“You can bet your boots I ain’t going to give ’em no boodle. I told you I hain’t got no time to go around and see all them people.”

“It won’t take you so very long.”

“But you’ve got all day to do it in, and you’ve got a horse, and I hain’t got a horse to spare; not just now. I’ll take your receipt for the money all right enough, and you make it out for ‘necessary ’lection expenses,’ and I guess they won’t be no questions asked if we have a majority agin the ditch.”

“We’ll have a majority, if the money’s put where people expect it to be put; if we haven’t, I’ll guarantee to pay it all back out of my own pocket.”

“Well, now, would you object to putting that down in writing, that you give this guarantee, and then with that and the receipt I guess no one can blame me.”

“Why you seem to be taking it for granted that I’m going to pay this money to the men.”

“Well, you promised to.”

“When?”

“Not five minutes ago; at least, you said as much as you would. What’s the use of talking of a guarantee if you didn’t mean to pay the men?”

“Oh, well, all right; have it your way. I ain’t got no farm to lose; but I’ve got my liberty, and I expect you to keep mighty quiet about this here deal.”

“Of course I’ll keep quiet; besides, I won’t see you pay the money, as you said a while since, so you’re as safe as you claimed I was.”

“That’s so. Well, you make out receipt and guarantee to suit yourself, and I’ll sign ’em. You’re the durndest sharpest business man I ever see, and I give you my word, although I hain’t got nothing against you personally, I wouldn’t care to have any more money dealings with you. You’re too sharp for a youngster like me, for you’ve got me to promise to do a thing I was bound to have someone else in this district do. I didn’t care much who it was, as long’s it wa’n’t me.”

Mr. Slade chuckled softly to himself as he wrote out the necessary documents that would protect him if his fellows ever called him to strict account over the expenditure of the money. “Oh, we’ll see you through all right, young fellow,” he said.

“I hope so,” replied Maguire, in a tone of deep despondency.