The Rise of Roscoe Paine

l, for it enabled me to dodge Dorinda's questions as to my own adventures. I did not care to talk about the latter. My feelings concerning them were curiously mixed. Was I glad or sorry tha

be grateful to me for helping his daughter. But, after all, did I care for gratitude from that family? And what form would that gratitude take? Would Colton, like Victor Carver, of

ct. Of course there was no chance of our becoming friends. The difference in social position, as they reckoned it, made that too ridiculous to consider as a possibility, even if I wished it, which I distinctly did not. But something, an interview, awkward and disagreeable for both sides, or a patronizing note of thanks, was, at the very least, certain to follow the happeni

over his own good judgmen

ll me we was in for a turrible tempest. I was settin' talkin'

tarted for that festival. It cost you fifteen to get inside the gate, and Matildy Dean told me the church folks was cal'l

offee before replying. Then his reply

ess, come over me. I looked up at the sky and 'twas gettin' black, and then I looked to the west-ard and I see

sasser of berries?" repeat

ow, Do

er you ought to be ashamed of yoursel

ever know him to pay for

you get trusted for 'em? Ho

nd I didn't sponge 'em, neither. I paid ca

! Well then-MAN, where did the

ed. "I-I-"

t come from?

'other day after the brown sugar and-and number 50 spool cotton

your pocket and you lost the change. I ain't lik

talk to me. I never lost that change at all. I found it afterwards in my vest, so all you

me the trouble

mb as not to go through your vest myself. So THAT'S where the other fifteen cents co

spepsy spells. I don't feel real goo

olen berries hadn't ought to feel good. E

the back yard. There I left him, groaning befor

she lay anchored at the edge of the channel. For the want of something more importa

nstead of leaving the coachman, I had remained to help him with the frightened horse, I should have been better employed. Between us we could have subdued the animal and Miss Colton might have ridden home. I wondered what had become of Jenkins and t

r hair brushed my cheek as I bent over her. I was using a wad of cotton waste to polish the gun barrel, and I threw it into a corner, having the insane notion that, in some way, the association of ideas came from that bunch of waste. It-the waste-was grimy and anything but fragrant, as different from the dark lock which the wind had blown against my f

retense of further cleaning was ridiculous. I held i

voice from the doorw

ad and both hands in his pockets, exactly as he had appeared in that same doorway when he and I first met. The expec

red without waitin

ng," h

been fighting by proxy ever since. I was prepared for more trouble, for haughty condescension, for perfunctory apology, for almost anything

un you've got there," he

er. "Let's look at it," he r

he was used to such things, broke it, snapped it shut,

here?" he asked, pulling the a

ee how astonished I was at

. Plenty of coots, some black duck, a

but I wouldn't believe him under oath. I could shoot HIM with more or less pleas

but made no comment. I rose and put the gun in the rack. Then I r

in his eye, "the last time you and I chatt

ded that I was glad of it. But what wou

" he continued. "Came over

ry

I saw you last night. Have many suc

many.

anted the beast perfectly safe for an infant in arms to drive and not afraid of anything short of an earthquake. He is a lovel

st malice in his tone, but, if I had been the "fri

of the hors

der claps started more trouble. The horse ran four miles, more or less, and stopped only wh

he coa

alf the night trying to find a phone not out of commission but

es

t I've come here for. I

right. You

y for the help you gave Mabel-my daughter-last night,

mbering her last words, as I left her in

unt to anything,

bout the tides out here and, from what he said, I judge that being stuck on the shoals in

answer. He

e?" he asked. "From what I've seen of him he gen

ilent. He sm

at his family is one of the oldest on the list. Personally I don't gamble much on families; know a little about my own and that little is enough. But women are different. However, family or not, he won't do. I should tell him

h, nothing of

to his explanations last nig

red to pay me

e? How

t wait to

n't heard fro

sita

u?" he r

ived a note fro

ffering a

N

money, d

surprise. "Did he

not I have lost all my judgment of human nature since I st

Colto

ow! How

ent me fiv

he di

ling you

t that much judgment left. Sent you fiv

es

ssage w

nt to tell him anything. Now I decided to tell

at what I saved was

angry. Instead he slapped

I'd like to have seen his face when he got that mess

d disagreed with him, which I did not. I said nothing. He

time of the night?" he asked. "I'm mighty glad you

festival rat

ing up at the church.

ins that he sh

nd Carver were set on going; and it would be the treat of a lifetime, or words to that effect. I can't see it myself. Of all the w

may seem odd that I, of all persons, should have taken upon myself

re in theirs," I declared. "They resent being ordered about as if the

, h

untry it does not follow that he is a blockhead. No one in Denboro is rich, as you would count

n't

favors from men here you must

ngs to help the town. I should have enjoyed doing it. I told some of them so. Look at the money I've s

t some of them call you-'Emperor of New York'. I tell yo

u, you haven't associated with many of them. You've b

ness toward my fellow citizens had been misinterpreted, as it deserv

onsider myself any better than the people here-no, nor even the equal of some of the

him angry. He looked at

t in the world are you doin

do you

the class where you belonged when you and I first met. I can usually size up

it as such. I should have told him that what I was or was not was

for my daughter last night and the way, according to her story, you handled her and

n, I don't

hate to quit till I have the answer, and nobody around here se

N

public-spirited bunc

N

ve a good deal more than I do your judgment. You must understand t

ng and mine diffe

ee before I'm through. I a

hink

and ought to be closed. Second, because I make it a point to get what I go afte

n answer to a statement like t

n to stay here as long as I want to, but I haven't let go of my job by a good deal. I've got private wires-telegraph and telephone-in my house and I keep in touch with t

. I could not see how it appl

st that I was after. He beat me to it at first. He was a big toad in the puddle and I was a little one. But I didn't quit. I waited round the corner. By and by I saw my chance. He was in a hole and I had the cover to the hole. Before I let him out I owned that mine. It cost me more than it was worth; I lost money on it. But I had my way

his seems to me like wastin

o-between. I just wanted you to understand my position; that's why I've told you all this. Now we'll talk figures. I might go on bidding, and y

rply, "you had better not say any

ur being afraid? Don't get mad. I'm not-not now.

ien

nded to beat in a deal; there's nothing personal about it. When I get you so yo

ed. I said what Lu

ed. "Five thousand do

and itself. The other forty-five hundred is payment for the

t tremendously difficult to pronounce. Yet I did pronounce it, I am glad to say

ear surprised

s watch, "I must be going. My wife will think I've fallen into the bay, or been murdered by the hostile natives. Nerves are mean things to have in the house;

I recovered presence of mind suffic

well?" I stammered. "No ill effec

would have died probably, after such an upset, but she's as right as I am. Oh . . . er-Paine, next time y

. "Five thousand dollars!" . . . "Carver won't do." . . . "I will have the Lane some time or other." . . .

are! I must wake up b