NEXT morning Dodovah Vose drove me to the railroad station at the Lower
Comers. He looked at the trip as a sort of a triumphal parade, and said
so to me.
“Some different from that night ride we took, young Sidney,” he
chuckled. “I’m playing hackman this time so as to take the taste of that
other ride out of my mouth!”
Yet, as I rode that morning by his side, I was wondering whether I would
have courage to come back to Levant. Panic was in me--it truly was!
“Mighty scared little bug was you that night! But I always knew you had
sprawl and gumption in you. Now you’re showing the old town a thing or
two and I’m proud of you.”
His praise made me cringe more than ever.
When we passed the wood-lot a merry rick-tack of axes sounded in our
ears.
“Yes, sir! You have shown them all that you can come back here and start
something,” stated Landlord Vose. He did not realize how infernally
right he was. What I had started was setting the willy-wallies to
dancing in my soul.
“Things have come along with such a rush that I haven’t thought to
ask you how you happened to hit it off so smooth with the judge,” he
proceeded, and my alarm increased.
“I met him on the road, and we turned a quick trade on the spot. He was
starting for the city and we had to trade sudden or not at all.”
“That hasn’t been the judge’s usual way in business,” he commented,
sagely. “I have had some dealings with him myself, and so I know his
style pretty well.” He gave me a sly, sideways glance. “Yes, I know him
so well that I’ve noticed how he’s losing his grip on business.”
“And do you think he has been losing money, too?” I plumped at him.
“Well,” drawled Vose, “I don’t know how much money he’s got nor what
sort of investments he’s carrying or how much money he has been handling
for other folks, for he has always been cussed secret in his operations.
And the folks who have turned money over to him have been secret,
too, for I reckon he has helped them hide their money away from the
tax-assessors. But I’ll tell you, young Sidney, his money, however much
he’s got, must be pretty well tied up these days.”
I questioned him with a side-glance which met his own. “Because when old
Rollins died a few months ago the heirs lit on the judge for the money
he had in his hands--for the heirs are spenders and wanted the money
to toss away. The judge’s home place is in his wife’s name and she
mortgaged it to raise the money--and when a man mortgages the roof over
his family’s head he does need money, there’s no doubt about that.”
“But there are times when a man doesn’t like to sacrifice securities,”
I said. Somehow I felt as if I had been specially delegated to stand up
for the Kingsley family. “Maybe so! Maybe so!” agreed Vose. “Finance is
a strange critter--and the judge is a regular financier. But, I swan, if
I like the looks of the strangers he has been doing business with for a
long time back. I ain’t any kind of a hand to pry into the dealings of
men who put up at my tavern. Those fellows always paid their bills and
showed plenty of money, but it don’t seem to me as if straight business
needs to be so blamed secret.”
“However, the big fellows in money affairs keep their cards pretty dose
to their vests,” I suggested.
“Maybe so! But he’s selling property off slapdash--”
“Mrs. Kingsley says he wants to get rid of some of his cares.” Perhaps
she had not said just that--but I had taken the rôle of the family
champion.
“Maybe so--and if that’s the case, it’s too bad your uncle Deck is
rampaging so. Generally, we all trust the judge and look up to him, and
we don’t want to see him bothered at this time in his life. But here’s
your uncle trying to stir, up enough sentiment to call a special town
meeting.”
“What for?” I was more alarmed than ever.
“His excuse is that the town is now so prosperous that we can afford to
pay off the whole town debt by a little extra splurge in taxation. Says
that with the debt all paid off new industries can be induced to locate
here.”
“But does that mean anything against Judge Kingsley? It looks to me like
enterprise on Uncle Deck’s part.” Again Mr. Vose chanted his everlasting
and singsong, “Maybe so!” Then he added: “But I reckon your uncle
Deck has more visible property spread around this town than any other
taxpayer in it. Maybe he has had a change of heart about money. Maybe
he intends to loosen up in his old age. Maybe he wants to hand something
back to a town he has gouged all his life. But from what I know of your
uncle Deck, I don’t think he has grown so cussed patriotic all of a
sudden. Young Sidney, I reckon there’s a hotter and livelier reason.
Your uncle has been nursing a grudge till it’s well-grown and all haired
out. That grudge is prancing, and he’s willing to pay high for a chance
to show its paces in public. And there’s more in the plan of that
special town meeting than shows on the surface at present writing!”
Therefore, when I climbed on board the train I had plenty to think about
outside the immediate business I had in hand, though that was enough for
one poor mind, Lord knows!
Take everything, by and large, I was in the prime mess of my young life
up to date.
The principal reason why I stayed in it, I suppose, was because I didn’t
know any better! That reason has accounted for a lot of my experiences.
Some of the best fights on the records have been won by men who were
worst scared.
I alighted in Mechanicsville in a state of mind I’ll not attempt
to describe. But I looked at myself in a store window and made up a
business face to go with my appearance. I hired the best hack in sight,
I started on a round of factories, wood merchants, brick-yards, and
lumber-dealers. I rode up to the doors of offices in style; I walked in
on ’em in style.
It was certainly a new wrinkle in wood-peddling--this plug-hat
performance! It opened all doors to me. I don’t know what they thought I
was, before I opened my mouth, but I was not kept twiddling my thumbs in
anterooms; the main squeeze in every office shunted all else in order
to greet me. I wonder what would have been my lot if I had come as a
stammering farmer, a crude countryman, or a chopper in wool boots!