"Come and see me when you get back, and I'll give you advice. I wouldn't trouble myself for every one, but you are a friend and neighbor," said Squire Bates, smiling and showing the long white tusks that gave him so peculiar an appearance. "Your advice ought to be good, squire. You are used to investin' money." "Yes, I have a good deal to invest," said Bates. "Which way shall you return?" asked the squire carelessly. "I thought I might take the creek road, squire." "If it were my case, I would come through the woods. It's half a mile shorter." "That's so, and I did think of it, but you and my wife talked to me about robbers, till I began to think the creek road would be safer." Squire Bates laughed in an amused way. "I rather think your wife and I talked like old women," he said. "It seems rather ridiculous to think of robbers in this neighborhood." "So it does!" said Adin Dunham eagerly. "I told Sarah so. "Then you'll come through the woods?" "Yes." "About what time?" "Oh, I shan't stay very long after my business is done." "You'll probably pass through about three o'clock?" "Well, say four. I've got a cousin in Rockmount that I shall take dinner with, and that'll take up part of my time. Then I've got one or two errands to do at the stores there. I'm to buy my wife a pair of shoes at Ingals's store. He knows just what she wants, and always fits her." "There's one thing I would advise you not to do, neighbor Dunham." "What is that?" "Don't invite any one to ride home with you." "Why not?" "Well, you'll have considerable money with you and it might prove a temptation even to a respectable man. You see to most people it is a large sum—not to me, for I am better off than the average, but I've read in my law books of a good many crimes that were the result of a sudden impulse. There's no reason to be nervous, but it's well to be prudent, neighbor." "That's good sense, squire. Thank you for your caution. Well, I must be getting on." "Good luck to you," said Bates, as he turned and went into the house. Squire Bates had been for three years a resident of Waterford. He appeared to have plenty of money, though it was a mystery where it came from. He professed to be a lawyer, and had an office, but beyond writing a will or a lease, or some such matter, had no practice to speak of. This, however, did not seem to trouble him. It was a popular belief that the care of his property gave him considerable to do. He had no investments in Waterford except the house he lived in, and a mortgage on the house and small landed property of Adin Dunham. The assessors got very little satisfaction out of him when they questioned him about his taxable property. "I am taxed elsewhere," he said briefly. "But you have some personal property?" "Oh well, you may put me down for a thousand dollars." "It is generally supposed that you have a much larger personal property than that."