“Ho, ho, ho,” chuckled Hallett. “You're a slick article, ain't you,
Raish? Why, you wooden-headed swab, did you cal'late you was the only
one that had heard about the directors' meetin' over to the Denboro
Trust Company yesterday? _I_ knew the Trust Company folks had decided
not to go ahead with the fish storage business just as well as you did,
and I heard it just as soon, too. _I_ know they've decided to put the
twelve hundred shares of Wellmouth Development stock into profit and
loss, or to just hang on and see if it ever does come to anything. But
you cal'lated I didn't know it and that maybe you could unload your five
hundred shares on to me at cut rates, eh? Raish, you're slick--but you
ain't bright, not very.”
He chuckled again. Mr. Pulcifer whistled, apparently expressing
resignation.
“ALL right, Cap'n,” he observed, cheerfully, “just as you say. No harm
in tryin', was there? Never catch a fish without heavin' over a hook,
as the feller said. Maybe somebody else that ain't heard will buy that
stock, you can't tell.”
“Maybe so, but--See here, Raish, don't you go tryin' anything like this
on--on--”
“I know who you mean. No danger. There ain't money enough there to buy
anything, if what I hear's true.”
“What's that?”
“Oh, nothin', nothin'. Just talk, I guess. Well, Jeth, I won't keep you
any longer. Goin' to hang on to YOUR four hundred Development stock, I
presume likely?”
“Yes. I shall sell that at a profit. Not a big profit, but a profit.”
“Sho! Is that so? Who told you?”
“It was,” the gruff voice became solemn, “it was revealed to me.”
“Revealed to you? Oh, from up yonder, up aloft, eh?”
“Raish,” sharply, “don't you dare be sacrilegious in my presence.”
“No, no, not for nothin', Cap'n. So you had a message from the sperit
world about that stock, eh?”
“Yes. It bade me be of good cheer and hold for a small profit. When that
profit comes, no matter how small it may be, I'll sell and sell quick,
but not sooner.... But there, I've profaned the Lord's day long enough.
I came over here this mornin' to visit Julia's grave. There was a
scoffer in our pulpit, that young whippersnapper from Wapatomac had
exchanged with our minister and I didn't care to hear him.”
“Oh, I see. So you come over to your wife's grave, eh?”
“Yes. What are you lookin' like that for?”
“Oh, nothin'. I thought maybe you was chasin' after Lulie. I see her
meanderin' over this way a little while ago.”
“LULIE?”
“Um-hm. Looked like her.”
“Was there--was there anybody else?”
“We-ll, I wouldn't swear to that, Cap'n Jeth. I didn't SEE nobody,
but--Godfreys mighty! What's that thing?”
The thing was the brown derby. Galusha, crouching behind the tomb,
had been holding it fast to his head with one hand. Now, startled by
Pulcifer's statement that he had seen Miss Hallett, he let go his hold.
And a playful gust lifted the hat from his head, whirled it like an
aerial teetotum and sent it rolling and tumbling to the feet of the pair
by the cemetery gate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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