“Possibly,” replied Boast, coolly. “Nevertheless, if the old Colonel strikes it in Gray Rocks, it’s worth a trial, anyway; but come, there’s no use in quarreling over something that hasn’t happened, or being down-hearted about a busted boom, so long as a fellow has a bottle of red liquor.” Vance did not wait for him to go through the ordeal of condemning himself as a drunken profligate, but let him to finish tying up his papers and drink the contents of his bottle alone. CHAPTER XIX.—THE INDIGNATION MEETING 9166 ANCE had [158] been in Waterville something over a week, and his enthusiasm was noticeably subdued. One evening he discovered that a great many citizens were assembling in the Town Hall. He joined the crowd, and found it was composed of representative of nearly every family in Waterville. The meeting was called to order with J. Arthur Boast in the chair. It was an indignation meeting. Instead of huzzaing for the Waterville Town Company, its members were being vigorously denounced. A speaker addressed the chair, and among other things said: “Where is our sash, blind and door factory? Where is our foundry? Where is our woolen mill? Where are our canning factories? Where is our great smelting plant, and other manufacturing enterprises which have been promised us by the Waterville Town Company? When we see anything in a newspaper we have a right to believe what it says. Outside of Waterville, the newspapers claim the members of the Waterville Town Company to be a lot of restless town site boomers. I believe what I see in the papers. The dog-fennel is already growing in our streets—our town is dead; not one stranger in a week alights from the train at Waterville. [159] We have been deceived, and it is now time for an indignant community to assert its rights, take the reins of government, so to speak, in our own hands, and give the Waterville Town Company to understand that no more bonds of any kind will be voted or subsidies given.” A number of other speakers expressed themselves in bitter terms against the Waterville Town Company. The chairman, J. Arthur Boast, finally addressed the meeting, and with his thin, piping voice advise moderation. He said it was true that, during his absence, prices had been unfortunately inflated, and a reaction had set in. He reminded his hearers that he was still in the real estate business, and by listing their property with him he would try to put it on his “special bargain list,” and thought possibly he could, in time, re-establish confidence and create a new era of activity in the real estate business. Boast was very careful not to openly charge the depression in Waterville to anyone in particular, but his insinuations left no room to doubt he meant the Waterville Town Company.