With this his brother-committeemen seemed to agree. All but Ryder. The latter looked at his watch. It was already half after nine. There was every sign as they came along the street that the villagers were retiring for the night; and as they stood discussing the matter the proprietor of the store began to put out his lights. "You can go back and ask for further instructions if you wish to, gentlemen," said Ryder in disgust. "But I will go in and see what I can do. There is no time to waste." "At your peril, Mr. Ryder," said one. "Don't drag us into it." "I never forced a man into a deal yet--especially if he was a bad loser," declared John Ryder, and turned his back on the others to enter the store alone. He found the proprietor, a shrewd, long-headed countryman, ready to be affable, or businesslike, as the case might be. Ryder knew well how to tackle such a character. He had been doing business with all kinds of men all his life. He went directly to the point of the matter. "I want every oil lamp you've got in the shop, and all your candles, and those oil heaters yonder. If you have oil, I want a barrel. And I want you to find me a truckman right now to cart 'em over to the hotel. I'll give you cash, or my check, in full for the whole amount. What say?" "It's a bargain," laconically said the storekeeper, and there was little haggling either, over the price of the articles bought. Ryder did not believe that Crabtree was over-reaching him on that point, for he seemed to sympathize with the situation of the people in the hotel. "That bridge breaking down is a bad business. Foolish, too," Crabtree agreed. "The Highway Department of this town is about as useful as a left-handed boot to a man who's only got a wooden leg on that side of him. And let me tell you, Mr. Ryder, the bridge won't be repaired again in a hurry. Nothing ever is done in a hurry by our road menders and bridge builders." Ryder was more intimately interested in the supplies he could buy. There were two full boxes of so-called "waxlights" and a box of tallow candles of the double-six size. There were over a hundred lamps of all kinds and sizes, and the oil stoves numbered twenty-three. The check Ryder made out was a substantial one. In half an hour he was back at the hotel where the guests were wrangling in the foyer over how the bill for supplies should be apportioned. The other members of the committee were finally instructed to pay for the goods out of a collection of about two hundred dollars that had been grudgingly made. "Here's Ryder!" exclaimed Colonel Brack, red-faced and excited. "He should head this committee again. He is a chap who _does_ things. Ryder forever!" The colonel's evening potations began to show upon him. Ryder tried to brush by on his way to the desk. "You're just the man we want on this committee," reiterated the colonel, following him. "What committee?" the business man asked. "The committee on buying supplies."