“I believe Cap’n Ward did bring it up in town meetin’ once and say that the selectmen ought to sign notes along with the treasurer. But there wa’n’t anything done, as I remember. Cap’n was kind of a kicker. He died the summer after that town meetin’,” added Avery, with an air as though the death were a special visitation to punish temerity in attacking a Willard. “Well, I’m feelin’ pretty healthy, myself,” said Hiram, “and you watch me go into the next town meetin’.” “Lyme Bearce says he’ll bet you’re a disturbin’ element, no matter where you light,” stated Avery, with the fearless naïveté of a village news-bureau that proposes to do its full duty. “Lyme Bearce and the whole of you be jiggered,” stormed Hiram. “I’ve been ’round the world some, and got up against human nature, and I tell you the only way to meet a man is with one hand hold of your wad and the other doubled up behind your back. Old Willard ain’t goin’ to run this town to suit himself. You watch me!” “Then you ain’t goin’ off right away with your circus?” meekly asked Avery. “I shan’t be goin’ till things get dull ’round here,” crisply returned the showman. “That’ll be after there’s a performance in one ring, me with the whip, old Coll Willard ridin’ bareback, and ev’ry time I snap he’ll turn a flip-flop.” Figger-four blinked at him uncertainly. “Let’s see, you ain’t ever seen Klebe since you--you----” “Since I licked him! Say it; I ain’t ashamed of it,” blustered Hiram. “Well, he’s thickened up solid’s a knot, and they say there’s more knockin’ down o’ men on board the ‘Lycurgus Webb’ than on any other schooner that sails out of Rockland. Terrible hard man Klebe has growed to be!” Avery glanced at the showman slyly to note how he received this information. “I have squared all accounts with Klebe Willard,” said Hiram, “but if I owe him anything more he can come and collect it. As for his father, that’s another matter. He took my old father by the throat after I went away and he had the twist noose of a mortgage around him for a good hold. He bought in accounts against us, as ev’ryone in P’lermo knows, so that he could collect the bills in a way to add ev’ry cent of costs that skin-skunk lawyers could tack on. And my old father and my brother was caught foul and paid double--yes, treble--for ev’ry dollar I owed. I ain’t nothin’ except plain muck, Avery--just a cheap renegade that hasn’t woke up to be half decent till it is too late. Payin’ it back to Phin don’t fix it. I shall always hate myself--but never mind that!” He swallowed hard and shook his head violently to and fro. Sudden passion blazed out of this moment of weakness. “There’s one thing I can do--I can spend forty thousand dollars puttin’ Coll Willard where he put my old father, and, by the gods, I’ll do it! That’s my business and no one’s else, and they can’t oh-please-don’t me!--no one, Avery, no one!”