"Well, it'll all be different if we can get the old man to sell out." "Will you assist us?" asked the lawyer. "Sure thing. I'll agree to take ten thousand for my third, although it cost me a good deal more years ago. That'll leave twenty thousand for Easton's share, and it's all he deserves. But never mind the details. You just get that option for thirty thousand, and the game's won." "I'll try," promised Jarrod. Nora saw that her better half wore a broad smile when he returned to her. "What's the result, presh?" she asked--the endearing term being a contraction of "precious." "The result hasn't happened yet," he answered, evasively; "but when it does my dream will come true, little wife, and I'll own Tamawaca." "That's nice," she replied. Then, as he turned toward the door: "Are you going out again?" "Why, I promised Nancy Todd that I'd stay with her father while she went to Kochton on an errand," he said, resuming his usual cheery manner. "Old Todd's all crippled up with rheumatism and helpless as an infant in arms. Nancy hasn't any one to leave him with, so I told her I'd look after the old man myself." "I'm glad you did, presh," said the little woman, earnestly. "It'll do Nancy a world of good to get away from him for a time. She's all used up with the nursing and worry. And while you're over at Todd's I'll drop in and see poor Mrs. Jones, who is sick in bed and needs cheering up. We'll both be back by supper-time, I guess." That was the way with the Wilders. Sharks in business and the tenderest and sweetest of all humanity when anyone needed a helping hand. I once heard an irascible old cottager exclaim: "Damn the Wilders' scheming heads!" And then, after a pause: "But God bless their kindly hearts!" It was the epitome of their characters, expressed in a nutshell. How we all swore at them--yet how we loved them! CHAPTER IX. DEVELOPING THE NEGATIVE. Jarrod got his Committee of Five together and looked them over. As might be expected they were a queerly assorted lot and promised to be difficult to manage.