“You think I'm your asset, eh?” “You're not worth a cent to me or yourself until I operate. And when you're ready to have me operate--fifty-fifty--give me the high sign. And something will be done what was never done before!” Then Wagg carried his stool to the lee of a shop wall, seeking shade--too far away for further talk. CHAPTER XIX AND PHARAOH'S HEART WAS HARDENED By the wiles of Wagg and a soap diet Frank Vaniman had been able to secure his modest slice of God's sunlight. There was aplenty of that sunshine in Egypt. It flooded the bare hills and the barren valleys; there were not trees enough to trig the sunlight's flood with effective barriers of shade. Tasper Britt walked out into it from the door of Files's tavern. He had just been talking to the landlord about the tavern diet. His language was vitriolic. Even Vaniman could not have used more bitter words to express his detestation for soap as a comestible. Britt's heat in the matter, the manner in which he had plunged into the diatribe all of a sudden, astonished Mr. Files tremendously. Britt seemed to be acting out a part, he was so violent. Usually, Britt did not waste any of the heat in his cold nature unless he had a good reason for the expenditure. There seemed to be something else than mere dyspepsia concerned, so Files thought. He followed Mr. Britt and called to him from the door. Britt had stopped to light his cigar. “I've had my say. I'm all done here. Let that end it,” declared the departing guest. There were listeners, the usual after-dinner loafers of the tavern's purlieus. Mr. Britt did not seem to mind them. He even looked about, as if to make sure of their numbers. “All you needed to do was to complain in a genteel way, and I would have been just as genteel in rectifying,” pleaded Files. “The people of this town are still saying that I'm a hard man. If that's so, I'm waking up to the reason for it--your grub has petrified me. My real friends have noticed it.” Here was more of Britt's unwonted garrulity about his private concerns. “Some of those friends have taken pity on me. I have been invited to board with the Harnden family.” Mr. Britt did not look around to note the effect of that piece of news. He gazed complacently up into the sunshine.