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have eddied up here in the hills just as I did—he married up here."

"Where did you come from?" asked Abner simply.

"I'm one of the Tuscumbia Sharps. You must have heard of Governor Sharp, Senator Dalrymple Sharp, and Horse-Racing Bob Sharp?"

Abner dragged out a "Y-e-s" in a tone that meant "No."

Mr. Sharp understood him to mean "no," for he smiled and said, "Well, there are such persons in the world, at any rate. Now to get down to business, what I wanted to see you about, Mr. Teeftallow, was your claim on the old Coltrane estate. The timber on this tract adjoins that which Mr. Ditmas bought, and he would like to arrange to work it off together with his own."

"I thought he had all he could handle in his new tract?"

"No," said Sharp drily. "There was some confusion about the amount of timber he was buying from Jones."

"How was that?" asked Abner with interest.

"There was less timber than Ditmas thought. He will have to purchase more now in order to work profitably what he has."

Abner became very interested, as all hillmen are in a business deal. "Just what did Railroad Jones do?" he asked, scenting one of the financier's coups.

"I'm afraid I'm not informed enough to give you the details, I merely wanted to tell you Ditmas was in the market for more timber, and you might do well to see him."

"I'll see him," nodded Abner. "I'll look him up right away."

Abner arose, and Sharp got up with him and accompanied him to the head of the steps, where he stood ceremoniously until Abner reached the street below.

The ex-teamster moved off in the morning sunshine with his whole curiosity aroused within him. He wondered what Railroad Jones had done. He knew it would be something dramatic. It would be a new act in the life-long vaudeville which the wealthy man was spreading across the stage of