Page:Teeftallow-1926.djvu/394

yore fambly eats up more than that. So if we pay this debt accordin' to yore plan, you'll come out at the end of your office holdin' exactly where you started in, with nothin' a-tall, but if you don't pay it, nachelly you'll come out with thirty-two thousan' dollars."

"Come out! I won't come out a-tall!" cried the prisoner. "I'll stay here in jail."

"Oh, no, you won't, you'll come clear at yore trile. You lent the money to me honest—why, this here very talk with all these prisoners an' Addy an' Ab listenin' proves that."

"But what do you want me to do—steal it?"

The fat man went closer to the bars and dropped his voice. "No, Jim," he buzzed earnestly, "but I don't want you to pay it, neither. I kain't bear to see you throw away such a opportunity. It don't come to one man in a thousan'."

The man in the cage came a little closer to the magnate, bringing the odour of his confinement.

"I don't know what you mean," he said.

"It's jest this," buzzed the fat man in a barely audible whisper. "You stay in here a few weeks longer. I'll git out an' buy up enough county bonds and warrants to pay off that thirty-two thousan'—the county will haff to take 'em—they kain't go back on their own paper—an' I can buy it at thirty-five or forty cents on the dollar now. When ever'body hears about you loanin' the county money to me, the bonds'll drap to fifteen or twenty cents on the dollar. In fack, I can set my own price—I'll be the only person who wants 'em."

The magnate explained his plan in a buzz that held a faint excitement. Came a long silence in which Adelaide gave Abner's arm a triumphant squeeze. Abner did not quite follow the explanation, but he gathered it was a scheme to keep the county funds legally. Presently, in the midst of this silence, the railroad builder stweed out almost pettishly, "Well, what's the matter, Jim, ain't you satisfied?"

"What I am wantin'," said the shadow, "is to git out o'