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He was bound to turn up sooner or later. I seen him myself, day before yesterday, going down street. Thinks I, 'Who can that be?' There was something kind of queer about the way he dragged his feet. What you going to do about it, Judge? Have we got to put up with having a jailbird, as crazy as a loon into the bargain, living right here in our midst?" "In luxury and idleness, like he was a captain of industry," drawled another man who was eating hot dog and sipping beer. "That's what strikes me kind of hard, Judge, in luxury and idleness, while the rest of us has to work." Judge Fulsom gave an inarticulate grunt and smoked on imperturbably. "Set down, boys; set down," ordered a small man in a red sweater under a corduroy coat. "Give the Jedge a chance! He ain't going to deliver no opinion whilst you boys are rammaging around. Set down and let the Jedge take th' floor." A general scraping of chair legs and a shuffling of uneasy feet followed this exhortation; still no word from the huge, impassive figure in the central chair. The oily-faced young man behind the bar improved the opportunity by washing a dozen or so glasses, setting them down showily on a tin tray in view of the company. "Quit that noise, Cholley!" exhorted the small man in the red sweater; "we want order in the court room--eh, Jedge?" "What I'd like to know is where she got all that money of hers," piped an old man, with a mottled complexion and bleary eyes. "Sure enough; where'd she get it?" chimed in half a dozen voices at once. "She's Andrew Bolton's daughter," said the first speaker. "And she's been setting up for a fine lady, doing stunts for charity. How about our town hall an' our lov-elly library, an' our be-utiful drinking fountain, and the new shingles on our church roof? You don't want to ask too many questions, Lute." "Don't I?" cried the man, who was eating hot dog. "You all know _me!_ I ain't a-going to stand for no grab-game. If she's got money, it's more than likely the old fox salted it down before they ketched him. It's our money; that's whose money 'tis, if you want to know!" And he swallowed his mouthful with a slow, menacing glance which swept the entire circle. "Now, Lucius," began Judge Fulsom, removing the pipe from his mouth, "go slow! No use in talk without proof." "But what have you got to say, Jedge? Where'd she get all that money she's been flamming about with, and that grand house, better than new,
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