a for the obvious reason that Mr. Dagonet's ignorance
of business was as fathomless as his own, this was not his sole motive.
Finally it occurred to him to put the case hypothetically to Mr.
Spragg. As far as Ralph knew, his father-in-law's business record was
unblemished; yet one felt in him an elasticity of adjustment not allowed
for in the Dagonet code.

Mr. Spragg listened thoughtfully to Ralph's statement of the case,
growling out here and there a tentative correction, and turning his
cigar between his lips as he seemed to turn the problem over in the
loose grasp of his mind.

"Well, what's the trouble with it?" he asked at length, stretching his
big square-toed shoes against the grate of his son-in-law's dining-room,
where, in the after-dinner privacy of a family evening, Ralph had seized
the occasion to consult him.

"The trouble?" Ralph considered. "Why, that's just what I should like
you to explain to me."

Mr. Spragg threw back his head and stared at the garlanded French clock
on the chimney-piece. Mrs. Spragg was sitting upstairs in her daughter's
bedroom, and the silence of the house seemed to hang about the two men
like a listening presence.

"Well, I dunno but what I agree with the doctor who said there warn't
any diseases, but only sick people. Every case is different, I guess."
Mr. Spragg, munching his cigar, turned a ruminating glance on Ralph.
"Seems to me it all boils down to one thing. Was this fellow we're
supposing about under any obligation to the other party--the one he was
trying to buy the property from?"

Ralph hesitated. "Only the obligation recognized between decent men to
deal with each other decently." Mr. Spragg listened to this with the
suffering air of a teacher compelled to simplify upon his simplest
questions.

"Any personal obligation, I meant. Had the other fellow done him a good
turn any time?"

"No--I don't imagine them to have had any previous relations at all."

His father-in-law stared. "Where's your trouble, then?" He sat for a
moment frowning at the embers. "Even when it's the other way round it
ain't always so easy to decide how far that kind of thing's binding...
and they say shipwrecked fellows'll make a meal of friend as quick as
they would of a total stranger." He drew himself together with a shake
of his shoulders and pulled back his feet from the grate. "But I don't
see the conundrum in your case, I guess it's up to both parties to take
care of their own sk