say, and new married to good wimmen--and because we're
a little forehanded and independent, and seem to be enjoyin' life,
every one is all ready to believe the worst about us on general
principles. Mossbacks are always ready to believe that a man that's
travelled any has been raising seventeen kinds of tophet all his life.
All she had to do was go into a trance, talk a little Injun, and then
hint enough to set their imaginations to workin' about us. Up to now,
judgin' by the way she's been lookin' at me, my wife believes I've
got seven wives strewed around the country somewhere, either alive
or buried in cellars. As to your wife, you bein' a seafarin' character,
she's prob'ly got it figgered that a round-up of your fam'ly circle,
admittin' all that's got a claim on you, would range all the way from
a Hindu to a Hottentot, and would look like a congress of nations.
In about two days more--imagination still workin', and a few old she
devils in this place startin' stories to help it along--our wives
will be hoppin' up every ten minutes to look down the road and see
if any of the victims have hove in sight. And what can we do?"

Hiram lunged a vigorous kick straight before him.

"Find me that hole I just made in the air and I'll tell you, Cap'n,"
he added, with bitter irony.

"It's--it's worse than what I figgered on," remarked the Cap'n,
despondently, after a thoughtful pause. "If a woman like Louada
Murilla will let herself get fooled and stirred up in that kind of
a way by a fly-by-night critter, there ain't much hope of the rest
of the neighborhood."

"It's a kind of lyin' that there ain't no fightin'," Hiram asserted.
"And there are certain ones in this place that will keep it in the
air. Now I didn't sass that mesmerist. But I got it about as tough
as you did. I'll bet a thousand to one that Bat Reeves is gettin'
back at me for cuttin' him out with the widder. It's reasonable,"
he declared, warming to the topic and checking items off on his stubby
fingers. "Here's your mesmerist rushin' hot to Reeves complainin'
about you and gettin' a permit from Reeves, along with a few pointers
about you for occult use. Reeves hates you bad enough, but he hates
me worse. And he sees to it that I get occulted, too. He ain't lettin'
a chance like that slip past as soon as that perfessor lets him see
what occultin' will do to a man. Why, condemn his hide and haslet,
I believe he swapped that permit for a dose of so much occultin'