ave full right to think this and to say it, but mark your
father and Coyle to-day. You will then see if I speak truth or not.

Flo Forgive my distrust, Mr. Murcott.

Mur I am past taking offence or feeling scorn, I have carried more than
can be heaped upon me, but I did not come only to give you warning of
your danger.

Flo Can you avert it?

Asa (Coming down between them). Wal, stranger that's just the question I
was going to ask.

Flo You here, sir, and listening.

Asa Wal, it wasn't purpose, I went in there to take a snooze, I heard
you talking and I thought it wouldn't be polite of me not to listen to
what you had to say. I'm a rough sort of a customer, and don't know much
about the ways of great folks. But I've got a cool head, a stout arm,
and a willing heart, and I think I can help you, just as one cousin
ought to help another.

Flo Well, I do think you are honest.

Mur Shall I go on?

Flo Yes, we will trust him, go on.

Mur I found the Ravensdale mortgage while rumaging in an old deed box of
Coyle's father's, there was a folded paper inside the deed. I took both
to Coyle unopened, like a besotted fool that I was. My belief is strong
that the paper was the release of the mortgage that the money had been
paid off, and the release executed without the seals having been cut
from the original mortgage. I have known such things happen.

Asa Have ye, now? Well, if a Yankee lawyer had done such a thing he
would have Judge Lynch after him in no time.

Mur You can but find that release, we may unmask this diabolical fiend
and save you.

Flo But, surely, a villain of Coyle's stability would have destroyed the
paper, the very key-stone of his fraud.

Mur I fear so.

Asa Do you, now, wal, you're wrong, you're both wrong. I guess you ain't
either on you done much cyphering human nature. The key stone of their
fraud is just the point your mighty cute rascals always leave unsecured.
Come along with me, stranger, and we'll just work up this sum a little,
two heads are better than one. Yours is a little muddled, but mine's
pretty clear, and if I don't circumvent that old sarpint, Coyle--

Flo Well?

Asa Say I am a skunk, that's all, and that's the meanest kind of an
animal. [Exit L. 1st E.]

Flo I owe you much, Mr. Murcott, more than I can ever repay.

Mur No, no, no, if you did but know the hope of seeing you has roused
all the manhood that drink and misery has left me. God bless you, Miss
Florence.