upon the fence; his heart was touched, and
taking out a small piece of money he tossed it to the boy. The grave
digger took it up, looked at it a moment in sad astonishment, put it
aside and returned to his work.

The office was deserted when Lyman returned. Caruthers had not hung a
hope on the result of the attempted negotiations.

CHAPTER IV.

A FOG BETWEEN THEM.

The following afternoon when Lyman went to the office, having spent
the earlier hours in the court house, to assure the Judge that he had
no motions to make, and no case to be passed over to the next term--he
found Caruthers with his feet on the table.

"Getting hot," said Caruthers.

"Is it? I thought we had been playing freeze-out," Lyman replied,
throwing his hat upon the table and sitting down.

"Then you didn't do anything with his Royal Flush?"

"Brother McElwin? No. He fenced with his astonishment until he could
find words, and then he granted me the privilege to retire."

"Wouldn't take a mortgage on the library?"

"No; he said it wasn't worth a hundred."

"But you assured him that it was."

"No; I had to acknowledge that it wasn't."

"You are a fool."

"Yes, perhaps; but I'm not a thief."

"No! But it's more respectable to be a thief than a pauper."

"It is not very comforting to be both--to know that you are one and to
feel that you are the other."

"Lyman, that sort of doctrine may suit a long-tailed coat, a white
necktie and a countenance pinched by piety, but it doesn't suit me."

"It suits me," Lyman replied. "I was brought up on it. I think mother
baked it in with the beans."

"Watercolor nonsense!" said Caruthers. "My people were as honest as
anybody, but they didn't teach me to look for the worst of it."

"But didn't they teach you that without a certain moral force there
can be no real and lasting achievement?"

Caruthers turned and nodded his head toward the bank. "Is there any
moral force over there? Did you notice any saintly precepts on his
wall? I don't think you did. But wasn't there many a sign that said,
'get money'?"

"Caruthers, you join with the rest of this town in the belief that
McElwin is a great man. I don't. He is a community success, a
neighborhood's strong man, but in the hands of the giants who live in
the real world he is a weakling."

"He is strong enough, though, not to tremble at the sound of a
footstep at the door, and that's exactly what we sit here doing day
after day. The jo