rom what I've been able to learn about you, you haven't
associated with many of them. You've been playing a little at the high
and mighty yourself."

Chickens do come home to roost. My attitude of indifference and coldness
toward my fellow citizens had been misinterpreted, as it deserved to be.
George Taylor was right when he said I had made a mistake.

"I have been foolish," I said, hotly, "but not for the reason you
suppose. I don't consider myself any better than the people here--no,
nor even the equal of some of them. And, from what I have seen of you,
Mr. Colton, I don't consider you that, either."

Even this did not make him angry. He looked at me as if I puzzled him.

"Say, Paine," he said, "what in the world are you doing down in a place
like this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just that. You upset my calculations. I thought I spotted you and put
you in the class where you belonged when you and I first met. I can
usually size up a man. You've got me guessing. What are you doing down
here? You're no Rube."

If he intended this as a compliment I was not in the mood to accept
it as such. I should have told him that what I was or was not was no
business of his. But he went on without giving me the opportunity.

"You've got me guessing," he repeated. "You talk like a man. The way
you looked out for my daughter last night and the way, according to her
story, you handled her and Victor the other afternoon was a man's job.
Why are you wasting your life down here?"

"Mr. Colton, I don't consider--"

"Never mind. You're right; that's your affair, of course. But I hate to
quit till I have the answer, and nobody around here seems to have the
answer to you. Ready to sell me that land yet?"

"No."

"Going to sell to the public-spirited bunch? Dean and the rest?"

"No."

"You mean that? All right--all right. Say, Paine, I admire your nerve
a good deal more than I do your judgment. You must understand that I am
going to close that fool Lane of yours some time or other."

"Your understanding and mine differ on that point."

"Possibly, but they'll agree before I'm through. I am going to close
that Lane."

"I think not."

"I'm going to close it for two reasons. First, because it's a condemned
nuisance and ought to be closed. Second, because I make it a point to
get what I go after. I can't afford not to. It is doing that very thing
that has put me where I am."

There was nothing to be said in answer to a stateme