John to himself, "where the carcase is the vultures are gathered
together.")

"'Wa'al,' I says to her, after we'd had a little more talk, 's'posen
you come 'round to my place to-morro' 'bout 'leven o'clock, an' mebbe we
c'n cipher this thing out. I don't say positive that we kin,' I says,
'but mebbe, mebbe.' So that afternoon I sent over to the county seat an'
got a description an' had a second morgige drawed up fer two hundred
dollars, an' Mis' Cullom signed it mighty quick. I had the morgige made
one day after date, 'cause, as I said to her, it was in the nature of a
temp'rary loan, but she was so tickled she'd have signed most anythin'
at that pertic'ler time. 'Now,' I says to her, 'you go an' settle with
old Step-an'-fetch-it, but don't you say a word where you got the
money,' I says. 'Don't ye let on nothin'--stretch that conscience o'
your'n if nes'sary,' I says, 'an' be pertic'ler if he asks you if Dave
Harum give ye the money you jes' say, "No, he didn't." That won't be no
lie,' I says, 'because I ain't _givin_' it to ye,' I says. Wa'al, she
done as I told her. Of course Swinney suspicioned fust off that I was
mixed up in it, but she stood him off so fair an' square that he didn't
know jes' what _to_ think, but his claws was cut fer a spell, anyway.

[Illustration: DAVID HARUM, Act II]

"Wa'al, things went on fer a while, till I made up my mind that I
ought to relieve Swinney of some of his anxieties about worldly bus'nis,
an' I dropped in on him one mornin' an' passed the time o' day, an'
after we'd eased up our minds on the subjects of each other's health an'
such like I says, 'You hold a morgige on the Widder Cullom's place,
don't ye?' Of course he couldn't say nothin' but 'yes.' 'Does she keep
up the int'rist all right?' I says. 'I don't want to be pokin' my nose
into your bus'nis,' I says, 'an' don't tell me nothin' you don't want
to.' Wa'al, he knowed Dave Harum was Dave Harum, an' that he might 's
well speak it out, an' he says, 'Wa'al, she didn't pay nothin' fer a
good while, but last time she forked over the hull amount. But I hain't
no notion,' he says, 'that she'll come to time agin.' 'An' s'posin' she
don't,' I says, 'you'll take the prop'ty, won't ye?' 'Don't see no other
way,' he says, an' lookin' up quick, 'unless you over-bid me,' he says.
'No,' I says, 'I ain't buyin' no real estate jes' now, but the thing I
come in fer,' I says, 'leavin' out the pleasure of havin' a talk with
you, was to sa