uck two three time by church members in good
standin' than anybody I ever dealed with. Take old Deakin Perkins. He's
a terrible feller fer church bus'nes; c'n pray an' psalm-sing to beat
the Jews, an' in spiritual matters c'n read his title clear the hull
time, but when it comes to hoss-tradin' you got to git up very early in
the mornin' or he'll skin the eye-teeth out of ye. Yes, sir! Scat
my----! I believe the old critter _makes_ hosses! But the deakin," added
David, "he, he, he, he! the deakin hain't hardly spoke to me fer some
consid'able time, the deakin hain't. He, he, he!

[Illustration: DAVID HARUM, Act III]

"Another thing," he went on, "the' ain't no gamble like a hoss. You may
think you know him through an' through, an' fust thing you know he'll be
cuttin' up a lot o' didos right out o' nothin'. It stands to reason that
sometimes you let a hoss go all on the square--as you know him--an' the
feller that gits him don't know how to hitch him or treat him, an' he
acts like a diff'rent hoss, an' the feller allows you swindled him. You
see, hosses gits used to places an' ways to a certain extent, an' when
they're changed, why they're apt to act diff'rent. Hosses don't know but
dreadful little, really. Talk about hoss sense--wa'al, the' ain't no
such thing."

Thus spoke David on the subject of his favorite pursuit and pastime,
and John thought then that he could understand and condone some things
he had seen and heard, at which at first he was inclined to look
askance. But this matter of the Widow Cullom's was a different thing,
and as he realized that he was expected to play a part, though a small
one, in it, his heart sank within him that he had so far cast his
fortunes upon the good will of a man who could plan and carry out so
heartless and cruel an undertaking as that which had been revealed to
him that afternoon. He spent the evening in his room trying to read, but
the widow's affairs persistently thrust themselves upon his thoughts.
All the unpleasant stories he had heard of David came to his mind, and
he remembered with misgiving some things which at the time had seemed
regular and right enough, but which took on a different color in the
light in which he found himself recalling them. He debated with himself
whether he should not decline to send Mrs. Cullom the notice as he had
been instructed, and left it an open question when he went to bed.

He wakened somewhat earlier than usual to find that the therm