bout. Do you know how he's
fixed?"

Sadie was silent for a few moments. The others were young and newly
married and had admitted that the purchase of the business had strained
their resources. It was plain that a large bad debt might involve them
in difficulties. Wilkinson had forced her to fight, and she meant to
show him no mercy, but she must say nothing that could afterwards be
brought up against her.

"Character counts for as much as dollars," she remarked. "That was my
father's motto, and he was never afraid to take steep chances by backing
an honest man. Although he had debts on his books for three or four
years, it was seldom a customer let him down. But he cut out a crook as
soon as he suspected what the fellow was. However, you want to know how
Wilkinson stands? Well, it's a sure thing he finds dollars tight."

"Anyhow, a man can't disown his debts in this country."

"That's so; but if he's a farmer, the homestead laws stop your seizing
his house and land and part of his stock, unless he has mortgaged them
to you. If somebody else holds a mortgage, you generally get stung."

"The trouble is that if you're too hard on a customer, he tells his
friends, and the opposition gets his trade and theirs."

"Sure," said Sadie, "Keller's let the opposition have that kind of
trade. A crook's friends are generally like himself, and there's not
much profit in selling goods to folk who don't mean to pay."

"Has Wilkinson given a mortgage?" the man asked.

"If he had, it's got to be registered. You can find out at the record
office, and I guess it would pay you to go and see."

"Well, I hear he's just sold a good bunch of horses. That means he'll
have some money for a while."

"Then you had better take your bills over and get them paid before the
money's gone," Sadie answered in a meaning tone.

"If you had the store, would you risk his being able to pay all right
and afterwards dropping you?"

"I certainly would," said Sadie. "I'd harness my team and start for the
range right now."

The woman looked at her husband. "That's my notion, Tom; you'd better
go," she said, and turned to Sadie. "It would hit us hard if Wilkinson's
bill got much longer and he let us down."

Sadie left them and went to a new store farther up the street, after
which she called on an implement dealer who occasionally speculated in
real estate and mortgages, and one or two others. She knew them all, and
they knew that on business matters