is?" he asked
anxiously, and when the attorney had once more assured him there would
be none, he picked his hat from the floor and shuffled into the hall and
down the stairs.

CHAPTER IX. The Witness

When Eliph' Hewlitt reached the Briggs house, he did not hesitate, but
walked right up to the front door and rang the bell. A minute later he
saw the red silk that obstructed the pane of beveled glass in the upper
part of the door drawn ever so slightly to one side and then quickly
replaced. He caught the glisten of an eye, as the red silk was held
aside, but the door did not open. Miss Sally, after the brief glance,
tiptoed back through the hall. She did not want to meet the book agent.

Eliph' waited a respectable minute and then rang the bell again,
although he had little belief that this would bring Miss Sally to the
door. It is good form to ring the bell of the front door several times,
before going to the back door, for it may be that the lady of the house
is dressing, or is hastily taking the folded paper "curlers" out of
her front hair, or slipping on her "other skirt" before admitting the
visitor. Few indeed are the front doors in Iowa that open promptly to a
knock or a ring. Primping time must be allowed, ad if this, followed
by a second ring or knock, does not open the door, nothing but business
permits the visitor to go to the back door. Having waited, Eliph' went
to the back door. It closed almost as he reached it, and it would not
open to his most vigorous knocking.

To know a person is in a house, and not to be able to reach that person,
is annoying, and Eliph' had often had this happen to him. The usual
course was to go away and return again; returning a third or fourth
time, or until the door at last opened; but Eliph' was not merely trying
to sell a copy of Jarby's Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Compendium of
Literature, Science and Art this time. He had no time to waste in the
usual manner. If he could not get into one house to sell a book, he
could enter another house and sell a book, but when a man is after a
certain heart he does not care to go to another house and take another
heart. Some men do it, but they are usually sorry afterwards. Eliph'
walked to the front of the house again, and looked at the front door.

He felt there should be some way to get into the house and have five
minutes' conversation with Miss Sally. If this Colonel and this Skinner
had already had months or years of opp