thence a bottle of Hiram's apple brandy, as coolly
as though it belonged to himself. He set three tumblers and a crock of
water upon the table and each helped himself liberally.

As the two visitors departed down the road, Levi stood for a while at
the open door, looking after the dusky figures until they were
swallowed in the darkness. Then he turned, came in, shut the door,
shuddered, took a final dose of the apple brandy and went to bed,
without, since his first suppressed explosion, having said a single
word to Hiram.

Hiram, left alone, stood for a while, silent, motionless as ever, then
he looked slowly about him, gave a shake of the shoulders as though to
arouse himself, and taking the candle, left the room, shutting the
door noiselessly behind him.

VIII

This time of Levi West's unwelcome visitation was indeed a time of
bitter trouble and tribulation to poor Hiram White. Money was of very
different value in those days than it is now, and five hundred pounds
was in its way a good round lump--in Sussex County it was almost a
fortune. It was a desperate struggle for Hiram to raise the amount of
his father's bequest to his stepbrother. Squire Hall, as may have been
gathered, had a very warm and friendly feeling for Hiram, believing in
him when all others disbelieved; nevertheless, in the matter of money
the old man was as hard and as cold as adamant. He would, he said, do
all he could to help Hiram, but that five hundred pounds must and
should be raised--Hiram must release his security bond. He would loan
him, he said, three hundred pounds, taking a mortgage upon the mill.
He would have lent him four hundred but that there was already a first
mortgage of one hundred pounds upon it, and he would not dare to put
more than three hundred more atop of that.

Hiram had a considerable quantity of wheat which he had bought upon
speculation and which was then lying idle in a Philadelphia
storehouse. This he had sold at public sale and at a very great
sacrifice; he realized barely one hundred pounds upon it. The
financial horizon looked very black to him; nevertheless, Levi's five
hundred pounds was raised, and paid into Squire Hall's hands, and
Squire Hall released Hiram's bond.

The business was finally closed on one cold, gray afternoon in the
early part of December. As Hiram tore his bond across and then tore it
across again and again, Squire Hall pushed back the papers upon his
desk and cocked his feet upon it