"Why, what a how-dye-do you did give us, Miss Ruth!" the woman
exclaimed at sight of her. "I called you _three_ times, and when you
didn't answer I went to your door; and there you were gone! I told
Norman Apgarth somebody must have took you off in the night."

"Oh, no," said Ruth. "No danger. I'm used to getting up early, you
see. So I just took some cakes--Didn't you miss them?--and some milk
and slipped out without waking any one. I wanted to catch this fish.
Jeffrey Whiting and I tried to catch him for four years. And I had to
do it myself this morning."

"So young Whiting's gone away, eh?"

"Why, no," said Ruth quickly. "He went over to Wilbur's Fork about
half an hour ago. Who said he'd gone away?"

"Oh, nobody," said the woman hastily; "it's only what they was sayin'
up at French Village yesterday."

"What were they saying?" Ruth demanded.

"Oh, just talk, I suppose," Mrs. Apgarth evaded. "Still, I dunno's I
blame him. I guess if I got as much money as they say he's got out of
it, I'd skedaddle, too."

Ruth stepped over and caught the woman sharply by the arm.

"What did they say? Tell me, please. Mrs. Apgarth saw that the girl
was trembling with excitement and anxiety. She saw that she herself
had said too much, or too little. She could not stop at that. She must
tell everything now.

"Well," she began, "they say he's just fooled the people up over their
eyes."

"How?" said Ruth impatiently. "Tell me."

"He's been agoin' round holdin' the people back and gettin' them to
swear that they won't sign a paper or sell a bit of land to the
railroad. Now it turns out he was just keepin' the rest of the people
back till he could get a good big lot of money from the railroad for
his own farm and for this one of yours. Oh, yes, they say he's sold
this farm and his own and five other ones that he'd got hold of, for
four times what they're worth. And that gives the railroad enough to
work on, so the rest of the people'll just have to sell for what they
can get. He's gone now; skipped out."

"But he has _not_ gone!" Ruth snapped out indignantly. "I saw him only
half an hour ago."

"Oh, well, of course," said the woman knowingly, "you'd know more
about it than anybody else. It's all talk, I suppose."

Ruth blushed and dropped the fish forgotten on the grass. She said
shortly:

"I'm going to spend the day with Mrs. Whiting."

"Oh, then, don't say a word to her about this. She's an awful good
neighbour.