ks went into this here thing?"

"Sev'ral. Sev'ral. Near's I kin figger, folks here bought nigh five
thousand dollars' wuth of stock off'n Baxter. Must 'a' been fifty or
sixty went into the deal."

"Dum fools," said Scattergood, with sudden wrath. "Has it got so's I
don't dast to leave town without you folks messin' things up? Can't I
leave overnight and find things safe in the mornin'?... You hain't got
the sense Gawd give field mice--the whole kit and b'ilin' of you. Serves
you dum well right, tryin' to git somethin' f'r nothin'. Now git away
fr'm here. Don't pester me.... You've been swindled, that's what, and it
serves you doggone well right. Now git."

It was one of the few times that Coldriver saw Scattergood in a rage.
The rage convinced them. Scattergood said they were swindled and he was
in a rage. Therefore he must be right. The news spread, and knots of
citizens with lowered heads and anxious eyes gathered on street corners
and whispered and nodded toward Scattergood, who sat heavily on his
piazza, speaking to nobody. It was Grandmother Penny who dared accost
him. She crept up to his place and said, tremulously:

"Be you sure, Scattergood, about that feller bein' a swindler?"

Scattergood looked down at her fiercely. Then his eyes softened and he
leaned forward and scrutinized her face.

"Did you git into this mess, too, Grandmother Penny?"

"Both me 'n' James," she said. "You let on that folks got rich quick by
investin'. Me 'n' James was powerful anxious to git money so's--so's we
could git married on it. So we drawed out our money and--and invested
it."

"Come here, Grandmother," said Scattergood, and she stood just before
his chair, her head coming very little higher than his own as he sat
there, big and ominous. "So the skunk took _your_ money, too. I hain't
carin' a whoop for them others. They got what was comin' to 'em, and I
didn't calculate to do nothin'. But you! By crimminy!... Wa-al,
Grandmother, you go off home and knit. I'll look into things. It's on
your account, and not on theirs." He shook his head fiercely toward the
town. "But I calculate I'll have to git theirn back, too.... And,
Grandmother--you and James kin rest easy. Hain't sayin' no more. Jest
wait, and don't worry, and don't say nothin' to nobody.... G'-by,
Grandmother Penny. G'-by."

That evening Scattergood drove out of Coldriver in his rickety buggy.
Nobody had dared to speak to him, but, nevertheless, he carried in his