HAPTER XXXV

"There is a man who seems to have begun to haunt my pathway," Baird said
to Tom; "or perhaps it is Latimer's pathway, for it is when Latimer is
with me that I meet him. He is small and sharp-featured and unwholesome."

"It sounds like Stamps," laughed big Tom.

He related the story of Stamps and his herds. The herds had not gained
the congressional ear as Mr. Stamps had hoped. He had described their
value and the gravity of his loss to everyone who would listen to his
eloquence, but the result had been painfully discouraging. His
boarding-house had become a cheaper one week by week, and his blue jeans
had grown shabbier. He had fallen into the habit of hanging about the
entrances of public buildings and the street corners in the hope of
finding hearers and sympathisers. His sharp little face had become
haggard and more weasel-like than before. Baird recognised big Tom's
description of him at once.

"Yes, it must be Stamps," he said. "What is the meaning of his interest
in us? Does he think we can provide evidence to prove the value of the
herds? What are you thinking of, De Willoughby?"

In fact, there had suddenly recurred to Tom's mind a recollection of
Sheba's fifth birthday and the visit Mr. Stamps had made him. With
something of a shock he recalled the shrewd meekness of his voice as he
made his exit.

"It begins with a 'L,' Tom; it begins with a 'L.'"

The need of money was merely the natural expression of Mr. Stamps's
nature. He had needed money when he was born, and had laid infant schemes
to secure cents from his relatives and their neighbours before he was
four years old. But he had never needed it as he did now. The claim for
governmental restitution of the value of the daily increasing herds had
become the centre of his being. His belief in their existence and
destruction was in these days profound; his belief that he should finally
be remunerated in the name and by the hand of national justice was the
breath of life to him. He had at last found a claim agent whose
characteristics were similar to his own, and, so long as he was able to
supply small sums with regularity, this gentleman was willing to
encourage him and direct him to fresh effort. Mr. Abner Linthicum, of
Vermont, had enjoyed several successes in connection with two or three
singular claims which he had "put through" with the aid of genius
combined with a peculiar order of executive ability. They had not been
large claims,