or what he could get out of it. The usurer tried to show
disinclination to take over real estate in Egypt, but he did not make a
very good job of the pretense. He had the air of a man who expected to
be obliged to tussle for something, but had had the something dropped
into his grasp when he merely touched the holder's knuckles.

Britt had a map of the town in his office desk. He began to color
sections with a red crayon. According to Mr. Britt's best judgment in
the matter, he was in a fine way to own a whole town--a barony six miles
square--at an extremely reasonable figure. From the selectman down,
nobody seemed to feel that Egypt property was worth anything. As to
beginning suits against the town, nobody felt like paying lawyers' fees
and piling up costs. It was like tilting against a fog bank. And in a
veritable fog bank of doubt and despair the unhappy Egyptians wandered
around and around.

CHAPTER XXII

THE TAUT STRING SNAPS

Frank Vaniman's mother was allowed to visit him once a month at the
prison. She was not present at his trial. She had respected his earnest
wishes in that matter.

When she came to him she smiled--she did not weep. When she smiled he
wanted to weep. He realized how much that display of calm courage was
costing Martha Vaniman. He remembered how bravely and steadfastly she
had brought that same heroine's quality to the support of his father
when she had taken Frank with her to the prison; they used to walk in
through the gloomy portal hand in hand, and, though her face was serene,
her throbbing fingers told him what her heart was saying to her.

Her husband had thankfully accepted that little fiction of her
fortitude; her son, under like circumstances, did the same. Between
mother and son, as between husband and wife, was the bond of an implicit
faith in the innocence of the accused. Love was not shamed, no matter
how the outside world might view the matter.

The prison warden was a fat man, full of sympathy. He gave the
mother and son the privileges of his office, and to those reassuring
surroundings the mother brought Frank's sister on one of the regular
visits.

After Mr. Wagg's guile gave Vaniman his outdoor job, the mother brought
Anna each month, for the school vacation season was on. The sun was
bright out there in the yard. One could look up into the fleecy clouds,
over the walls, and forget the bars and the armed guards.

In fact, one day, Anna's ingenuous forgetfulness