ught Hiram.

He could not help being suspicious, however, and he prowled about the
stacks and the barns more than ever at night. He could not shake off the
feeling that the enemy in the dark was at work again.

January passed, and the fatal day--the tenth of February--drew nearer
and nearer. If Pepper proposed to exercise his option he must do it on
or before that date.

Neither Hiram nor Mrs. Atterson had seen the real estate man of late;
but they had seen Mr. Strickland, and on the final day they drove to
town to meet Pepper--if the man was going to show up--in the lawyer's
office.

"I wouldn't trouble him, if I were you," advised the lawyer. "But if you
insist, I'll send over for him."

"I want to know what he means by all this," declared Mrs. Atterson,
angrily. "He's kept me on tenter-hooks for ten months, and there ought
to be some punishment for the crime."

"I am afraid he has been within his rights," said the lawyer, smiling;
but he sent his clerk for the real estate man, probably being very well
convinced of the outcome of the affair.

In came the snaky Mr. Pepper. The moment he saw Mrs. Atterson and Hiram
he began to cackle.

"Ye don't mean to say you come clean in here this stormy day to try and
sell that farm to me?" asked the real estate man. "No, ma'am! Not for no
sixteen hundred dollars. If you'll take twelve----"

Mrs. Atterson could not find words to reply to him; and Hiram felt like
seizing the scoundrel by the scruff of his neck and throwing him down to
the street. But it was Mr. Strickland who interposed:

"So you do not propose to exercise your option?"

"No, indeed-y!"

"How long since did you give up the idea of purchasing the Atterson
place?" asked the lawyer, curiously.

"Pshaw! I gave up the idee 'way back there last spring," chuckled
Pepper.

"You haven't the paper with you, have you, Mr. Pepper?" asked Mr.
Strickland, quietly.

The real estate man looked wondrous sly and tapped the side of his nose
with a lean finger.

"Why, I tore up that old paper long ago. It warn't no good to me," said
Pepper. "I wouldn't take the farm at that price for a gift," and he
departed with a sneering smile upon his lips.

"And well he did destroy it," declared Mr. Strickland. "It was a
forgery--that is what it was. And if we could have once got Pepper in
court with it, he would not have turned another scaly trick for some
years to come."

CHAPTER XXXIII. "CELERY MAD"

The relief to