ety and
welfare. Of one thing Ike was certain--Creed lacked his usual
browbeating manner. He was apparently struggling to assume an unwonted
friendliness. Turner was very drunk, but triumphant, and his
satisfaction over what he must have felt was the practical joke of his
life seemed to make him friendly.

"'I kept 'em all right,' he said again and again. 'I've got the proof. I
wasn't working for nothing all these months. I ain't fool enough yet to
throw away papers even when I'm drunk.'

"To the watchful Ike's astonishment, Creed evidently tried to persuade
him to come into the house for something to eat. Turner slid off the
haymow, found his steps too unsteady, laughed foolishly, and suggested
that Creed bring some food to him there. 'Guess I've got a right to
sleep in the barn or house, whichever I want,' he said, leering into
Creed's face. The old usurer stood there for a few minutes eying Turner
thoughtfully. Then he actually gave him a shoulder back onto the hay,
said something about finding a snack of supper, and started out of the
barn. In the doorway he turned, looked back, then walked over to the
edge of the mow and groped on the floor until he found the whisky-flask,
picked it up, tossed it into Turner's lap, and stumbled out of the barn
again."

I was becoming interested in my own story and somewhat pleased with the
fluency of it, but my audience annoyed me. There was intermittent
whispering, with some laughter, and I inferred that one or another
would occasionally stimulate this inattention by tickling a companion
with a straw. Miss Anstell, who is so frivolous by nature that I
sometimes question her right to a place in my classroom, I even
suspected of irritating the back of my own neck in the same fashion.
Naturally, I ignored it.

"Peter Creed," I repeated, "went into the house. Ike hung around the
barn, waiting. He was frankly curious. In a few minutes his employer
reappeared, carrying a plate heaped with an assortment of scraps. Ike
peered and listened then without compunction.

"'It's the best I've got,' he heard Creed say grudgingly. Turner's tones
were now more drunkenly belligerent.

"'It had better be,' he said loudly. 'And I'll take the best bed after
to-night.' Evidently he was eating and muttering between mouthfuls. 'You
might have brought me another bottle.'

"'I did,' said Creed, to the listening Ike's great astonishment. Turner
laughed immoderately.

"A long silence followed. Turn