do they manage, then?" asked the postmaster.

"Strauss says sometimes they send a little money and get a little,
the rest of the time he guesses they go without; live on
garden-sauce--they've got a little garden, you know, or grocery
stuff."

"Can they get trusted at the grocer's?"

"Ingram won't trust 'em, but Anderson lets 'em have all they want,
they say."

"S'pose he knows what he's about."

"Lawyers generally do," said Drake.

"He wasn't much of a lawyer, anyhow," said Amidon.

"That's so. He didn't set the river afire," remarked the postmaster.

"I don't believe, if Anderson trusts him, but he knows what he is
about," said the druggist. "I guess he knows he's goin' to get his
pay."

"Mebbe some of those fine securities of his will come up sometime,"
Amidon said. "I heard they'd been slumpin' lately. Guess there's some
Banbridge folks got hit pretty bad, too."

"Who?" asked Drake, eagerly.

"I heard Lee was in it, for one, and I guess there's others. I must
light out of this. It's dinner-time. Where's that arrow-root? My
wife's got to make arrow-root gruel for old Mrs. Joy. She's dreadful
poorly. Oh, there it is!"

Amidon started, and the postmaster also. In the doorway Amidon
paused. "Suppose you knew Carroll was away?" he said.

"No," said Drake.

"Yes, he's been gone a week; ain't coming home till the day before
the wedding. Their girl told ours. We've got a Hungarian, too, you
know. Carroll's girl can't get any pay. It's a dam'ed shame."

"Why don't she leave?"

"Afraid she'll lose it all, if she does. Same way with the coachman."

"Where's Carroll gone?" asked the postmaster.

"Don't know. The girl said he'd gone to Chicago on business."

"Guess he'll want to go farther than Chicago on business if he don't
look out, before long. I don't see how he's goin' to have the
weddin', anyway. I don't believe anybody 'll trust him here, and,
unless I miss my guess, he won't find it very easy anywhere else."

"They say the man the girl's goin' to marry is rich. Maybe he'll foot
the bills," said Drake.

"Mebbe he is," assented Amidon. Then he went out in earnest, and the
postmaster with him.

"Look at here," said Amidon, mysteriously, as the two men separated
on the next corner. "I'll tell you something, if you want to know."

"What?"

"I believe Drake trusts those Carrolls a little."

Chapter XVIII

There was in Banbridge, at this date, almost universal distrust of
Carroll, but v