t few could; and if this pious old hen, Mrs. Converse, attends
strictly to foreign missions a few days longer, all will go well."

"No need to worry about her," responded Weston, whose spirits had also
risen. "I, too, am fairly smooth, and have persuaded her to leave her
stock with me to sell when the right time comes; and I have also
subscribed five hundred toward a home for old ladies she is interested
in. That's the way I _converse_ with her."

And the two laughed at this poor pun.

Little did either realize that Nemesis, with three thousand shares in
reserve, lurked in Broker Page's office, and that another thousand in
the pocket of the "fossil who fiddled," as Weston had once called Jess
Hutton, would be added to that avenging club, inside of twenty-four
hours.

CHAPTER XXX

THE BUBBLE BURSTS

In response to Winn's summons, dressed in a somewhat faded and
nondescript garb, with bell-crowned silk hat of ancient style, Jess
Hutton reached the city.

And he was a picture!

His coat, a surtout with small gilt buttons, a reddish brown vest,
trousers of gray mixed stuff, a high collar with black satin stock, and
his ruddy brown face with fringe of gray beard and keen twinkling blue
eyes made him conspicuous. He carried a cane, limping a little as
always, and when he greeted Winn on the station platform, the latter
felt that all Rockhaven had arrived.

"Ain't this a _leetle_ sudden?" he said, when the two had shaken hands.
"I sorter cac'lated ye'd send fer me, an' when I got the message I
thought o' old Abner Tucker's tombstone. He'd allus been skeered o'
lightnin', an' when he got hit his widder had his stun sot up 'n' put
on't, 'I 'spected this, but not so soon.'"

"I'm glad you came," said Winn, heartily, "and hope you have brought all
the stock I sold on the island."

"Oh, I fetched it all, even the parson's, 'n' he told me a blessin' went
with hisn," responded Jess.

And then Winn, more light-hearted than ever before in his life, hurried
the old man into a carriage.

"We are to keep in hiding," he said, "until my friends say the word, and
then I'll take you to the stock exchange and we will see our stock
sold."

"I don't see no use in hidin' in this 'ere jumble o' humanity," asserted
Jess, as their vehicle became entangled in a street blockade, "the
puzzle on't here 'ud be to find anybody ye wanted."

"It's best that we hide, however," replied Winn. "If Weston caught sight
of either of us