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Updated: April 30, 2025
The need of money was merely the natural expression of Mr. Stamps's nature. He had needed money when he was born, and had laid infant schemes to secure cents from his relatives and their neighbours before he was four years old. But he had never needed it as he did now. The claim for governmental restitution of the value of the daily increasing herds had become the centre of his being.
And he took both note and money, still staring at the abnormal object before him. When the messenger arrived Latimer was reading the letters which had arrived by the last delivery. One of them was from Baird, announcing the hour of his return to the city. Latimer held it in his hand when Stamps's communication was brought to him. "Tell the messenger that I will come," he said.
"I got drenched to the skin, an' I hadn't nothin' dry to put on when I got home. But I'd seen ye an' told ye what I'd 'lowed to tell ye." "Where are the papers you spoke of?" Latimer asked. Stamps's feverish lips stretched themselves in an agreeable smile. "They ain't yere," he answered; "an' they won't be yere till I've got the pay fur 'em.
"I seen him in North Ca'llina. He did not live thar in the way other folks did. He was jest stayin'. I won't keep ye standin' in the rain," insinuatingly. "I'll jest walk along by ye." Latimer walked on. This dragged him back again, as other things had done once or twice. He did not speak, but strode on almost too rapidly for Stamps's short legs.
The idea which at once possessed his mind was that for some mysterious reason best known to himself the wearer had been waiting for and was following him. What was it for? He turned about suddenly and faced the person who seemed so unduly interested in his actions. "Do you want to speak to me?" he demanded. This movement, being abrupt, rather upset Mr. Stamps's calculations.
Tom thrust his hands deeper into his pockets and covered as large an area of floor with his legs as was possible without upsetting Mr. Stamps's chair and at the same time that stealthy little man himself. "Oh! found out!" he replied, "Found out h " He checked himself with much suddenness, glancing at the cradle as he did so.
Stamps's pale eyes fixed themselves with interest on his angry face. He had seated himself in his chair again, and he watched Tom closely as he rambled on in his simple, uncomplaining way. "Ye're fond o' laughin' at me round yere at the store, Tom," he remarked, "an' I ain't agin it.
Stamps's interest in Tom's protégée had been unfailing though quiet. When he came into the store, which he did some three times a week, it was his habit to fix his small, pale eyes upon her and follow her movements stealthily but with unflagging watchfulness.
Latimer took out a pocket-book and opened it that he might see. Stamps's countenance relaxed. The tension was relieved. "Thet's far an' squar," he said. "D'ye wanter know whar I found 'em? Tom Dwillerby never knowed I hed more than a envelope an' I tuk care not to tell him the name that was writ on it.
After this the stranger rode away and Tom lounged back to his chair. He made no reply to Stamps's explanatory aside, and no comment upon the remarks of the company whose curiosity had naturally received a new impetus which spurred them on to gossip a little in the usual vague manner. He gave himself up to speculation. The mere tone of a man's voice had set his mind to work.
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