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"Wall, he ain't no home'path," replied the Clown with a grin; "'sides, I presume likely he needed all he could git down him." The days that followed were full of joy to Alice. Never had Thayor seen her in so merry a mood. Le Boeuf's broken arm had somehow changed Thayor's attitude toward his guest so much so that the man's personality no longer jarred on him.
"I'll see Leveridge at once now before I change my clothes. He's seen Margaret almost every day since she was born and this silk-stocking exquisite of yours hasn't seen her ten times in his life!" And he strode from the room. Thayor's interview with Alice only made him more determined than ever to carry out his plans at Big Shanty.
"Lily Pond, and little Moose and Still Water and " "I see," interrupted Thayor. "Why do you ask?" inquired Holcomb, wondering at the drift of Thayor's inquiry. "Oh, nothing. That is, nothing now. How many acres do you think it all covers?" "I should say about fifteen thousand," replied Holcomb. "Only fifteen thousand, eh?"
"Last winter," he went on hurriedly, as he glanced at the setting sun, "I stumbled on them both just as you've done, only my trail led through the conservatory of the New York house. They were both hard pressed, do you see, for a way out; that's how I first knew about Mr. Thayor's intention to purchase this property." "The telegram Mr. Thayor sent, you mean?" "No a letter.
"I've got a letter from Thayor himself," explained the stranger, as he squinted over his hooked nose and searched cautiously the contents of an inside pocket. "It's for a man named Holcomb he's Thayor's superintendent, ain't he?" "Yes," said Morrison, "and a durn good one, too. I'll warrant Sam Thayor got the feller he was lookin' for when he got Billy."
Hite called it eighteen good miles; the Clown put it at nineteen; what the old dog estimated it at none knew. He had always trotted the distance cheerfully. From Thayor's private flag station, the main road into Big Shanty snakes along over a flat, sparsely settled valley before it enters the deep woods.
Morrison looked at it carefully, tucked it in a fly-specked screen behind the bar, and with a satisfied air said: "Let's see you hain't had no supper, hev ye? Supper's most ready I'll go and tell the old woman you're here." "No I ain't stoppin' for supper," replied Bergstein, paying for his glass. "I'm going up to Thayor's place now; this feller Holcomb's expectin' me."
The open-air life the excitement of the hunt the touch of the cool woods, had removed from Thayor's mind every lingering doubt of his future plans. With the same promptness which characterized all his business transactions, he decided to return to New York the next day.
Wagon loads of luxuries then began to arrive antique furniture, matchless refrigerators, a grand piano and a billiard table cases of pictures and bundles of rare rugs. So great was the accumulation of luxuries at Big Shanty that little else was talked of. "How much money do ye cal'late Sam Thayor's got?" one of the prophets at Morrison's would ask.
They, too, looked at Thayor's purchase as a gold mine. Morrison had done a thriving business with the stout little tumblers with bottoms half an inch thick. Bergstein frequently treated when they growled over the bad food he treated liberally, and they forgot. He blamed it on Thayor and they agreed.
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