III-II

The purpose of this gathering was instantly
apparent to him, it stirred obscure memories
into being. -- A property was being
publicly sold for debt.

The trooping thoughts of the past filled his mind;
thoughts, it seemed to him, of another than himself.
Surely it had been another Gordon Makimmon that,
sitting before the _Bugle_ office, had heard the sheriff
enumerating the scant properties of the old freehold
by the stream to satisfy the insatiable greed of
Valentine Simmons. It had been a younger man
than himself by fifteen years. Yet, actually, it had
been scarcely more than three years since the storekeeper
had had him sold out.

That other Makimmon had been a man of incredibly
vivid interests and emotions. Now it appeared
to him that, in all the world, there was not a
cause for feeling, not an incentive to rouse the mind
from apathy.

Stray periods reached him from the sheriff's recounting
of "a highly desirable piece of property."
His loud, flat voice had not changed by an inflection

[[284]]

p283 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p284w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p285

v?