III-XX

Gordon met Valentine Simmons squarely
for the first time since the collapse of his
laborious planning outside the post-office.
The latter, with a senile and pleased chuckle, tapped
him on the chest.

"Teach you to be provident, Gordon," he said
in his high, rasping voice; "teach you to see further
than another through a transaction; as far ain't near
enough; most don't see at all."

The anger had evaporated from Gordon Makimmon's
parched being: the storekeeper, he recognized,
was sharper than all the rest of the County combined;
even now the raddled old man was more
acute than the young and active intelligences. He
nodded, and would have passed on, but the storekeeper,
with a ponderous furred glove, halted him.

"We haven't had any satisfaction lately with the
Stenton stage," he shrilled; "and I made out to ask
-- you can take it or leave it -- if you'd drive again?
It might be a kind of -- he-he! -- relax from your
securities and investments."

Gordon, without an immediate reply, regarded

[[351]]

p350 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p351w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p352

v?