Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1903-02-25

iIls Il iest1oner, he was under the
sharpest surveillance that a pair of
well-trained old eyes could bring to
bear; knew this, and made sure that
the slightest hesitation, tho merest
quivering of a muscle, would beJray
him. So. though his lips were
parched and his tongue clave to his
teeth, he answered with vcll-simu
lated nonchalance:
81 read of it in the newspapers on
my way north,'' he said, with exact
and literal truthfulness. 81 remem-
Der thinking it was the most brazen
thing / had ever heard of. / presume
you know all the parties concerned %
This was said with the mildest pos.
sible shading of decent curiosity, and
was a very master stroke of evasion
which did it's work effectually for the
time. Andrew Galbraith smiled a
sour little smile, and confessed that
he knew one of the parties very well
indeed, and went about TO explain
that the Bayou bank was his bank.
Griswold listened respectfully, said
"Ah? it must have been a thrilling
experience" and said no more. And
if he had been from his earliest child
hood the closest student of the va
rious methods of averting crisis he
could not have done better.
A little interval of smokers silence
interviewed, and Griswold was the
first to break it. The thing he had
come to say admitted no preface, sc
he began in the midst.
What / came here this morning tic
tell you, Mr.. Galbraith, may strike
you as an odd thing with which to be.
gin an acquaintance; but as we have
no mutual friends, and as common
justice is, or should be, more far.
reaching than mere acquaintance,
felt it my duty to come. / happened
to hear the other day that you were
likely to become interested with Mr.
Grierson in the Red Lake pine lands
Was my information correct?"
Andrew Galbraith's eyes looked
their shrewdest at this, but he an
swered in the affirmative, and Girls.
void went on.
Pardon me if / seem impertinent
but is the transaction concluded?"
The banker. said it was, in effect:
that it wanted but the passing of q
check to it's conclusion.
1T involves a good bit of money
doesn't it?"
1T does that, but it's a fine chance
to make money"
May 1 ask upon what you base
that statement"
why, my dear sir! upon the stand.
ing pine, to be sure. At the present
rate of consumption, a five-year hold
ing of a good-sized bit of virgin pine
land will treble it's value"
"Of virgin forest-exactly. But
this particular tract you are buying
has been culled and re-culled for ten
years or more"
'Wha-what's that you're saying?
Andrew Galbraith staggered up out
of his chair heavily, and Griswold
saw again the terrified president OF
the Bayou bank as he had seen him
on that momentous morning in the
private Office in New Orleans. But
this time the start was only momen
tary. Mr.. Galbraith sat down again
and picked up the cigar he has
dropped in the shock of it; picked il
up and wiped it carefully with true
Scottish canniness.
II think you must be mistaken, Mr.
Griswold," he went on. 81 have file
of expert reports thick enough tt
make a book"
Griswold rose and held out hi!
hand.
Il have done what 1 conceived tt
be my duty, Mr.. Galbraith-a rather
disagreeable duty at that-and
nope you'll pardon me if l have
seemed unwarrantably meddlesome
But l also hope you will send an ex
perienced land locker whom you car
trust absolutely before you let tina
check pass. Good morning"