FullReads

The crowd thickened; the fellows came out of the blacksmith shop, while the jokers in the barbershop smote their knees and yelled with merriment.

"What’s up?" queried Vance, coming up and repeating the universal question.

McIlvaine pointed at the poster with his cigar.

Vance read the notice, while the crowd waited silently.

"What ye think of it?"asked someone impatiently. Vance smoked a moment. "Can’t say. Where’s Jim?"

"That’s it! Where is he?"

"Best way to find out is to send a boy up to the house. " He called a boy and sent him scurrying up the street.

The crowd now grew sober and discussed possibilities. "If that’s true, it’s the worst crack on the head I ever had," said Mcllvaine. " Seventeen hundred dollars is my pile in there. " He took a seat on the windowsill.

"Well, I’m tickled to death to think I got my little stake out before anything happened. "

"When you think of it, what security did he ever give?" Mcllvaine continued.

"Not a cent–not a red cent. "

"No, sir; we simply banked on him. Now, he’s a good fellow, an’ this may be a joke o’ Link’s; but the fact is, it might ‘a’ happened. Well, sonny?" he said to the boy, who came running up.

"Link ain’t to home, an’ Mrs. Sanford she says Jim’s sick an’ can’t come down. "

There was a silence. "Anybody see him this morning?" asked Wilson.

"Yes; I saw him," said Vance. "Looked bad, too. " The crowd changed; people came and went, some to get news, some to carry it away. In a short time the whole town knew the bank had "busted all to smash. " Farmers drove along and stopped to find out what it all meant. The more they talked, the more excited they grew; and " scoundrel," and "I always had my doubts of that feller," were phrases growing more frequent.

The list of the victims grew until it was evident that neariy all of the savings of a dozen or. more depositors were swallowed up, and the sum re
ached was nearly twenty thousand dollars.

"What did he do with it?" was the question. He never gambled or drank. He lived frugally. There was no apparent cause for this failure of a trusted institution.

It was beginning to snow in great, damp, driving flakes, which melted as they fell, giving to the street a strangeness and gloom that were impressive. The men left the sidewalk at last and gathered in the saloons and stores to continue the discussion.

The crowd at the railroad saloon was very decided in its belief. Sanford had pocketed the money and skipped. That yarn about his being at home sick was a blind. Some went so far as to say that it was almighty curious where Link was, hinting darkly that the bank ought to be broken into, and so on.

Upon this company burst Barney and Sam Mace from "Hogan’s Corners. " They were excited by the news and already inflamed with drink.

"Say!" yelled Barney, "any o’ you fellers know anything about Jim Sanford?"

"No. Why? Got any money there?"

"Yes; and I’m goin’ to git it out, if I haf to smash the door in. "

"That’s the talk!" shouted some of the loafers. They sprang up and surrounded Barney. There was something in his voice that aroused all their latent ferocity. "I’m goin’ to get into that bank an’ see how things look, an’ then I’m goin’ to find Sanford an’ get my money, or pound — out of ‘im, one o’ the six. "

"Go find him first. He’s up home, sick–so’s his wife. "

"I’ll see whether he’s sick ‘r not. I’ll drag ‘im out by the scruff o’ the neck! Come on!" He ended with a sudden resolution, leading the way out into the street, where the falling snow was softening the dirt into a sticky mud.