“No, sir,” says Catty.
“Well, then?”
“Lemme think.” Catty went over by the window and thought and thought. As far as I was concerned I figured he might as well be thinking about what a nice day it was, for all the good it would do, but I didn’t say anything. I just waited and watched him. His thin face looked a lot thinner, and you could see the corners of his jaws and his lips were as straight as if you had drawn them with a ruler. Every once in a while he bit his under-lip and sort of scowled.
“It wouldn’t be right to offer you more money, ’cause that would be jest like bribin’,” says he.
“That’s right,” says Mr. Heminway. “Would it be all right for you to tell me the names of some of the folks that come ahead of us?” Catty says.
“Not in the least,” says Mr. Heminway, and he gave Catty four or five names and addresses.
“Any of these orderin’ the same kind of lumber we be? Dimension stuff and spruce and floorin’ and sich?”
“Brown & Bolger have an order very like yours, but larger. Two or three car-loads larger.”
“Uh-huh. In town here, hain’t they?”
“Yes.”