“Kind of hang on to him so’s he don’t git away,” says he, and Mr. Wade and Captain Winton stood over Kinderhook, and Kinderhook jest got pale and shaky and didn’t dast to move.
Then Mr. Atkins went to the railing and commenced to talk to the folks. At first they was mad, but he kept at it till they got quiet and then told them the whole story from beginning to end, and explained to them, simple and careful, how Kinderhook was a man that had always made a living by swindling folks, and how this was about the biggest swindle he had ever aimed to bring off.
Well, it was funny to watch the folks. First off they was mad at Mr. Atkins—that they hadn’t recognized yet—for interfering with Kinderhook, and then they were mad at him because he was keeping them from getting rich, and then they got mad at Kinderhook not because he tried to cheat them out of what they had, but because his scheme was a swindle and they were cheated out of all the money they expected to get. It was mostly disappointment they showed. Then they got right down mad and were all for doing something mighty severe to Kinderhook, but Mr. Atkins and the captain prevented that. It was a regular uproar and I wouldn’t have missed it for a dollar.
In the middle of it Captain Winton shook hands with Mr. Atkins and says, “You have performed a great service to this town to-day,” says he, “and our people will appreciate it—when they get over their disappointment.”
“Maybe,” says Mr. Atkins.
Then, while Mr. Wade kept watch of Kinderhook, Captain Winton made a speech, and he told those folks plenty. He told them how the town had treated the Atkinses and boycotted them and called them names, and he told them they ought to be ashamed of themselves, and he asked them if Mr. Atkins looked like a tramp, and he said they ought to be grateful to him all the rest of their lives for saving all their hard-earned money from a swindler. And he said a lot about Mr. Atkins and how smart he had been and what a good business man he was, but it didn’t seem to have a lot of effect, though there was a little kind of mild cheering. They were too disappointed about finding out they weren’t going to be rich quick and easy.
“I should like to have you and your son take dinner with Mrs. Winton and myself to-night,” says the captain. “I want to hear all about this thing quietly.”
Catty heard that, and he ’most jumped out of his skin, because it wasn’t everybody that got invited to dinner at the Wintons’, and in our town if the Wintons had you to dinner, why, everybody else in town was more than willing to do the same. What the Wintons said about who was real select people was like a law.
“There,” says Catty, in a whisper, “we’re respectable at last!”
“Don’t see it changed your looks much.” says I.