"They may be," she answered, smiling darkly.
"You speak as if you were Mike Prim, Selah. It's scandalous!"
It was Saturday afternoon, two days since the funeral and two days since Mike Prim bent listening with such furious excitement at the keyhole of Judge Regis's office. Jordantown had become the stage upon which a mystery play was being enacted with all the farcical features of a comedy. Every man, especially, was doing exactly what he would have done and said if there had been footlights and an audience in front, only not one of them knew that this was so. Providence is the Great Dramatist, and secures perfectly natural effects by providing emergencies which call for action, and by keeping every man under the delusion that he chooses his own rôle.
The suspense concerning the disposition of the Mosely Estate was only partially balanced by the confounded indignation of many citizens who came and went from Mike Prim's office.
"Sent for you again, too?" exclaimed Coleman when he met Acres as he descended the stairs.
"Yes, what's the matter?" asked Acres anxiously.
"You'll find out when you get up there. He's as mad as a rhinoceros horning sand in a desert."
"But what does he want?" Acres insisted.
"Wants you to double your subscription to the campaign fund. Better not go up if you can't do it. He got me for a cool hundred."