"To pay his mortgage off?" and Sally swung round on Edmonds now.
"Yes," the latter admitted; "he can easily do it."
Then the girl turned to Hawtrey. "Gregory," she said with harsh incisiveness, "there's only one way you could get that money—and it isn't yours."
Hawtrey said nothing, but he could not meet her gaze, and when he turned from her she looked back at the mortgage jobber.
"If you're gone before I come back there'll sure be trouble," she informed him, and sped swiftly out of the room.
Then Hawtrey sat down limply in his chair, and Edmonds laughed in a jarring manner. The game was up, but, after all, if he got his 3,000 dollars he could be satisfied, for he had already extracted a good many from Hawtrey one way or another.
"If I were you I'd marry that girl right away," he said. "You'd be safer if you had her to look after you."
Hawtrey let the jibe pass. For one thing, he felt that it was warranted, and just then his anxiety was too strong for anger.
In the meanwhile, Sally ran out of the house to meet Hastings, who had just handed his wife down from their waggon, and drew him a pace or two aside.
"I'm worried about Gregory," she said; "he's in trouble—big trouble. Somehow we have got to raise 3,000 dollars. Edmonds is inside with him."