“Didn't know but she might have mortgaged the Phipps' place. Ain't done that, you say?”
“No. At least, if she has she didn't tell me of it. How are things over at the lighthouse?”
“All right enough. I don't hardly believe she could raise more'n three thousand on a mortgage, anyhow.... Humph! Five thousand is a sight of money, too.... Didn't she tell you nothin' about how she got it?”
Thacher's annoyance increased. The ordinary caller displaying such persistent curiosity would have been dismissed unceremoniously; but Jethro Hallett was not to be dismissed that way. The captain owned stock in the bank and, before his illness, his name had been seriously considered to fill the first vacancy in its list of directors.
“Must have told you SOMETHIN' about how she got hold of all that money,” persisted the light keeper. “What did she say to you, anyway, Ed?”
“She said—she said—Oh, well, she said she had sold something she owned and had got the five thousand for it.”
“Humph! I want to know! Sold somethin', eh? What was it she sold?”
“She didn't say, Cap'n. All she said was that she had sold it and got the five thousand. Oh, yes, she did say that it was a bigger price than she ever expected to get and that there was a time when she never expected to get a cent.”
“Humph! I want to know! Funny she should sell anything without comin' to me first. She generally comes to ask my advice about such things.... Humph!... She didn't sell the house? No, I'd a-known if she had done that. And what else.... Humph!...”
He pulled at his beard in silence for a moment. The teller, a brisk young man, possessed of a profound love of mischief and a corresponding lack of reverence, entered the office.