“Oh—ah—yes,” he said. “Is it?”
“Sartin 'tis. THEY wouldn't need to be sendin' anybody to buy my shares, would they? They've bought 'em already. The whole thing is queer. Look here! Why should anybody be chasin' ME for those shares? Why don't they get a list of stockholders from the books? Those transfer books ought to show that I've sold, hadn't they? They would, too, if any transfer had been made. There ain't been any made, that's all the answer I can think of. I signed those certificates of mine in blank, transferred 'em in blank on the back. And somebody—whoever 'twas bought 'em—ain't turned 'em in for new ones in their own name, but have left 'em just the way they got 'em. That's why Raish and his crowd think I've still got my stock. Now ain't that funny, Mr. Bangs? Ain't that strange?”
It was not at all funny to Galusha. Nor strange. The light keeper tugged at his beard and his shaggy brows drew together. “I don't know's I did right to let go of that stock of mine, after all,” he said, slowly. “Don't know as I did, no.”
Galusha asked him why.
“Because I don't know as I did, that's all. If I'd hung on I might have got more for it. Looks to me as if Raish's crowd, whoever they are, are mighty anxious to buy. And the Denboro Trust Company folks might bid against 'em if 'twas necessary. They've got too much of that stock to let themselves be froze out. Humph!... Humph! I ain't sure as I did right.”
“But—but you did get a profit, Captain Hallett. The profit you—ah—expected.”
“Humph! I got a profit, but how do I know 'twas the profit Julia meant? I ought to have gone and asked her afore I sold, that's what I ought to have done, I cal'late.”
He frowned heavily and added, in a tone of gloomy doubt: “I presume likely I've been neglectin' things—things like that, lately, and that's why punishments are laid onto me. I suppose likely that's it.”
Galusha, of course, did not understand, but as the captain seemed to expect him to make some remark, he said: “Oh—ah—dear me! Indeed? Ah—punishments?”
“Yes. I don't know what else they are. When your own flesh and blood—” He stopped in the middle of his sentence, sighed, and added: “Well, never mind. But I need counsel, Mr. Bangs, counsel.”