"She mightn't, I give in," answered Rat. "But her nephew up to Wareham is a diff'rent breed of cats. And since she moved over there to live along with him, he's got the handlin' of her property. I found that out to-day. From what I hear of this nephew man he ain't as particular as his aunt. And, anyway, 'tain't necessary for Philander to make the deal. You and Mr. Jacobs might make it for him."
I thought this over for a minute. I begun to catch the idea that the young scamp had in his noddle—or I thought I did.
"H'm," I says. "Yes, yes. You mean that if we'd lend Philander enough to pay the balance of his mortgage on the buildin' he's in now and would fix it so's Aunt Hannah'd sell us her place, under the notion that we was goin' to use it—you mean that then, after June fust, Foster'd swap. He'd move in there and turn over the old 'Palace' to us."
He and Jim Henry both bobbed their heads emphatic.
"That's what he means," says Jim.
"That's the idea exactly, Cap'n," says Rat. "I think Philander might be willin' to do that."
"Is that so!" says I, sarcastic. "Well, well! I want to know! But, say, Ratty, ain't you takin' an awful lot of trouble on Foster's account? You're turrible unselfish and disinterested all to once; or else there's a nigger in the woodpile somewheres. Where do you come in on this?"
He looked pretty average cheap. He fussed and fumed for a minute and then he blurts out his reason. "Well, I'll tell you, Cap'n," he says. "Philander's about the best friend I've got in this bum town and I get more solid comfort in his saloon than anywheres else. If he's drove out of Ostable, I'll be lonesomer than the grave. I don't want him to go. And besides—well, you see, the old man—dad, I mean—has got a notion about settin' me up in business here. And I don't want to be set up—not in his kind of business. I know the kind of business I want to go into, and ... but never mind that part," he adds, in a hurry.
I smiled. I remembered what old Ebenezer had said about the "Palace" buildin' not bein' empty on his hands very long and about somethin' he knew. It was all plain enough now. He intended openin' some sort of a store there with his son as boss. I almost wished he would. 'Twould be as good as a three-ring circus, that store would, if I knew Ratty. But I was mad, just the same, and when Jim Henry spoke, I was ready for him.
"Well, Skipper," says Jacobs, "what do you think of the plan?"