"Can't I lend you enough money to pay for a lodging?" he asked.
"You kin, but you needn't. Jake Bradley ain't that delicate that it'll hurt him to sleep out. No, Ben, save your money, and ef I actilly need it I'll make bold to ask you for it; but I don't throw away no money on a bed."
"If you hadn't lost your money in there," said Ben, pointing to the building they had just left, "wouldn't you have paid for a bed?"
"I might have put on a little style then, I allow. It don't do for a man with a thousand dollars in his belt to lie out. I ain't afraid now."
Ben, on leaving his new acquaintance, thought it best to go back at once to Miss Sinclair, to communicate the information he had obtained, rightly deeming it of importance.
"Well, Ben, have you seen the whole town so soon?" asked Miss Sinclair, looking up from her trunk, which she was unpacking.
"No, Cousin Ida, but I think I have learned something of Mr. Dewey."
"You have not seen him?" asked Miss Sinclair quickly.
"No, I have not seen him, but I have seen a man who met him nearly a year since at the mines."
"Tell me about it, Ben," said the young lady. "Where was it that this man saw Richard-Mr. Dewey?"