“P’r’aps,” said Billy.
“Well, now,” continued the squire, “there’s two hundred dollars and interest due. Seems to me, if I remember right, you offered to sell the island to me, a year ago or so, for twelve hundred dollars. That’s a pretty big price, but I’ve been thinking it over some lately, and I reckon I’ll come pretty near that figure, if you’d like to make the trade.”
A year ago, Billy Cook would have jumped at the offer. But Billy, boots or no boots, had a vein of Yankee shrewdness in him.
“There’s something in the wind,” he thought. “The squire told me I was crazy when I offered it to him for that, last year.”
“Well, squire, I’ll tell you,” he replied. “Guess I did name something like that as a figure, a year ago. But I dunno about letting it go for that now, when things are looking up so. They tell me some of them New York and Boston real estate fellers have been down here lately, looking over land. However, I’ll just talk it over with the old lady, and let you know in a day or two.”
The squire was taken aback.
“Well,” said he, rising to go, “of course I don’t leave that offer open. That’s a whole lot of money for the land. But I’ve got a little money just come due, and I thought I might put it into that. Maybe I won’t have it to spare by the time you get ready.”
“Well, I reckon the land won’t blow away, squire,” chuckled Billy. “It’s anchored pretty reasonably firm, I guess. I’ll just go in and get those eggs.”
It did not take Billy Cook long, following the squire’s departure, to come to a conclusion regarding the true inwardness of the affair. There was only one man, at present, in the village, who would be likely to be offering anything like that amount of money for the island; and that man was Mr. Carleton. So Billy lost no time in hunting the gentleman up.
But, when he had found Mr. Carleton and suggested the matter to him, he was surprised to meet with a curt denial. Mr. Carleton, being in a bad humour, and having, moreover, as much an intention of purchasing the land as he had of buying the bay, replied, very shortly, in the negative.