Harwood was interested in these remarks because they indicated a prevalent impression that Bassett dominated the “Courier,” in spite of the mystery with which the ownership of the paper was enveloped.  The only doubt in Harwood’s own mind had been left there by Bassett himself.  He recalled now Bassett’s remark on the day he had taken him into his confidence in the Ranger County affair.  “I might have some trouble in proving it myself,” Bassett had said.  Harwood thought it strange that after that first deliberate confidence and his introduction to Atwill, Bassett had, in this important move, ignored him.  It was possible that his relations with Allen Thatcher, which Bassett knew to be intimate, accounted for the change; or it might be due to a lessening warmth in Bassett’s feeling toward him.  He recalled now that Bassett had lately seemed moody,—­a new development in the man from Fraser,—­and that he had several times been abrupt and unreasonable about small matters in the office.  Certain incidents that had appeared trivial at the time of their occurrence stood forth disquietingly now.  If Bassett had ceased to trust him, there must be a cause for the change; slight manifestations of impatience in a man so habitually calm and rational might be overlooked, but Dan had not been prepared for this abrupt cessation of confidential relations.  He was a bit piqued, the more so that this astounding editorial indicated a range and depth of purpose in Bassett’s plans that Dan’s imagination had not fathomed.  He tore out the editorial and put it away carefully in his pocketbook as Montgomery was called.

A messenger was at the station to guide him to the court-house, where he found Mrs. Owen and Sylvia waiting for him in the private room of the judge of the circuit court.  Mrs. Owen had, in her thorough fashion, arranged all the preliminaries.  She had found in Akins, the president of the Montgomery National Bank, an old friend, and it was her way to use her friends when she needed them.  At her instance, Akins and another resident freeholder had already signed the bond when Dan arrived.  Dan was amused by the direct manner in which Mrs. Owen addressed the court; the terminology pertaining to the administration of estates was at her fingers’ ends, and there was no doubt that the judge was impressed by her.

“We won’t need any lawyer over here, Daniel; you can save the estate lawyer’s fees by acting yourself.  I guess that will be all right, Judge?”

His Honor said it would be; people usually yielded readily to Mrs. Owen’s suggestions.

“You can go up to the house now, Sylvia, and I’ll be along pretty soon.  I want to make a memorandum for an inventory with Daniel.”

At the bank Akins gave them the directors’ room, and Andrew Kelton’s papers were produced from his box in the safety vault.  Akins explained that Kelton had been obliged to drop life insurance policies for a considerable amount; only one policy for two thousand dollars had been carried through.  There were a number of contracts with publishers covering the copyrights in Kelton’s mathematical and astronomical textbooks.  The royalties on these had been diminishing steadily, the banker said, and they could hardly be regarded as an asset.