Sam Tucker gave a grunt by way of assent.  He was niggardly with speech.

“Have you got any more of those Baldwin apples to sell?” asked Doctor Gordon, to James’s intense surprise.

Sam Tucker looked reflectively at the doctor for a full minute, then gave utterance to a monosyllable.  “Bar’l.”

“So you’ve got a barrel to sell,” said Gordon.

Sam nodded.

“Well, I’ll send my man over for them.  They are mighty fine apples, and Emma said yesterday that we were about out.  I suppose they are the same price.”

Sam nodded.

“Seems as if you might take off a little, it is so late, and you might have them spoiling on your hands,” said Gordon, and James began to wonder if they had come to drive a sharp bargain on apples instead of horses.

Sam shook his head emphatically.  “Same,” he said.

“Well, I suppose I’ve got to pay it if you ask it,” said Gordon.  “I can’t buy any such apples elsewhere.  You’ve got it your way.  I’ll send the money over by Aaron.”  Doctor Gordon gathered up the reins, but Sam Tucker seemed to experience a sudden convulsion all over his lank body.  “Horse,” he said.

Doctor Gordon drove on a yard, but Sam, running alongside, he stopped.  “Yes,” he said placidly, “horse.  What do you think of him?”

Sam said nothing.  He looked at the horse.

“He’s the biggest bargain I ever got,” said Gordon.  “I am going to hang on to him.  Once in a while there is an honest deal in horses.  I am not bringing up anything, Sam.  I believe in letting bygones be bygones, although you did risk my life and my man’s.  But this time I am all right.”  Gordon gathered up the reins again, and again Sam Tucker stopped him.  James barely saw the man’s mouth move.  He could not hear that he said anything, but a peculiar glow of eager greed lit up his long face, and Gordon seemed to understand him perfectly.  “You can take your oath not,” he said brusquely.  “What do you take me for?  You have stuck me once, and now you think you are going to do it again.  You can bet your life you are not.”  Again he gathered up the reins.  Sam Tucker’s face gleamed like a coal.  James saw for the first time in its entirety the trading instinct rampant.  Again Gordon seemed to understand what had apparently not been spoken.  “No, Sam Tucker,” he declared almost brutally, “I will not trade back for that old mare you cheated me out of, not if you were to give me your whole farm to boot.  I know that old mare.  I wasn’t the only one that got stuck.  She’s got the heaves.  I know her.  No, sir, you don’t do me again.  I’ve got a good horse this time, and I mean to hang on to him.”