Suddenly the doorway was darkened, and a big man with a bushy black beard came stalking in.

“Where’s Mrs. Golden?” he asked, looking at some papers in his hand.  “I want to see Mrs. Golden,” and his voice was cross.

“I’m Mrs. Golden,” answered the old lady.  “What can I do for you?”

“The best thing you can do is to pay that money!” snapped the man.

CHAPTER XIV

THE CROSS MAN

Bunny and Sue had at first paid no attention to the big man with the black beard who entered the little corner grocery store so suddenly.  The children thought he was a customer come to buy some groceries.

But when the man, in that cross voice, said Mrs. Golden had better pay him some money, Bunny and Sue looked sharply at him, Sue holding on to the broom.

“’Cause I thought maybe he was a robber coming after Mrs. Golden’s money,” she explained later.

“What would you have done if he had been a robber?” asked Uncle Tad.

“I’d ‘a’ hit him with the broom,” Sue replied.

“And I’d have helped her!” exclaimed Bunny.

But this was afterward.  The man, however, as the children looked at him, did not appear to be a robber.  He was big, and not very pleasant to look at, and his black beard was as bristling as some of those worn by moving-picture pirates.  But he did not seem to be going to take any money from the cash drawer.

From the way poor Mrs. Golden looked, though, the children were sure the man had frightened her.  She sank down in a chair, and stared silently at the man.

“Well!” exclaimed the cross man more crossly than at first, “I’m Mr. Flynt of the Grocery Supply Company.  If you’re Mrs. Golden, I want to know why you don’t pay me that money?”

“I—­I wish I could, Mr. Flynt,” murmured the old lady store keeper.  “I really thought I’d have it for you last week.”

“But you didn’t!” snapped out the man.  “You told our agent who called two weeks ago that you’d have it last week.  But you didn’t pay it.  Then you said you’d send it this week, and you didn’t.  Now I’ve come for it.  You can’t fool me!”

Truly, thought Bunny Brown and his sister Sue, no one could fool this man, nor play with him nor do anything with him except dislike him.

“Come, come, Mrs. Golden!” went on Mr. Flynt.  “You owe us this money, you know, and you’ll have to pay it!”

“If you’ll only wait until my son Philip comes back,” murmured the old lady, “he’ll pay you some, I’m sure.  He’s gone away to get a little legacy, and if he gets it I’ll have enough to pay you all I owe and more!”

“Yes, if he gets it!” sneered the cross man.  “I’ve heard those stories before.  But if your son doesn’t get that legacy what then?”

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll get it!” said Mrs. Golden, trying to smile.  “But if—­if he doesn’t, why, I’ll just have to owe you the money, that’s all!”