he.  ‘What do you mean?’ says I. And then he told me.  ‘By godfreys,’ says I, ’if you can fix it so’s I can prove that’s true I’ll give you the biggest order you ever got in this store.’ ‘’Twon’t be any trouble to prove it,’ says he.  ’All you’ve got to do is look up his record in Middleford.’  And I’ve looked it up.  Yes, sir-ee, I’ve looked it up.  Ho, ho!”

Jed, white and shaking, made one more attempt.

“It’s all a lie,” he cried.  “Of course it is.  Besides, if you knew so much why have you been waitin’ all this time before you told it?  If you found out all this—­this pack of rubbish in January why did you wait till March before you told it?  Humph!  That’s pretty thin, I—­”

Phineas interrupted.

“Shut up!” he ordered.  “Why did I wait?  Well, now, Shavin’s, seein’ it’s you and I love you so, I’ll tell you.  At first I was for runnin’ right out in the street and hollerin’ to all hands to come and hear the good news about Sam Hunniwell’s pet.  And then thinks I:  ’Hold on! don’t be in any hurry.  There’s time enough.  Just wait and see what happens.  A crook that steals once is liable to try it again.  Let’s wait and see.’  And I waited, and—­ He, he, he!—­he has tried it again.  Eh, Shavin’s?”

Jed was speechless.  Babbitt, looking like a triumphantly vicious Bantam rooster, crowed on.

“You don’t seem to be quite so sassy and talky as you was when I first came in, Shavin’s,” he sneered.  “Guess likely you ain’t feelin’ well now . . . eh?  Do you remember what I told you last time I was in this shop?  I told you I’d pay my debts to you and Sam Hunniwell if I waited fifty year.  Well, here’s Hunniwell’s pay comin’ to him now.  He’s praised that Phillips thief from one end of Ostable county to the other, told how smart he was and how honest and good he was till—­Lord A’mighty, it’s enough to turn a decent man’s stomach!  And not only that, but here’s the feller courtin’ his daughter.  Oh, ho, ho, ho! that’s the best of the whole business.  That was another thing made me hang off and wait; I wanted to see how the courtin’ came along.  And it’s come along all right.  Everybody’s onto ’em, hangin’ over each other, and lookin’ soft at each other.  She’s just fairly heavin’ herself at his head, all hands says so.  There ain’t been anybody in this town good enough for her till he showed up.  And now it’s comin’ out that he’s a crook and a jailbird!  And he’ll be jailed for stealin’ this time, too.  Ho, ho!”

He stopped, out of breath, to indulge in another long chuckle.  Jed leaned forward.

“What are you talkin’ about, Phin?” he demanded.  “Even allowin’ all this—­this rigmarole of yours about—­about Middleford business—­ was true—­”

“It is true and you know it is.  I believe you’ve known it all along.”

“I say allowin’ it is, you haven’t any right to say Charlie took this money from the Orham bank.  You can’t prove any such thing.”