“Don’t ask me.  I guess it has from what I’ve heard.  Anyhow it’s there now.  And what’s it there for?  That’s what I want to know.”

Jed’s face was very solemn, but there was a faint twinkle in his eye.  “That explains about Seth Wingate,” he mused.  “Yes, and Gab Bearse too. . . .  Hum. . . .  The Lord was better to me than I deserved.  They say He takes care of children and drunken men and—­ er—­the critters that most folks think belong to my lodge. . . .  Hum. . . .  To think I forgot to take that sign down!  Sho!”

“Forgot to take it down!  What in everlastin’ blazes did you ever put it up for?”

Jed explained why the placard had been prepared and affixed to the door.  “I only meant it for yesterday, though,” he added.  “I’d intended takin’ it down this mornin’.”

Captain Sam put back his head and laughed until the shop echoed.

“Ho, ho, ho!” he roared.  “And you mean to tell me that you put it up there because you was goin’ cruisin’ to the aviation camp and you didn’t want callers disturbin’ Mrs. Armstrong?”

His friend nodded.  “Um-hm,” he admitted.  “I sent ’em to ’Bije’s because he was as far off as anybody I could think of.  Pretty good idea, wasn’t it?”

The captain grinned.  “Great!” he declared.  “Fine!  Wonderful!  You wait till ’Bije comes to tell you how fine ’twas.  He’s in bed, laid up with neuralgia, and Emma J., his wife, says that every hour or less yesterday there was somebody bangin’ at their door asking about you.  Every time they banged she says that ’Bije, his nerves bein’ on edge the way they are, would pretty nigh jump the quilts up to the ceilin’ and himself along with ’em.  And his remarks got more lit up every jump.  About five o’clock when somebody came poundin’ he let out a roar you could hear a mile.  ’Tell ’em Shavin’s Winslow’s gone to the devil,’ he bellowed, ’and that I say they can go there too.’  And then Emma J. opened the door and ‘twan’t anybody askin’ about you at all; ’twas the Baptist minister come callin’.  I was drivin’ past there just now and Emma J. came out to tell me about it.  She wanted to know if you’d gone clear crazy instead of part way.  I told her I didn’t know, but I’d make it my business to find out.  Tut, tut, tut!  You are a wonder, Jed.”

Jed did not dispute the truth of this statement.  He looked troubled, however.  “Sho!” he said; “I’m sorry if I plagued ’Bijah that way.  If I’d known he was sick I wouldn’t have done it.  I never once thought so many folks as one every hour would want to see me this time of year.  Dear me!  I’m sorry about ’Bije.  Maybe I’d better go down and kind of explain it to him.”

Captain Sam chuckled.  “I wouldn’t,” he said.  “If I was you I’d explain over the long distance telephone.  But, anyhow, I wouldn’t worry much.  I cal’late Emma J. exaggerated affairs some.  Probably, if the truth was known, you’d find not more than four folks came there lookin’ for you yesterday.  Don’t worry, Jed.”