“It has only added to the general effect,” affirmed the Squire.  “It’s a clincher.  Folks don’t care now because Tasper Britt is awake.  He has got plenty of business of his own to attend to without calling in sheriffs to slap on attachments.”

“Very good!  The easier the better,” returned Colonel Wincott.  “But when I hired you to look after the law part, Hexter, I reckoned you could counter every crack he made.  Sit down, Vaniman!” He picked up the chair he had overturned and took it for himself.  “You have seen the parade, some of it?”

“I saw a great deal of it, sir.”

“And you don’t know where it’s headed for?”

“No.”

The colonel leaned back and regarded the Squire with the satisfied contentment of a cat who had tucked away the last morsel of the canary.  Then he winked at Vaniman.  “Young man, did you ever hear of Wincott’s Pure Rye?”

“No, sir.”

“Glad of it!  Hope you never were familiar with any other brands.  However, enough men did know about it in those dear, damp days beyond recall to make me independent of the pawnshop, to say the least.  And, having cleaned up a good pot with whisky running down men’s gullets, I reckoned I’d see what I could do with water running downhill.  Do you get me at all so far?”

“No, sir.”

“Didn’t suppose you would.  I’m only shuffling the deck.  Now for the deal!  Awhile ago I came up into this state from the South and I bought the unorganized township that bounds this town on the north.  It had gone begging for a buyer because it’s mostly pond and water power.  But it’s what I wanted.  And, having bought it, I used my check book and got some good lobbyists on the job and I got a conditional charter from the legislature.  That is to say, it becomes a town charter automatically the moment I can report a certain number of inhabitants—­not mere men, but families, regularly settled.  Do you see?”

“I surely do begin to see, Colonel Wincott.”

“Vaniman, if I had gone to the cities and advertised for settlers, what kind would I have got?  Probably only a bunch of aliens dissatisfied already; if they weren’t sore on general conditions I couldn’t coax ’em to move.  And aliens are always moving.  I wanted some of the old breed of Yankee pioneers.  That’s what my folks were, ’way back.  I took a sly peek into the town of Egypt.  Good folks, but no opportunities here.  Everything gone to seed.  Up in my township a new deal with a fresh deck!  Plenty of timber, plenty of rich land—­and mills going up.  Confound it!  I propose to be boss of a real town—­not a wild land plantation!”

He suddenly shifted his posture.  He came forward in his chair and set his elbows on his knees.  “Say, Vaniman, I got Hexter’s opinion a few days ago when I opened up to him and hired him to attend to the law.  But I want to ask you now what you think of my real-estate agent?”

The young man shifted his bewildered gaze from the colonel’s jovial and inquiring visage to the Squire’s equally cheerful countenance.