“Oh, hullo, Starr!” cried Mr. Harnden, shoving out a friendly hand.  “Heard you were in town.  I know Starr,” he told Britt.  “I know everybody in the state worth knowing.  I told you so.”

Mr. Starr was not effusive; there was a hint of sarcasm in his inquiry as to how the invention business was coming along.

“Fine and flourishing!” announced Harnden, radiantly.  Then he blurted some news which seemed to embarrass Britt very much; the news also provoked intense interest in Vaniman and the daughter.  “All I’ve ever needed is backing, Starr.  Now I’ve got it!” He clapped his hand on the banker’s shoulder.  “Here’s my backer—­good as a certified check.  Hey, Tasper?”

“I’m—­I’m always ready to help develop local talent,” Britt admitted, stammering, turning his back on the faces at the grille.  “Starr, we’d better get along toward the tavern.  I’ve had some poor luck with Files when he’s off his schedule time!”

“The new combination of Harnden and Britt will make ’em sit up and take notice,” persisted the inventor.  Forgetting Vona, desiring to impress a skeptic from the outside world, he followed Starr and the banker.

Vaniman and the girl listened to the optimist’s fervid declarations till the slam of the outside door shut them off.

“That sounds like an interesting investment, Vona,” was the cashier’s dry comment.  “Mr. Britt seems to be swinging that watering pot of his new generosity around in pretty reckless fashion.  I wonder what he’ll do next!”

“Frank, I’m afraid!” She spoke in a whisper, staring hard at him.  “No, no!  Not what you think!  I am not afraid because he is buying my father.  If Mr. Britt thinks I can be included in that bargain he is wiser in making his money than he is in spending it.  But there’s something dreadful at work against us!” She had her hand on the page of an open ledger.

“The books can be straightened,” he insisted.  “I can do it.  I’ll do it, if I have to call in every depositor’s pass book.”  He pointed to the vault.  He was keeping the doors open till his work was done.  “As long as the money is there, every cent of it, the final checking will show for itself.  And the money will be there!  I’m answering for that much!  I propose to stay with it till that Barnes shows up.”

“I remember now that you told me he would come by the stage to-day.”

“So Britt gave me to understand, when I reported that he didn’t come on the night train.”

“But I looked out of the window a little while ago—­there was no passenger with Jones.”

“Has the stage come?” He glanced at the clock and blinked at the girl.  “Well, I guess those books had me hypnotized!”

“Small wonder,” she said, bitterly.  “I tell you I’m afraid, Frank!  There’s something we don’t see through!”

“I don’t dare to waste any more time wondering what the trouble is, Vona.  I must get on to the job.”