“If you’ve figured this all out in your head, Mr. Bangs,” she said, “which I suppose you haven’t—?”

Galusha, surprised by the direct question, started, colored, and guiltily admitted the correctness of her supposition.

“I—­I haven’t,” he faltered.  “Dear me, no.  In fact I—­ah—­doubt if I am capable of doing such a thing.”

“Well, never mind, you don’t have to.  What it amounted to was that the Eagle folks had twelve hundred shares and Raish and Jeth and father had eleven hundred and fifty together.  You see, neither side would let the other have more’n half, or even quite half, because then whichever had it could control things.  So the remainin’ one hundred and fifty shares was sold around Wellmouth and Trumet.  Doctor Powers has a few shares and Eben Taylor’s got some, and so have lots of folks, scattered around here.  You see, all hands were anxious to get in, it looked like a real good investment.

“‘But,’ says father—­right here in this very room I heard him say it one night—­’it’s that one hundred and fifty shares that worry me.  If the Eagle crowd ever could buy up those shares they would control, after all, and freeze us out.  Freezin’ is their business, anyhow,’ he said, and laughed that big laugh of his.  Seems as if I could hear him laugh now.  Ah, hum! . . .  But there, let’s get under way again or you’ll go to sleep before the ship makes port.  I declare, that was father’s word, too, I’m always quotin’ him. . . .  Let me see. . . .  Oh, yes. . . .  When father said that about the one hundred and fifty shares controllin’ Cap’n Jethro looked at Raish and Raish looked at him.  Then Raish laughed, too, only his laugh isn’t much like father’s.

“‘I got those extra shares taken up,’ he said, ’and I was particular who took ’em.  There’s mighty few of those shares will be sold unless I say the word.  Most of the folks that bought those shares are under consider’ble obligation to me.’  Just what he meant by that I don’t know, of course, but I can guess.  Raish makes it a point to have people under what he calls ‘obligations’ to him.  It comes in handy for him, in politics and other ways, to have ’em that way.  He lends money and holds mortgages and all that, and that’s where the obligations come in. . . .  Well, anyhow, that’s what he said and, although father didn’t look any too happy at the time and wouldn’t talk about it afterward, it seemed to settle the objection about the hundred and fifty shares.  So the new company got under way, the stockholders paid their money in, old Cap’n Ebenezer Thomas of Denboro was made president and Raish Pulcifer was vice president and Judge Daniel Seaver of Wellmouth Centre was secretary and treasurer.  The Judge was Wellmouth Centre’s biggest gun, rich—­at least, that’s what everybody thought then—­and pompous and dignified and straight-backed as an old-fashioned church pew.