“Humph! . . .  Well, he’s been tryin’ to buy mine, anyway.  And, nigh’s as I can find out, he’s bought every loose share there is.  All hands are talkin’ about it now; some of ’em are wonderin’ if they hadn’t better have hung on.  Eben Snow came to me this mornin’ and he says, ’I don’t know whether I did right to let go of that stock of mine or not,’ he says.  ‘What do you think, Jeth?’ I haven’t got much use for Eben, and ain’t had for years; I went to sea with him one v’yage and that generally tells a man’s story.  I’ve seen him at church sociables—­in the days when I wasted my time goin’ to such things—­spend as much as five minutes decidin’ whether to take a doughnut or a piece of pie.  He couldn’t eat both, but he was afraid whichever he took the other might turn out to be better.  So when he asked me my opinion about his sellin’ his Development, I gave it to him.  ‘You’ve been wantin’ to sell, ain’t you?’ says I.  ‘I’ve heard you whinin’ around for months because you couldn’t sell.  Now you have sold.  What more do you want?’ He got mad.  ’You ain’t sold your holdin’s at any fourteen dollars a share, have you?’ he says.  I told him I hadn’t.  ’No, and I’ll bet you won’t, either,’ says he.  I told him he’d make money if he could get somebody to take the bet.  Humph! the swab!”

For the first time Galusha asked a direct question.

“Did—­ah—­Mr. Pulcifer actually—­ah—­bid for your Development shares, Captain Hallett?” he inquired.

“Oh, he come as nigh to doin’ it as I’d let him.  Hinted maybe that he’d give me as much as he did Snow, fourteen fifty.  I laughed at him.  I asked him what made him so reckless, when, the last time he and I talked, he was tryin’ to sell me his own shares for ten.  And now he wanted to buy mine at fourteen and a half!”

“And—­ah—­what reason did he give for his change of heart?  Or didn’t he give any?”

“Humph!  Yes, he gave a shipload of reasons, but there wouldn’t any one of ’em float if ‘twas hove overboard.  He ain’t buyin’ on his own account, that I know.”

“Oh—­ah—­do you, indeed.  May I ask why you are so certain?”

“For two reasons.  First, because Raish ain’t got money enough of his own to do any such thing.  Second, and the main reason why I know he ain’t buyin’ for himself is because he says he is.  Anybody that knows Raish knows that’s reason enough.”

Galusha ventured one more question.

“When he—­ah—­approached you, did you—­that is, what excuse did you give him for—­for your lack of interest, so to speak?”

“Hey?  I didn’t give him any.  And I didn’t tell him I wasn’t interested.  I am interested—­to see how far he’ll go.  I sha’n’t tell him I’ve sold already, Mr. Bangs; your Boston friends needn’t worry about that.  When I sign articles I stick to my contract.”