Martha smiled.  “I haven’t sold ’em to Raish Pulcifer, if that’s what you’re hintin’ at,” she said.

He seemed a bit embarrassed.  “Well,” he admitted, with a laugh, “I guess I’ll have to own that I did mean that.  There seems to be a good many who have sold to Pulcifer.  All the little fellows, the small holders.  You haven’t, you say?”

“I haven’t sold a share to him.”

“Humph!  Neither has Cap’n Jeth Hallett; he told me so just now. . . .  Hum! . . .  What is Raish buying for?  What’s the reason he’s buying?  Have you heard?”

“I’ve heard what he’s told other folks; that’s all I know about it.”

“Hum. . . .  Yes, yes.  Well, here’s my advice, Miss Phipps:  If I were you—­if I were you, I say, and he came to me and wanted to buy, I shouldn’t be in too big a hurry to sell.  Not in too big a hurry, I shouldn’t.”

“Why not?”

He glanced at her quickly.  “Oh, he has been to see you about buying your shares, then?” he suggested.

She shook her head.  “I didn’t say he had,” she replied.  “I just asked why I shouldn’t sell if he wanted to buy, that’s all.  Why shouldn’t I?”

He seemed more embarrassed and a trifle irritated.

“Why—­why—­ Oh, well, I suppose you should, perhaps, if he offers you enough.  But I wish you wouldn’t until—­until—­ Well, couldn’t you let me know before you give him his answer?  Would you mind doing that?”

And now she looked keenly at him.  “What would I gain by that?” she asked.  “You aren’t thinkin’ of buyin’ more of that stock, are you?  The other time when we talked, you told me the Trust Company had all they cared to own and were keepin’ it because they had to.  I would have been glad—­yes, awfully glad, to sell you my shares.  But you wouldn’t even consider buyin’.  Do you want to buy now?”

He frowned.  “I don’t know what I want,” he said, impatiently.  “Except that the one thing we want to find out is why Pulcifer is buying.  The Trust Company holds a big block of that stock and—­and if there is anything up we want to know of it.”

“What do you mean by ’anything up’?”

“Oh, I mean if some other people are trying to get—­er—­into the thing.  Of course, it isn’t likely, but—­”

He did not finish the sentence.  She asked another question.

“Has Raish been to see you about buyin’ the Trust Company stock?” she asked.

“No.  He hasn’t been near us.”

“Perhaps he would if you told him you wanted to sell.”

“I don’t know that we do want to sell.  That’s a pretty good piece of property over there and some day—­ Ahem!  Oh, well, never mind.  But I wish you would let us know before you sell Pulcifer your holdings.  It might—­I can’t say positively, you know—­but it might be worth your while.”

Martha, of course, made no promise, but she thought a good deal during her walk homeward.  She told her lodger of the talk with the Trust Company official, and he thought a good deal, also.