Part 18 (1/2)

”I want to know jest how we stand on this mortgage question first,”

announced Henry Grisley. ”I want your offer down in black and white.”

”You shall have it, and the others can be witnesses to it,” answered Tom, and in the course of the next quarter of an hour a paper was drawn up and duly signed by which Tom agreed that the mortgage should be taken over by the Rovers within the next thirty days, with all back interest paid, and that Henry Grisley should be paid a bonus of twenty-five dollars for his trouble and for his lawyer's fees. To bind the bargain Tom handed the old man a ten-dollar bill on account, which Henry Grisley stowed away in a leather wallet with great satisfaction.

”Oh, Tom! it's just splendid of you to help us out in this manner!” said Minnie, after the transaction had been concluded and while old Grisley and Mr. Sanderson were talking together.

”I'm glad to be of service to you,” answered the youth. ”I only hope for your sake, and for the sake of Songbird, that the money that was stolen is recovered. Songbird is going to get on the trail of that rascal if it is possible to do so.”

”I hope they do locate that fellow, Tom. If they don't I'm afraid pa will never forgive poor John.”

”Oh, don't say that, Minnie. 'Never' is such a long word it should not have been put in the dictionary,” and Tom smiled grimly.

Now that he felt fairly certain that he was to get his money, Henry Grisley was in much better humor.

”I suppose I might as well have left that mortgage as it was,” he mumbled. ”It was payin' pretty good interest.”

”Well, that was for you to decide, Grisley,” returned Mr. Sanderson.

”Personally I don't see how you are going to make any better investment in these times.”

”Well, I've got thirty days in which to make up my mind, ain't I?”

queried the old man. ”If I don't want to close out the mortgage I ain't got to, have I?”

”Certainly you've got to sell out, now that you have bargained to do so,” put in Tom. ”You can't expect us to pull our money out of another investment to put it into this one and then not get it.”

”Hum! I didn't think o' that,” mused old Grisley. He thought hard for a moment, pursing up his lips and twisting his beadlike eyes first one way and then another. ”Supposin' I was to say right now that I'd keep the mortgage? What would you do about it?”

”Do you really mean it, Grisley?” asked Mr. Sanderson, anxiously.

”Depends on what this young man says, Sanderson. One thing is sure; I ain't goin' to give up that ten dollars he give me--and Fogg is got to be paid somehow.”

”Look here! if you want to keep the mortgage just say so,” declared Tom.

”It's a good mortgage and pays good interest. You can't invest your money around here to any better advantage.”

”All right, then, I'll keep the mortgage,” announced Henry Grisley. ”But understand, young man, I'm to keep that ten dollars you give me too,” he added shrewdly.

”Well, I don't see----” began Tom, when Mr. Sanderson interrupted him.

”All right, Grisley, you keep the ten dollars, and you settle with Fogg,” announced the farmer. ”And it's understood that you are to make out the mortgage for at least one year longer.”

”Can't ye give me more'n the ten dollars?” asked Henry Grisley. ”Mebbe I might have to pay Fogg more'n that.”

”Don't you pay him a cent more,” said Tom. ”His services aren't worth it.”

”I won't pay him nothin' if I can git out of it,” responded the old man, shrewdly. ”If I keep the mortgage, then what has he done for me?

Nothin'. Mebbe I'll give him half of the ten dollars. I've had jest as much trouble as he has.”

Following this discussion the paper formerly drawn up was destroyed and a note written out and signed by Henry Grisley, in which the old man agreed to renew the mortgage for one year from the date on which it had been due.

”To tell ye the truth, I wouldn't have bothered about this,” explained old Grisley, in a burst of confidence; ”but, you see, Fogg knew the mortgage was due and he come to me and asked me what I was goin' to do about it. And then when word come that your money had been stolen, he told me that I'd better foreclose or otherwise I might git next to nothin'.”