第17章

"Wa'al then, I'm Ezekiel Corwin of North Liberty, ez used to live with my friend and YOURS too, I guess--seein' how the friendship was swapped into relationship--Squire Blandford."A slight shade passed over Demorest's face."Well," he said, impatiently, "I don't remember you; what then?""You don't remember me; that's likely," returned Ezekiel imperturbably, combing his straggling chin beard with three fingers, "but whether it's NAT'RAL or not, considerin' the sukumstances when we last met, ez a matter of op-pinion.You got me to harness up the hoss and buggy the night Squire Blandford left home, and never was heard of again.It's true that it kem out on enquiry that the hoss and buggy ran away from the hotel, and that you had to go out to Warensboro in a sleigh, and the theory is that poor Squire Blandford must have stopped the hoss and buggy somewhere, got in and got run away agin, and pitched over the bridge.But seein' your relationship to both Squire and Mrs.Blandford, and all the sukumstances, Ireckoned you'd remember it."

"I heard of it in Boston a month afterwards," said Demorest, dryly, "but I don't think I'd have recognized you.So you were the hired man who gave me the buggy.Well, I don't suppose they discharged you for it.""No," said Ezekiel, with undisturbed equanimity."I kalkilate Joan would have stopped that.Considerin', too, that I knew her when she was Deacon Salisbury's darter, and our fam'lies waz thick az peas.She knew me well enough when I met her in Frisco the other day.""Have you seen Mrs.Demorest already?" said Demorest, with sudden vivacity."Why didn't you say so before?" It was wonderful how quickly his face had lighted up with an earnestness that was not, however, without some undefinable uneasiness.The alert Ezekiel noticed it and observed that it was as totally unlike the irresistible dominance of the man of five years ago as it was different from the heavy abstraction of the man of five minutes before.

"I reckon you didn't ax me," he returned coolly."She told me where you were, and as I had business down this way she guessed Imight drop in."

"Yes, yes--it's all right, Mr.Corwin; glad you did," said Demorest, kindly but half nervously."And you saw Mrs.Demorest?

Where did you see her, and how did you think she was looking? As pretty as ever, eh?"But the coldly literal Ezekiel was not to be beguiled into polite or ambiguous fiction.He even went to the extent of insulting deliberation before he replied."I've seen Joan Salisbury lookin'

healthier and ez far ez I kin judge doin' more credit to her stock and raisin' gin'rally," he said, thoughtfully combing his beard, "and I've seen her when she was too poor to get the silks and satins, furbelows, fineries and vanities she's flauntin' in now, and that was in Squire Blandford's time, too, I reckon.Ez to her purtiness, that's a matter of taste.You think her purty, and Iguess them fellows ez was escortin' and squirin' her round Frisco thought so too, or SHE thought they did to hev allowed it.""You are not very merciful to your townsfolk, Mr.Corwin," said Demorest, with a forced smile; "but what can I do for you?"It was the turn for Ezekiel's face to brighten, or rather to break up, like a cold passionless mirror suddenly cracked, into various amusing but distorted reflections on the person before him.

"Townies ain't to be fooled by other townies, Mr.Demorest; at least that ain't my idea o' marcy, he-he! But seen you're pressin', I don't mind tellen you MY business.I'm the only agent of Seventeen Patent Medicine Proprietors in Connecticut represented by the firm of Dilworth & Dusenberry, of San Francisco.Mebbe you heard of 'em afore--A1 druggists and importers.Wa'al, I'm openin'

a field for 'em and spreadin' 'em gin'rally through these air benighted and onhealthy districts, havin' the contract for the hull State--especially for Wozun's Universal Injin Panacea ez cures everything--bein' had from a recipe given by a Sachem to Dr.

Wozun's gran'ther.That bag--leavin' out a dozen paper collars and socks--is all the rest samples.That's me, Ezekiel Corwin--only agent for Californy, and that's my mission.""Very well; but look here, Corwin," said Demorest, with a slight return of his old off-hand manner,--"I'd advise you to adopt a little more caution, and a little less criticism in your speech to the people about here, or I'm afraid you'll need the Universal Panacea for yourself.Better men than you have been shot in my presence for half your freedom.""I guess you've just hit the bull's-eye there," replied Ezekiel, coolly, "for it's that HALF-freedom and HALF-truth that doesn't pay.I kalkilate gin'rally to speak my hull mind--and I DO.Wot's the consequence? Why, when folks find I ain't afeard to speak my mind on their affairs, they kinder guess I'm tellin' the truth about my own.Folks don't like the man that truckles to 'em, whether it's in the sellin' of a box of pills or a principle.When they re-cognize Ezekiel Corwin ain't goin' to lie about 'em to curry favor with 'em, they're ready to believe he ain't goin' to lie about Jones' Bitters or Wozun's Panacea.And, wa'al, I've been on the road just about a fortnit, and I haven't yet discovered that the original independent style introduced by Ezekiel Corwin ever broke anybody's bones or didn't pay."And he told the truth.That remarkably unfair and unpleasant spoken man had actually frozen Hanley's Ford into icy astonishment at his audacity, and he had sold them an invoice of the Panacea before they had recovered; he had insulted Chipitas into giving an extensive order in bitters; he had left Hayward's Creek pledged to Burne's pills--with drawn revolvers still in their hands.