Accordingly the two men set forth on their errand.
As the shabby Ford rattled over the sandy thoroughfare, Elisha's strained countenance began gradually to relax.
"Nice day for a ride," remarked he glancing toward the sea. "Fine weather's certainly on the way. Air's mild as summer. 'Fore long we'll be havin' days worth noticin'."
"So we will. April's 'bout over an' May'll be on us 'fore we know it. Then June'll come--the month of brides an' roses."
Amid the whirlwind happenings of the day, he had forgotten that the man at his elbow was his rival.
"You plannin' to wed in June, Eleazer?" asked he disagreeably.
"Humph! Expectin' to live at the Homestead?"
"Hope you'll invite me over, now and then," Elisha drawled sarcastically.
"Hope you'll do the same," came from Eleazer.
For an interval they rode on in uncomfortable silence.
"Them boats is pretty heavy loaded," Eleazer presently volunteered, gazing off towards the horizon where a string of dull red coal barges trailed along in the wake of a blackened tug.
"Makin' for New York, I reckon," Elisha responded, thawing a little.
"Wouldn't be s'prised if that Heath chap came from New York," ruminated Eleazer.
"Confound Heath! I wish I'd never laid eyes on him!" exploded Elisha.
"Oh, I dunno as I'd go so fur as to say that," came mildly from his companion. "Ain't Heath's comin' goin' to put Wilton on the map? Bad's he is, we've got him to thank for that. With him safely handed over to the authorities, our fortune's made. What you plannin' to do with your half of the reward?"
Here was a delightful topic for conversation!
"Wonder how much 'twill be? Oughter come to quite a sum, considerin' the risk one takes to get it."
Elisha's newly captured good-humor vanished. Lapsing into moody silence, he did not speak again until the white spire of the Sawyer Falls church appeared and, rounding the bend of the road, the car rolled into the town.
Compared to the villages of Wilton or Belleport, this railroad terminus was quite a metropolis. It boasted two dry-goods stores, an A & P, a drug store, a coal office, a hardware shop, and a grain shed. Around its shabby station clustered a group of motor cars, a truck or two, and the usual knot of loitering men and boys.