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142 I've called a meeting for Saturday night to find out what they wish to do."

That worried Wilder a little until he reflected that the cottagers' meetings were all "hot air and soap-bubbles." They could n't raise thirty thousand dollars for Tamawaca in thirty years, and sooner or later the option would be turned over to him as a matter of course.

Meantime old man Easton had been quietly observant of the situation, and after the meeting of the cottagers was announced his suspicions that Jarrod was "not honest" took definite form and threw him into a condition bordering upon nervous prostration. He made a bee-line for the lawyer's cottage, and found Jarrod sunning himself on the front porch.

"Good morning, Mr. Jarrod," he began, cordially.

Jarrod nodded, but did not ask his