He loafed about all that afternoon, and
stayed that day and the next, and ever since. First there came a trunk
for him, and then a dog. You see him about all the time, for when he
isn't walking, he's loafing around the tavern, or is over at the store,
arguing with Henry Holmes or Isaac Bolum. Yet all we know about him is
that he's undecided how long he'll stay and that he has lived in New
York."
"Has no one asked him point-blank what he is doing here?"
"No. Isaac Bolum declares every day that he is going to, but when the
time comes he breaks down. Every other means of finding out has been
taken."
"Josiah Nummler told me to-day he believed Weston was a detective."
"That was Elmer Spiker's theory. But, as Theop says, who is he
detecting?"
Theophilus settled that theory conclusively, in my mind, at least, for
I knew every man, woman, and child in the valley; and taking a mental
census, I could find no one who seemed to require watching by a
hawkshaw.
"Perry Thomas guessed he was an embezzler," said Tim, putting the last
dish in the cupboard and sitting down to his pipe.
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