Mr. Sleighter's methods with the easy-going debtors of the company in
Mapleton and the surrounding district were of such galvanic vigour
that even so practiced a procrastinator as Farmer Martin found himself
actually drawing money from his hoarded bank account to pay his store
debts--a thing unheard of in that community--and to meet overdue
payments upon the various implements which he had purchased from the
National Machine Company. It was not until after the money had been
drawn and actually paid that Mr. Martin came fully to realise the
extraordinary nature of his act.

"That there feller," he said, looking from the receipt in his hand
to the store door through which the form of Mr. Sleighter had just
vanished, "that there feller, he's too swift fer me. He ain't got any
innards to speak of; he'd steal the pants off a dog, he would."

The application of these same galvanically vigorous methods to Mr.
Gwynne's debtors produced surprising results. Mr. Sleighter made
the astounding discovery that Mr. Gwynne's business instead of being
bankrupt would produce not only one hundred cents on the dollar, but a
slight profit as well. This discovery annoyed Mr. Sleighter. He hated
to confess a mistake in business judgment, and he frankly confessed
he "hated to see good money roll past him." Hence with something of a
grudge he prepared to hand over to Mr. Gwynne some twelve hundred and
fifty dollars of salvage money.

"I suppose he will be selling out his farm," said Mr. Sleighter in
conversation with Mr. Martin. "What's land worth about here?"

"Oh, somewhere about a hundred."