Absorbed though he was, Birt experienced a subacute wonder that any
one could feel so bitterly toward him as to laugh at a moment like
this. How had he made Andy Byers his enemy!

Nobody noticed it, for Nate was swaggering about in the crowd,
enjoying this conspicuous opportunity to display all the
sophistications he had acquired in his recent trip to Sparta. He
was calling upon them to witness that he did not care for the loss
of the grant--the PAPER was nothing to him!--for it was on record in
the land office, and he could get a certified copy from the register
in no time at all. But his rights were his RIGHTS!--and ten
thousand Diceys should not trample on them. Birt had doubtless
thought, being ignorant, that he could destroy the title by making
away with the paper; and if there was law in the State, he should
suffer for it.

And after this elaborate rodomontade, Nate strode out of the
tanyard, with the obsequious Tim following humbly.

Birt told his story again and again, to satisfy curious questioners
during the days that ensued. And when he had finished they would
look significantly at one another, and chuckle incredulously.

The tanner seemed to earnestly wish to befriend him, and urged him
to confess. "The truth's the only thing ez kin save ye, Birt."

"I'm tellin' the truth," poor Birt would declare.

Then Jube Perkins argued the question: "How kin ye expec' ennybody