... You do two things, Mis' Nixon: go out to the farm and stay with
my wife--Mandy'll be glad to have you ... and keep your mouth shet."
"You'll find him, Mr. Baines?... You'll fetch him back to me?"
"If I figger he's wuth it," said Scattergood.
He went from Mrs. Nixon's to the bank, where the finance committee were
gathering to discuss the situation and to discover if Ovid's
disappearance were in any manner connected with the movable assets of
the institution. There were Deacon Pettybone, Sam Kettleman, the grocer,
Lafe Atwell, Marvin Towne--Scattergood made up the full committee.
"How be you?" Scattergood said, as he sat in a chair which uttered its
protest at the burden.
"What d'you think?" Towne said. "Got any notions? Noticed anythin'
suspicious?"
"Not 'less it's that there dude suit of clothes," said Atwell, with some
acidity.
"You put him in here," said Kettleman to Scattergood.
"Calculate I did.... Hain't found no reason to regret it--not yit.
Looks to me like the fust move's to kind of go over the books and the
cash, hain't it?... You fellers tackle the books and I'll give the vault
an overhaulin'."
Scattergood already had made up his mind that if Ovid had allowed any of
the bank's funds to cling to him when he went away the shortage would be
discoverable in the cash reserve, undoubtedly in a lump sum, and not by
an examination of the books.
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