Dean Dunham; Or, the Waterford Mystery

ADIN DUNHAM SURPRISES HIS WIFE.

"I've been looking forward to this day for weeks, Sarah," said Adin Dunham, as he rose from the breakfast-table on a certain Wednesday morning in the early part of June.

"Why, father, what do you mean?" asked Mrs. Dunham curiously.

"Because to-day I am to receive a thousand dollars—a thousand dollars in hard cash," answered her husband in a tone of exultation.

"Well, I declare!" ejaculated his wife in amazement. "Who on earth is going to give you a thousand dollars?"

"No one is going to give it to me; it's my own."

"How strangely you do talk, Adin Dunham! You ain't out of your mind, be you?"

"Not as I know of," answered her husband with an amused smile.

"Is it really true that somebody is going to pay you a thousand dollars?"

"Yes, it is."

"And you say it is your own?"

"Yes."

"I don't understand it," said Mrs. Dunham, with the air of one to whom a puzzle is propounded and who gives it up.

"Then I'll explain. You know when Uncle Dan died he left me a piece of stony pasture land in Rockmount?"

"Yes, I know. You never could sell it, I've heard you say ag'in and ag'in."

"Well, I've sold it at last. There's a company goin' to put up a big hotel just on that spot, and they've offered me a thousand dollars for the land."

"Couldn't they find a better buildin' lot than that?"

"Well, you see it's located near the lake, and though it's barren enough it's well situated, and there's five acres of it, plenty of room for all the buildin's required. They offered me first seven hundred, then eight hundred, and finally when they got up to a thousand I caved in----"

"You what?"

"Well, I agreed to let 'em have it. I'm going over to-day to get the money."

"Why, it'll make us rich, Adin. I never expected you'd be wuth a thousand dollars."

"I wonder what Uncle Dan would have said if he'd thought I would have got so much for the land. He never cared much for me, and he only left me that because he thought it wasn't wuth anything. He did better by me than he expected."

"What are you going to do with the money, Adin?"

"I don't know yet. I'll keep it by me till I've decided. Perhaps I'll invest in gov'ment bonds. I guess they're about as safe as anything."

"So I've heard, Adin. I suppose the gov'ment ain't likely to fail."

"If it is, I guess all the banks will fail too."

"How are you goin' over to Rockmount?"

"I'll borrow neighbor Gould's horse and buggy. That horse is pretty strong, and he won't mind the twenty miles—ten there and ten back."

"I don't like to have you travelin' so far with all that money. S'pose you should meet with robbers."

"There ain't any robbers round here, Sarah. This is a respectable community."

"You might meet a tramp."

"Well, the chances are that he'd be more afraid of me than I would be of him. I ain't a child, Sarah. I can lift a barrel of potatoes and put it in a wagon as easy as most men."

"Well, Adin, you know best. Hadn't you better take Dean with you?"

"Why should I take Dean?"

"It would be safer for two than for one."

"You don't mean to say that I need a boy of sixteen to protect me? If I thought I did, I'd stay at home and send Dean by himself."

"Well, Adin, I don't want to interfere. It wouldn't be much use, either, for you generally have your own way. Have you told any of the neighbors that you are goin' for some money?"

"No except Lawyer Bates."

"What made you tell him?"

"Well, I was in his office the other evenin', and somehow I was led into tellin' it. I gave a sort of hint, and the lawyer he drew it out of me. Them lawyers are great on cross-examinin', you know."