Choked him, eh? Well, if the men of this town had any
spunk they would finish the job."
BOOK II
CHAPTER I
For two years Sam lived the life of a travelling buyer, visiting towns in
Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, and making deals with men who, like Freedom
Smith, bought the farmers' products. On Sundays he sat in chairs before
country hotels and walked in the streets of strange towns, or, getting
back to the city at the week end, went through the downtown streets and
among the crowds in the parks with young men he had met on the road. From
time to time he went to Caxton and sat for an hour with the men in
Wildman's, stealing away later for an evening with Mary Underwood.
In the store he heard news of Windy, who was laying close siege to the
farmer's widow he later married, and who seldom appeared in Caxton. In the
store he saw the boy with freckles on his nose--the same John Telfer had
watched running along Main Street on the night when he went to show
Eleanor the gold watch bought for Sam and who sat now on the cracker
barrel in the store and later went with Telfer to dodge the swinging cane
and listen to the eloquence poured out on the night air. Telfer had not
got the chance to stand with a crowd about him at the railroad station and
make a parting speech to Sam, and in secret he resented the loss of that
opportunity.
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