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Having found his hat, Silas went out to exchange a few words of condolence with the man whose name he had just mentioned. He glanced at Joe's face as he passed, and the pleased expression he saw there was very different from the malevolent scowl with which he was welcomed by the proprietor of the Halfway House.

The latter was quite as angry as he looked to be, and the first words he uttered as the ferryman came up were:

"Now what I want to know is this: Are me and you obliged to stand here with our hands in our pockets, and see these rich men take the bread and butter out of the mouths of our families?"

"They are going to do worse by me than they are by you," answered Silas. "I can't start again if they break up my ferry, but you can."

"How, I'd like to know?" growled Hobson.

"Why, all the land around here belongs to old man Warren. Folks say that he's a mighty kind-hearted chap, though I never saw any signs of it in him, and you might buy or rent a piece of land, and build another and better hotel. You have the money to do it, for you have made many a dollar over your bar during the last two years."