Galusha blinked behind his spectacles and passed a hand
across his forehead. His landlady continued her story.
"I asked Doctor Powers what reason Raish was givin' people for his
buyin'. The doctor said he gave reasons enough, but they weren't very
satisfyin' ones to a thinkin' person. Raish said he owned a big block of
the stock himself and yet it wasn't big enough to give him much say as
to what should be done with the company. Of course, nothin' could be
done with it at present, but still some time there might and so he
thought he might as well be hung for an old sheep as a lamb and buy in
what he could get, provided he could get it cheap enough. He had come to
the doctor first, he said. Ha, ha! That was kind of funny."
"Eh?... Oh, yes, certainly.... Of course."
"But I haven't told you yet why it was funny. It seems he told every
person he went to that he or she was the first. Doctor Powers prides
himself on bein' a pretty good business man and I guess it provoked him
to find that Raish had fooled him into takin' a lower price than some
of the rest got. He said as much to me. He said that he agreed with what
Raish said, that about he might as well be hung for an old sheep as a
lamb. So long as he WAS hung, so the doctor said, he didn't care what it
was for."
She laughed again and her lodger smiled, although rather feebly.
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