"
"That is your business, Mr. Martin," said Bart politely.
"It is, and--something more! I call on you and your witnesses to notice
that the fifteen thousand dollars was not delivered to me until six
minutes after twelve, too late to make the tender legal, which makes the
contract null and void."
Mr. Martin, with a triumphant sweep of his hand, pointed to a big clock
at the end of the long hall.
"I beg your pardon," said Bart, holding up his watch, "but I keep
official time, and it is exactly thirty seconds to midnight. Listen!"
And thirty seconds later, from the Pleasantville court house tower, the
town bell rang out twelve musical strokes.
CHAPTER XXIX
BROUGHT TO TIME
"I'll go!" said Colonel Jeptha Harrington, magnate of Pleasantville.
"All right," said Bart Stirling, express company agent.
It was three o'clock in the morning, and the scene was the little
express office where so many unusual and exciting happenings had
transpired within twenty-four hours.
The colonel's announcement was given in the tone of a man facing a hard
proposition and forced to accept it--or something worse.
Bart's reply was calm and off-handed.
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