The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories | Page 9

take it on yourself to go meddling with the designs
of Providence--and who gave you the right? It was wicked, that is what
it was--just blasphemous presumption, and no more becoming to a
meek and humble professor of--"
"But, Mary, you know how we have been trained all our lives long, like
the whole village, till it is absolutely second nature to us to stop not a
single moment to think when there's an honest thing to be done--"
"Oh, I know it, I know it--it's been one everlasting training and training
and training in honesty--honesty shielded, from the very cradle, against
every possible temptation, and so it's ARTIFICIAL honesty, and weak
as water when temptation comes, as we have seen this night. God
knows I never had shade nor shadow of a doubt of my petrified and
indestructible honesty until now--and now, under the very first big and
real temptation, I--Edward, it is my belief that this town's honesty is as
rotten as mine is; as rotten as yours. It is a mean town, a hard, stingy
town, and hasn't a virtue in the world but this honesty it is so celebrated
for and so conceited about; and so help me, I do believe that if ever the
day comes that its honesty falls under great temptation, its grand
reputation will go to ruin like a house of cards. There, now, I've made

confession, and I feel better; I am a humbug, and I've been one all my
life, without knowing it. Let no man call me honest again--I will not
have it."
"I--Well, Mary, I feel a good deal as you do: I certainly do. It seems
strange, too, so strange. I never could have believed it-- never."
A long silence followed; both were sunk in thought. At last the wife
looked up and said:
"I know what you are thinking, Edward."
Richards had the embarrassed look of a person who is caught.
"I am ashamed to confess it, Mary, but--"
"It's no matter, Edward, I was thinking the same question myself."
"I hope so. State it."
"You were thinking, if a body could only guess out WHAT THE
REMARK WAS that Goodson made to the stranger."
"It's perfectly true. I feel guilty and ashamed. And you?"
"I'm past it. Let us make a pallet here; we've got to stand watch till the
bank vault opens in the morning and admits the sack. . . Oh dear, oh
dear--if we hadn't made the mistake!"
The pallet was made, and Mary said:
"The open sesame--what could it have been? I do wonder what that
remark could have been. But come; we will get to bed now."
"And sleep?"
"No; think."
"Yes; think."

By this time the Coxes too had completed their spat and their
reconciliation, and were turning in--to think, to think, and toss, and fret,
and worry over what the remark could possibly have been which
Goodson made to the stranded derelict; that golden remark; that remark
worth forty thousand dollars, cash.
The reason that the village telegraph-office was open later than usual
that night was this: The foreman of Cox's paper was the local
representative of the Associated Press. One might say its honorary
representative, for it wasn't four times a year that he could furnish thirty
words that would be accepted. But this time it was different. His
despatch stating what he had caught got an instant answer:
"Send the whole thing--all the details--twelve hundred words."
A colossal order! The foreman filled the bill; and he was the proudest
man in the State. By breakfast-time the next morning the name of
Hadleyburg the Incorruptible was on every lip in America, from
Montreal to the Gulf, from the glaciers of Alaska to the orange-groves
of Florida; and millions and millions of people were discussing the
stranger and his money-sack, and wondering if the right man would be
found, and hoping some more news about the matter would come
soon--right away.

II
Hadleyburg village woke up world-celebrated--astonished--happy--
vain. Vain beyond imagination. Its nineteen principal citizens and their
wives went about shaking hands with each other, and beaming, and
smiling, and congratulating, and saying THIS thing adds a new word to
the dictionary--HADLEYBURG, synonym for INCORRUPTIBLE--
destined to live in dictionaries for ever! And the minor and unimportant
citizens and their wives went around acting in much the same way.
Everybody ran to the bank to see the gold-sack; and before noon
grieved and envious crowds began to flock in from Brixton and all
neighbouring towns; and that afternoon and next day reporters began to

arrive from everywhere to verify the sack and its history and write the
whole thing up anew, and make dashing free- hand pictures of the sack,
and of Richards's house, and the bank, and the Presbyterian