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MICROBEHAVIORAL
ECONOMETRIC
METHODS
Theories, Models, and
Applications for the Study
of Environmental and
Natural Resources
S. NIGGOL SEO
Muaebak Institute of Global Warming Studies
Seoul, Korea
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher. Details on how to seek permission, further information about the
Publisher’s permissions policies and our arrangements with organizations such as the Copyright Clearance
Center and the Copyright Licensing Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions.
This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the Publisher
(other than as may be noted herein).
Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience
broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment
may become necessary.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating
and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such
information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including
parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.
To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume
any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability,
negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas
contained in the material herein.
ISBN: 978-0-12-804136-9
S. NIGGOL SEO
Professor S. Niggol Seo is a natural resource economist who specializes
in the study of global warming. Born in a rural village in South Korea
in 1972, he studied at a doctoral degree program at the University of
California at Berkeley and received a PhD degree in Environmental and
Natural Resource Economics from Yale University in May 2006 with a dis-
sertation on microbehavioral models of global warming. Since 2003, he has
worked with the World Bank on various climate change projects in Africa,
Latin America, and Asia. He held professorial positions in the UK, Spain, and
Australia from 2006–15. Professor Seo has published three books and over
45 international journal articles on global warming. He frequently serves
as a journal referee for more than 30 international journals and has been
on the editorial boards of the two journals: Food Policy, Applied Economic
Perspectives and Policy. He received an Outstanding Applied Economic
Perspectives and Policy Article Award from the Agricultural and Applied
Economics Association in Pitsburgh in June 2011.
ix
PREFACE
xi
xii Preface
the continental level in Latin America, Africa, and India. These low-latitude
regions are on their own of great interest to environmental and natural
resource researchers for their unique economies, societies, ecologies, and
climates.
The present author hopes that the book will provide a valuable resource
to the students and professionals of environmental and natural resource
studies. The book is ideal for a textbook of a range of microbehavioral
statistics courses in the school of environment, school of agricultural and
natural resources, and school of public policy. The book also unfolds many
important academic frontiers in the studies of microbehavioral statistics
which are hoped to serve as an attraction for the scholars and professionals
of microbehavioral statistics and economics.
Finally, the present author wishes to thank all those involved directly or
indirectly in the publication of this book. Many professors at Yale University
and the University of California Berkeley have given invaluable comments,
albeit informally, on various aspects of the book. Their contributions are
acknowledged in the first chapter and throughout the book. The present
author also expresses gratitude to many who sponsored the Muaebak Insti-
tute of Global Warming Studies in Seoul where this book has been written.
Wish you a great journey!
S. Niggol Seo
Muaebak Institute of Global Warming Studies
Seoul, Korea
http://www.muaebakinstitute.org
CHAPTER 1
Introduction to the
Microbehavioral Econometric
Methods for the Study of
Environmental and Natural
Resources
This book is written as a textbook of the microbehavioral econometric
methods applicable to the studies of environmental and natural resourc-
es. This book covers the microeconometrics literature in a comprehen-
sive manner, both from the perspective of an individual agent’s economic
decisions and from the perspective of statistical modeling. The full range
of statistical methods to be presented in the book are elucidated through
empirical applications to the research questions on global climate changes,
agricultural and natural resource enterprises, changes in ecosystems, and
economic development in low-latitude developing countries.
This book can be used as a textbook for graduate-level courses in the
environmental studies such as environmental and ecological statistics, envi-
ronmental research methods, valuation methods, environmental and natural
resource economics, agricultural economics. The book can also be adopted
as a full or supplementary textbook in any graduate-level econometrics
courses, especially in the courses related to microeconometrics and discrete
choice modeling.
The book is written for the scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers of
global and local environmental, developmental, and natural resource issues,
with empirical applications drawn from the researches on global warming
and an individual’s adaptation decisions to global warming. The book pays
special attention to natural resources and ecosystems in low-latitude devel-
oping countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Asia and explains
how changes in these systems and natural resources are an integral part of
the microbehavioral econometric models applied to the studies of environ-
mental and natural resources.
This means that farmers prefer to raise sheep in a hot and arid climate zone
(Seo and Mendelsohn, 2008a; Seo et al., 2010). In the high variability and
risk zones resulting from the monsoon climate in India, Indian rural house-
holds are found to increase the number of goats owned (Seo, 2016).
Rural areas of the world rely heavily on forests and forest products for
income, forest services, and various trades (Peters et al., 1989; Vedeld et al.,
2007). The amount of forest resources varies across the continents: in South
America, a forest-cover as defined by >50% forest cover over the land area
is as large as 44% of the total land area of the continent (WRI, 2005). In the
tropical countries of Africa and Latin America, rural residents adopt a vari-
ety of forest-related enterprises, either specialized or diversified, in order to
utilize the large amount of available forest resources (Seo, 2010c, 2012a). In a
hotter and wetter climate zone, rural residents are found to rely more often
on forest resources and adopt forest-related enterprises (Seo, 2012b). That
is, rural households are observed to switch away from the other enterprises
such as crops-based or animals-based to forest-related enterprises such as a
forest-only enterprise, a forests-crops enterprise, or a crops-livestock-forests
enterprise (Seo, 2012a).
An ocean-based example of microbehavioral decisions is decisions by
the residents in the coastal zones. If the sea levels in many important coastal
zones were to rise due to an increase in sea surface temperature and global
warming as projected by climate scientists, coastal residents may either build
a coastal wall or decide to leave the coastal city or town if expected damage
is too high or the cost of protection is too high (Yohe and Schlesinger, 1998;
Ng and Mendelsohn, 2006; IPCC, 2014).
Coastal towns and residents that are frequently in the path of deadly hur-
ricanes should make not a few decisions in order to reduce the vulnerability
and damages from hurricane strikes, especially if the severity and frequency
of hurricanes were to increase due to global warming (Emanuel, 2013). For
example, concerned municipalities may issue an early warning, evacuate
the residents, build bunkers and shelters, educate the residents on specific
protective measures, or prevent the residents from walking outside during
the hurricane landfalls. A more sophisticated hurricane trajectory predic-
tion, a more wind-resistant building, and a sound levee system will help
vulnerable individuals make right decisions (Seo, 2015e; Bakkensen and
Mendelsohn, 2015).
A response to a change in external factors sometimes calls for a commu-
nity level cooperative action. For example, a sea wall to protect from a sea
level rise is unlikely to be built by a single coastal resident. A construction
Introduction to the Microbehavioral Econometric Methods 5
discrete choice models (McFadden and Train, 2000; Train, 2003), selec-
tion bias correction methods when binary or multiple choices are involved
(Heckman, 1979; Lee, 1983; Dubin and McFadden, 1984; Schmertmann,
1994; Dahl, 2002), Monte Carlo simulations for selection bias correction
models (Schmertmann, 1994; Bourguignon et al., 2004), spatial spillover
and neighborhood effects (Moran, 1950a,b; Anselin, 1988; Case, 1992;
Beron and Vijverberg, 2004), identification strategies (Fisher, 1966; Johnston
and Dinardo, 1997; Manski 1995), applications to panel data (Train, 2003;
Cameron and Trivedi, 2005), modeling successive choices (McFadden, 1978;
Chib and Greenberg, 1998), and bootstrap methods for estimating uncer-
tainties (Efron, 1981; Andrews and Buchinsky, 2000).
From Chapter 4–7, applications of the microbehavioral economet-
ric methods developed in the previous chapters are presented. Using
the empirical data collected in South American households, these chap-
ters show quantitative estimates of various measures and concepts of the
microbehavioral methods. The present author highlights the critical and
unique insights that result from modeling microdecisions using micro-
econometric methods by comparing with the results from alternative
methodologies.
Chapter 4 provides an application of the microbehavioral methods
to South American agriculture data which contain the observed farmer
decisions collected from seven countries across the continent (Seo and
Mendelsohn, 2008b). This chapter will showcase all the phases of the
microbehavioral decisions, natural constraints faced by individuals, and re-
sults from such decisions. Being the first chapter with the empirical data,
the chapter will for the first time delineate the environmental problems to
be dealt with in the book and the natural and anthropogenic aspects that are
connected with the problems (IPCC, 2014).
The application in Chapter 5 further develops the concepts and meth-
odologies presented in Chapter 4. It deals with the relationship between the
subsystems and the whole system. The whole system is defined to be
the family of agricultural and natural resource enterprises. A subsystem is
one of these enterprises that an individual chooses. For example, a subsys-
tem may be a livestock-only enterprise. This chapter examines how and
why a microbehavioral modeling of subsystems is similar to a direct mod-
eling of the whole system in some aspects and different from it in other
aspects (Seo, 2015b).
In Chapter 6, the present author provides another application of the
microbehavioral methods by constructing a more complex structure of
10 Microbehavioral Econometric Methods
Figure 1.1 Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration since 1950s in the Mauna Loa
Observatory. (The figure is drawn by the author from the data recorded at the Mauna Loa
Observatory as compiled in the Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center of the Oak
Ridge National Laboratory at http://cdiac.ornl.gov).
Hawaii (Keeling et al., 2005). His record shown in Fig. 1.1 above is called
the “Keeling Curve” and is one of the most fundamental findings of global
warming science. The figure shows that the atmospheric concentration of
Carbon Dioxide was below 320 ppm (parts per million) in the 1950s and
has increased since then to around 400 ppm in 2014, overriding seasonal
fluctuations.
Carbon Dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas accounting for more
than 80% of the greenhouse effects (Global Carbon Project, 2014). CO2
is the most troublesome greenhouse gas because it is the byproduct of
burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas (US EPA, 2011).
The burning of these fossil fuels produces more than 90% of the energy
used in the United States and elsewhere (US EIA AEO, 2014). The en-
ergy produced from low-carbon or zero-carbon energy sources such as
solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy accounts for less than 2% of
the total energy produced in the United States. This low-carbon energy
production percentage is not significantly higher in any other countries
of the world.
Introduction to the Microbehavioral Econometric Methods 13
Figure 1.2 Global average temperature anomalies since 1880. (The figure is drawn
from the data provided by the Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) as compiled in the
Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory at
http://cdiac.ornl.gov).
What this means is that the world has no alternative but to rely on
burning of fossil fuels to power economic growth and sustain livelihoods
of people. Technological options such as fusion energy have turned out to
be extremely expensive to develop and the pace of development has been
slow (ITER, 2015, LLNL, 2015). A carbon capture and storage technology
has been employed locally, but is not an economical option for any country
(IEA, 2013).
How much temperature rise can the increase in Carbon Dioxide
concentration in the atmosphere cause? The records of global average
temperature are available since 1880s when instrumental records be-
gan. The Fig. 1.2 above shows the temperature record kept by the God-
dard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) of the National Aeronautic and
Space Administration (NASA) of the United States (Hansen et al., 2006).
The figure shows that the global average temperature has increased by
0.6°C from the 20th century average temperature. The figure plots the
anomalies, that is, yearly deviations from the 20th century annual aver-
age temperature which is about 14°C (Le Treut et al., 2007). Celcius is an
14 Microbehavioral Econometric Methods
Figure 1.3 Attribution of global warming to natural and anthropogenic causes. (a) Pre-
dicted with both anthropogenic and natural causes; (b) Predicted with natural causes
only. (These figures are drawn by the present author by approximating the means in the
figure in the IPCC 2014 report).
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16 Microbehavioral Econometric Methods
Figure 1.4 Precipitation changes in the Sahelian region. (The figure was drawn from the
data provided by the Joint Institute for the Study of Ocean and the Atmosphere (JISOA), Uni-
versity of Washington, JISOA, 2015).
who manage natural and environmental resources. In Fig. 1.4, the present
author draws the changes in summer season precipitation in the Sahelian
region (Janowiak, 1988; Hulme et al., 2001). The Sahel is the ecoclimatic
and biogeographic zone of transition in Africa between the Sahara Desert
to the north and the Sudanian Savanna to the south. For the period from
1900 to 2013, the figure shows summer precipitation anomalies from the
summer season mean precipitation constructed from the 30 year period
rainfall data from 1950–79. In the figure, the summer is defined to range
from Jun. to Oct.
As shown in the figure, average summer precipitation has fluctuated
greatly in the Sahelian region since the beginning of the 20th century. In
the early decades of the past century, precipitation often had swung wildly
from year to year. A severe drought year is often followed by a heavy rainfall
year. The most notable is the prolonged drought period in the 1970s and
the 1980s. In the 2000s, precipitation has been relatively higher than the
previous three decades.The severe drought decades in the late 20th century
is preceded by the high rainfall decades from the 1920s–50s.
This swing from the heavy rainfall decades to the severe drought decades
in the Sahel is well known among the climate scientists. This particular
Introduction to the Microbehavioral Econometric Methods 17
Stansfield coordinated the editorial and production works for the publica-
tion of the book.The present author would like to thank also more than five
anonymous reviewers who provided valuable comments on the proposal.
In closing this chapter, the present author wishes to underscore that the
entire book is written with the ongoing international policy negotiations
on climate change in mind.The success of an international policy interven-
tion will certainly hinge on how well a policy or a set of policies is designed
to capture and alter microdecisions of individuals. A family of microbehav-
ioral econometric methods presented throughout this book will provide an
essential tool for the policy-makers of global warming and for the research-
ers who care to look into the behaviors of individuals.
Exercises
1. From the historical record of global temperature anomalies shown in
Fig. 1.2 measured and calculated by the Goddard Institute of Space
Studies, fit a linear trend line or a nonlinear trend line after employing
several different definitions of climate normals. Is it possible to confirm
statistically that there has been a significant climate change over this
time period?
2. Continuing with the question 1, is it possible to reject statistically
that there has been a significant climate change over a subset of the
time period?
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Hugo, following these directions, concluded a successful search.
"Right," he said. "Ladder, long, wooden, for purposes of climbing,
one. Correct as per memo. Now what?"
"Put it up."
"Right."
"And hold it very carefully."
"Esteemed order booked," said Hugo. "Carry on."
"Are you sure you are holding it carefully?"
"As in a vise."
"Well, don't let go."
Mr. Carmody, dying a considerable number of deaths in the process,
descended. He found his nephew's curiosity at close range even
more acute than it had been from a distance.
"What on earth were you doing up there?" said Hugo, starting again
at the beginning.
"Never mind."
"But what were you?"
"If you wish to know, a rung broke and the ladder slipped."
"But what were you doing on a ladder?"
"Never mind!" cried Mr. Carmody, regretting more bitterly than ever
before in his life that his late brother Eustace had not lived and died
a bachelor. "Don't keep saying What—What—What!"
"Well, why?" said Hugo, conceding the point. "Why were you
climbing ladders?"
Mr. Carmody hesitated. His native intelligence returning, he
perceived now that this was just what the great public would want to
know. It was little use urging a human talking machine like his
nephew to keep quiet and say nothing about this incident. In a
couple of hours it would be all over Rudge. He thought swiftly.
"I fancied I saw a swallow's nest under the eaves."
"Swallow's nest?"
"Swallow's nest. The nest," said Mr. Carmody between his teeth, "of
a swallow."
"Did you think swallows nested in July?"
"Why shouldn't they?"
"Well, they don't."
"I never said they did. I merely said...."
"No swallow has ever nested in July."
"I never...."
"April," said our usually well-informed correspondent.
"What?"
"April. Swallows nest in April."
"Damn all swallows!" said Mr. Carmody. And there was silence for a
moment, while Hugo directed his keen young mind to other aspects
of this strange affair.
"How long had you been up there?"
"I don't know. Hours. Since half-past five."
"Half-past five? You mean you got up at half-past five to look for
swallows' nests in July?"
"I did not get up to look for swallows' nests."
"But you said you were looking for swallows' nests."
"I did not say I was looking for swallows' nests. I merely said I
fancied I saw a swallow's nest...."
"You couldn't have done. Swallows don't nest in July.... April."
The sun was peeping over the elms. Mr. Carmody raised his
clenched fists to it.
"I did not say I saw a swallow's nest. I said I thought I saw a
swallow's nest."
"And got a ladder out and climbed up for it?"
"Yes."
"Having risen from couch at five-thirty ante meridian?"
"Will you kindly stop asking me all these questions."
Hugo regarded him thoughtfully.
"Just as you like, Uncle. Well, anything further this morning? If not,
I'll be getting along and taking my dip."
III
"I say, Ronnie," said Hugo, some two hours later, meeting his friend
en route for the breakfast table. "You know my uncle?"
"What about him?"
"He's loopy."
"What?"
"Gone clean off his castors. I found him at seven o'clock this morning
sitting on a second-floor window sill. He said he'd got up at five-thirty
to look for swallows' nests."
"Bad," said Mr. Fish, shaking his head with even more than his usual
solemnity. "Second-floor window sill, did you say?"
"Second-floor window sill."
"Exactly how my aunt started," said Ronnie Fish.
"They found her sitting on the roof of the stables, playing the ukulele
in a blue dressing gown. She said she was Boadicea. And she
wasn't. That's the point, old boy," said Mr. Fish earnestly. "She
wasn't. We must get you out of this as quickly as possible, or before
you know where you are you'll find yourself being murdered in your
bed. It's this living in the country that does it. Six consecutive months
in the country is enough to sap the intellect of anyone. Looking for
swallows' nests, was he?"
"So he said. And swallows don't nest in July. They nest in April."
Mr. Fish nodded.
"That's how I always heard the story," he agreed. "The whole thing
looks very black to me, and the sooner you're safe out of this and in
London, the better."
IV
At about the same moment, Mr. Carmody was in earnest conference
with Mr. Molloy.
"That man you were telling me about," said Mr. Carmody. "That
friend of yours who you said would help us."
"Chimp?"
"I believe you referred to him as Chimp. How soon could you get in
touch with him?"
"Right away, brother."
Mr. Carmody objected to being called brother, but this was no time
for being finicky.
"Send for him at once."
"Why, have you given up the idea of getting that stuff out of the
house yourself?"
"Entirely," said Mr. Carmody. He shuddered slightly. "I have been
thinking the matter over very carefully, and I feel that this is an affair
where we require the services of some third party. Where is this
friend of yours? In London?"
"No. He's right around the corner. His name's Twist. He runs a sort of
health-farm place only a few miles from here."
"God bless my soul! Healthward Ho?"
"That's the spot. Do you know it?"
"Why, I have only just returned from there."
Mr. Molloy was conscious of a feeling of almost incredulous awe. It
was the sort of feeling which would come to a man who saw miracles
happening all around him. He could hardly believe that things could
possibly run as smoothly as they appeared to be doing. He had
anticipated a certain amount of difficulty in selling Chimp Twist to Mr.
Carmody, as he phrased it to himself, and had looked forward with
not a little apprehension to a searching inquisition into Chimp Twist's
bona fides. And now, it seemed, Mr. Carmody knew Chimp
personally and was, no doubt, prepared to receive him without a
question. Could luck like this hold? That was the only thought that
disturbed Mr. Molloy.
"Well, isn't that interesting!" he said slowly. "So you know my old
friend Twist, do you?"
"Yes," said Mr. Carmody, speaking, however, as if the
acquaintanceship were not one to which he looked back with any
pleasure. "I know him very well."
"Fine!" said Mr. Molloy. "You see, if I thought we were getting in
somebody you knew nothing about and felt you couldn't trust, it
would sort of worry me."
Mr. Carmody made no comment on this evidence of his guest's nice
feeling. He was meditating and did not hear it. What he was
meditating on was the agreeable fact that money which he had been
trying so vainly to recover from Doctor Twist would not be a dead
loss after all. He could write if off as part of the working expenses of
this little venture. He beamed happily at Mr. Molloy.
"Healthward Ho is on the telephone," he said. "Go and speak to
Doctor Twist now and ask him to come over here at once." He
hesitated for a moment, then came bravely to a decision. After all,
whatever the cost in petrol, oil, and depreciation of tires, it was for a
good object. More working expenses. "I will send my car for him," he
said.
If you wish to accumulate, you must inevitably speculate, felt Mr.
Carmody.
CHAPTER VII
I
The strange depression which had come upon Pat in the shop of
Chas. Bywater did not yield, as these gray moods generally do, to
the curative influence of time. The following morning found her as
gloomy as ever—indeed, rather gloomier, for shortly after breakfast
the noblesse oblige spirit of the Wyverns had sent her on a reluctant
visit to an old retainer who lived—if you could call it that—in one of
the smaller and stuffier houses in Budd Street. Pensioned off after
cooking for the Colonel for eighteen years, this female had retired to
bed and stayed there, and there was a legend in the family, though
neither by word nor look did she ever give any indication of it, that
she enjoyed seeing Pat.
Bedridden ladies of advanced age seldom bubble over with fun and
joie de vivre. This one's attitude toward life seemed to have been
borrowed from her favourite light reading, the works of the Prophet
Jeremiah, and Pat, as she emerged into the sunshine after some
eighty minutes of her society, was feeling rather like Jeremiah's
younger sister.
The sense of being in a world unworthy of her—a world cold and
unsympathetic and full of an inferior grade of human being, had now
become so oppressive that she was compelled to stop on her way
home and linger on the old bridge which spanned the Skirme. From
the days of her childhood this sleepy, peaceful spot had always been
a haven when things went wrong. She was gazing down into the
slow-moving water and waiting for it to exercise its old spell, when
she heard her name spoken and turned to see Hugo.
"What ho," said Hugo, pausing beside her. His manner was genial
and unconcerned. He had not met her since that embarrassing
scene in the lobby of the Hotel Lincoln, but he was a man on whom
the memory of past embarrassments sat lightly. "What do you think
you're doing, young Pat?"
Pat found herself cheering up a little. She liked Hugo. The sense of
being all alone in a bleak world left her.
"Nothing in particular," she said. "Just looking at the water."
"Which in its proper place," agreed Hugo, "is admirable stuff. I've
been doing a bit of froth-blowing at the Carmody Arms. Also buying
cigarettes and other necessaries. I say, have you heard about my
Uncle Lester's brain coming unstuck? Absolutely. He's quite non
compos. Mad as a coot. Belfry one seething mass of bats. He's
taken to climbing ladders in the small hours after swallows' nests.
However, shelving that for the moment, I'm very glad I ran into you
this morning, young Pat. I wish to have a serious talk with you about
old John."
"John?"
"John."
"What about John?"
At this moment there whirred past, bearing in its interior a weedy,
snub-nosed man with a waxed moustache, a large red automobile.
Hugo, suspending his remarks, followed it with astonished eyes.
"Good Lord!"
"What about Johnnie?"
"That was the Dex-Mayo," said Hugo. "And the gargoyle inside was
that blighter Twist from Healthward Ho. Great Scott! The car must
have been over there to fetch him."
"What's so remarkable about that?"
"What's so remarkable?" echoed Hugo, astounded. "What's
remarkable about Uncle Lester deliberately sending his car twenty
miles to fetch a man who could have come, if he had to come at all,
by train at his own expense? My dear old thing, it's revolutionary. It
marks an epoch. Do you know what I think has happened? You
remember that dynamite explosion in the park when Uncle Lester
nearly got done in?"
"I don't have much chance to forget it."
"Well, what I believe has happened is that the shock he got that day
has completely changed his nature. It's a well-known thing. You hear
of such cases all the time. Ronnie Fish was telling me about one
only yesterday. There was a man he knew in London, a money
lender, a fellow who had a glass eye, and the only thing that enabled
anyone to tell which of his eyes was which was that the glass one
had rather a more human expression than the other. That's the sort
of chap he was. Well, one day he was nearly konked in a railway
accident, and he came out of hospital a different man. Slapped
people on the back, patted children on the head, tore up I.O.U.'s,
and talked about its being everybody's duty to make the world a
better place. Take it from me, young Pat, Uncle Lester's whole
nature has undergone some sort of rummy change like that. That
swallow's nest business must have been a preliminary symptom.
Ronnie tells me that this money lender with the glass eye...."
Pat was not interested in glass-eyed money lenders.
"What were you saying about John?"
"I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going home quick, so as to be
among those present when he starts scattering the stuff. It's quite on
the cards that I may scoop that five hundred yet. Once a tightwad
starts seeing the light...."
"You were saying something about John," said Pat, falling into step
with him as he moved off. His babble irked her, making her wish that
she could put the clock back a few years. Age, they say, has its
compensations, but one of the drawbacks of becoming grown-up
and sedate is that you have to abandon the childish practice of
clumping your friends on the side of the head when they wander
from the point. However, she was not too old to pinch her companion
in the fleshy part of the arm, and she did so.
"Ouch!" said Hugo, coming out of his trance.
"What about John?"
Hugo massaged his arm tenderly. The look of a greyhound pursuing
an electric hare died out of his eyes.
"Of course, yes. John. Glad you reminded me. Have you seen John
lately?"
"No. I'm not allowed to go to the Hall, and he seems too busy to
come and see me."
"It isn't so much being busy. Don't forget there's a war on. No doubt
he's afraid of bumping into the parent."
"If Johnnie's scared of Father...."
"There's no need to speak in that contemptuous tone. I am, and
there are few more intrepid men alive than Hugo Carmody. The old
Colonel, believe me, is a tough baby. If I ever see him, I shall run like
a rabbit, and my biographers may make of it what they will. You,
being his daughter and having got accustomed to his ways, probably
look on him as something quite ordinary and harmless, but even you
will admit that he's got eyebrows which must be seen to be
believed."
"Oh, never mind Father's eyebrows. Go on about Johnnie."
"Right ho. Well, then, look here, young Pat," said Hugo, earnestly, "in
the interests of the aforesaid John, I want to ask you a favour. I
understand he proposed to you that night at the Mustard Spoon."
"Well?"
"And you slipped him the mitten."
"Well?"
"Oh, don't think I'm blaming you," Hugo assured her. "If you don't
want him, you don't. Nothing could be fairer than that. But what I'm
asking you to do now is to keep clear of the poor chap. If you happen
to run into him, that can't be helped, but be a sport and do your best
to avoid him. Don't unsettle him. If you come buzzing round, stirring
memories of the past and arousing thoughts of Auld Lang Syne and
what not, that'll unsettle him. It'll take his mind off his job and ... well
... unsettle him. And, providing he isn't unsettled, I have strong
hopes that we may get old John off this season. Do I make myself
clear?"
Pat kicked viciously at an inoffensive pebble, whose only fault was
that it happened to be within reach at the moment.
"I suppose what you're trying to break to me in your rambling,
woollen-headed way is that Johnnie is mooning round that Molloy
girl? I met her just now in Bywater's, and she told me she was
staying at the Hall."
"I wouldn't call it mooning," said Hugo thoughtfully, speaking like a
man who is an expert in these matters and can appraise subtle
values. "I wouldn't say it had quite reached the mooning stage yet.
But I have hopes. You see, John is a bloke whom Nature intended
for a married man. He's a confirmed settler-down, the sort of chap
who...."
"You needn't go over all that again. I had the pleasure of hearing
your views on the subject that night in the lobby of the hotel."
"Oh, you did hear?" said Hugo, unabashed. "Well, don't you think I'm
right?"
"If you mean do I approve of Johnnie marrying Miss Molloy, I
certainly do not."
"But if you don't want him...."
"It has nothing to do with my wanting him or not wanting him. I don't
like Miss Molloy."
"Why not?"
"She's flashy."
"I would have said smart."
"I wouldn't." Pat, with an effort, recovered a certain measure of calm.
Wrangling, she felt, was beneath her. As she could not hit Hugo with
the basket in which she had carried two pounds of tea, a bunch of
roses, and a seed cake to her bedridden pensioner, the best thing to
do was to preserve a ladylike composure. "Anyway, you're probably
taking a lot for granted. Probably Johnnie isn't in the least attracted
by her. Has he ever given any sign of it?"
"Sign?" Hugo considered. "It depends what you mean by sign. You
know what old John is. One of these strong, silent fellows who looks
on all occasions like a stuffed frog."
"He doesn't."
"Pardon me," said Hugo firmly. "Have you ever seen a stuffed frog?
Well, I have. I had one for years when I was a kid. And John has
exactly the same power of expressing emotion. You can't go by what
he says or the way he looks. You have to keep an eye out for much
subtler bits of evidence. Now, last night he was explaining the rules
of cricket to this girl, and answering all her questions on the subject,
and, as he didn't at any point in the proceeding punch her on the
nose, one is entitled to deduce, I consider, that he must be strongly
attracted by her. Ronnie thinks so, too. So what I'm asking you to
do...."
"Good-bye," said Pat. They had reached the gate of the little drive
that led to her house, and she turned sharply.
"Eh?"
"Good-bye."
"But just a moment," insisted Hugo. "Will you...."
At this point he stopped in mid-sentence and began to walk quickly
up the road; and Pat, puzzled to conjecture the reason for so abrupt
a departure, received illumination a moment later when she saw her
father coming down the drive. Colonel Wyvern had been dealing
murderously with snails in the shadow of a bush, and the expression
on his face seemed to indicate that he would be glad to extend the
treatment to Hugo.
He gazed after that officious young man with a steely eye. The
second post had arrived a short time before, and it had included
among a number of bills and circulars a letter from his lawyer, in
which the latter regretfully gave it as his opinion that an action
against Mr. Lester Carmody in the matter of that dynamite business
would not lie. To bring such an action would, in the judgment of
Colonel Wyvern's lawyer, be a waste both of time and money.
The communication was not calculated to sweeten the Colonel's
temper, nor did the spectacle of his daughter in apparently pleasant
conversation with one of the enemy help to cheer him up.
"What are you talking about to that fellow?" he demanded. It was
rare for Colonel Wyvern to be the heavy father, but there are times
when heaviness in a father is excusable. "Where did you meet him?"
His tone disagreeably affected Pat's already harrowed nerves, but
she replied to the question equably.
"I met him on the bridge. We were talking about John."
"Well, kindly understand that I don't want you to hold any
communication whatsoever with that young man or his cousin John
or his infernal uncle or any of that Hall gang. Is that clear?"
Her father was looking at her as if she were a snail which he had just
found eating one of his lettuce leaves, but Pat still contrived with
some difficulty to preserve a pale, saintlike calm.
"Quite clear."
"Very well, then."
There was a silence.
"I've known Johnnie fourteen years," said Pat in a small voice.
"Quite long enough," grunted Colonel Wyvern.
Pat walked on into the house and up the stairs to her room. There,
having stamped on the basket and reduced it to a state where it
would never again carry seed cake to ex-cooks, she sat on her bed
and stared, dry-eyed, at her reflection in the mirror.
What with Dolly Molloy and Hugo and her father, the whole aspect of
John Carroll seemed to be changing for her. No longer was she able
to think of him as Poor Old Johnnie. He had the glamour now of
something unattainable and greatly to be desired. She looked back
at a night, some centuries ago, when a fool of a girl had refused the
offer of this superman's love, and shuddered to think what a mess of
things girls can make.
And she had no one to confide in. The only person who could have
understood and sympathized with her was Hugo's glass-eyed money
lender. He knew what it was to change one's outlook.
II
Mr. Alexander (Chimp) Twist stood with his shoulders against the
mantelpiece in Mr. Carmody's study and, twirling his waxed
moustache thoughtfully, listened with an expressionless face to
Soapy Molloy's synopsis of the events which had led up to his being
at the Hall that morning. Dolly reclined in a deep armchair. Mr.
Carmody was not present, having stated that he would prefer to
leave the negotiations entirely to Mr. Molloy.
Through the open window the sounds and scents of summer poured
in, but it is unlikely that Chimp Twist was aware of them. He was a
man who believed in concentration, and his whole attention now was
taken up by the remarkable facts which his old acquaintance and
partner was placing before him.
The latter's conversation on the telephone some two hours ago had
left Chimp Twist with an open mind. He was hopeful, but cautiously
hopeful. Soapy had insisted that there was a big thing on, but he had
reserved his enthusiasm until he should learn the details. The thing,
he felt, might seem big to Soapy, but to Alexander Twist no things
were big things unless he could see in advance a substantial profit
for A. Twist in them.
Mr. Molloy, concluding his story, paused for reply. The visitor gave
his moustache a final twist, and shook his head.
"I don't get it," he said.
Mrs. Molloy straightened herself militantly in her chair. Of all
masculine defects, she liked slowness of wit least; and she had
never been a great admirer of Mr. Twist.
"You poor, nut-headed swozzie," she said with heat. "What don't you
get? It's simple enough, isn't it? What's bothering you?"
"There's a catch somewhere. Why isn't this guy Carmody able to sell
the things?"
"It's the law, you poor fish. Soapy explained all that."
"Not to me he didn't," said Chimp. "A lot of words fluttered out of him,
but they didn't explain anything to me. Do you mean to say there's a
law in this country that says a man can't sell his own property?"
"It isn't his own property." Dolly's voice was shrill with exasperation.
"The things belong in the family and have to be kept there. Does that
penetrate, or have we got to use a steam drill? Listen here. Old
George W. Ancestor starts one of these English families going—way
back in the year G.X. something. He says to himself, 'I can't last
forever, and when I go then what? My son Freddie is a good boy,
handy with the battle axe and okay at mounting his charger, but he's
like all the rest of these kids—you can't keep him away from the
hock shop as long as there's anything in the house he can raise
money on. It begins to look like the moment I'm gone my collection
of old antiques can kiss itself good-bye.' And then he gets an idea.
He has a law passed saying that Freddie can use the stuff as long as
he lives but he can't sell it. And Freddie, when his time comes, he
hands the law on to his son Archibald, and so on, down the line till
you get to this here now Carmody. The only way this Carmody can
realize on all these things is to sit in with somebody who'll pinch
them and then salt them away somewheres, so that after the cops
are out of the house and all the fuss has quieted down they can get
together and do a deal."
Chimp's face cleared.
"Now I'm hep," he said. "Now I see what you're driving at. Why
couldn't Soapy have put it like that before? Well, then, what's the
idea? I sneak in and swipe the stuff. Then what?"
"You salt it away."
"At Healthward Ho?"
"No!" said Mr. Molloy.
"No!" said Mrs. Molloy.
It would have been difficult to say which spoke with the greater
emphasis, and the effect was to create a rather embarrassing
silence.
"It isn't that we don't trust you, Chimpie," said Mr. Molloy, when this
silence had lasted some little time.
"Oh?" said Mr. Twist, rather distantly.
"It's simply that this bimbo Carmody naturally don't want the stuff to
go out of the house. He wants it where he can keep an eye on it."
"How are you going to pinch it without taking it out of the house?"
"That's all been fixed. I was talking to him about it this morning after I
'phoned you. Here's the idea. You get the stuff and pack it away in a
suitcase...."
"Stuff that there's only enough of so's you can put it all in a suitcase
is a hell of a lot of use to anyone," commented Mr. Twist
disparagingly.
Dolly clutched her temples. Mr. Molloy brushed his hair back from his
forehead with a despairing gesture.
"Sweet potatoes!" moaned Dolly. "Use your bean, you poor sap, use
your bean. If you had another brain you'd just have one. A thing
hasn't got to be the size of the Singer Building to be valuable, has it?
I suppose if someone offered you a diamond you'd turn it down
because it wasn't no bigger than a hen's egg."
"Diamond?" Chimp brightened. "Are there diamonds?"
"No, there aren't. But there's pictures and things, any one of them
worth a packet. Go on, Soapy. Tell him."
Mr. Molloy smoothed his hair and addressed himself to his task once
more.
"Well, it's like this, Chimpie," he said. "You put the stuff in a suitcase
and you take it down into the hall where there's a closet under the
stairs...."
"We'll show you the closet," interjected Dolly.
"Sure we'll show you the closet," said Mr. Molloy generously. "Well,
you put the suitcase in this closet and you leave it lay there. The idea
is that later on I give old man Carmody my cheque and he hands it
over and we take it away."
"He thinks Soapy owns a museum in America," explained Dolly. "He
thinks Soapy's got all the money in the world."
"Of course, long before the time comes for giving any cheques, we'll
have got the stuff away."
Mr. Chimp digested this.
"Who's going to buy it when you do get it away?" he asked.
"Oh, gee!" said Dolly. "You know as well as I do there's dozens of
people on the other side who'll buy it."
"And how are you going to get it away? If it's in a closet in Carmody's
house and Carmody has the key...?"
"Now there," said Mr. Molloy, with a deferential glance at his wife, as
if requesting her permission to re-open a delicate subject, "the
madam and I had a kind of an argument. I wanted to wait till a
chance came along sort of natural, but Dolly's all for quick action.
You know what women are. Impetuous."
"If you'd care to know what we're going to do," said Mrs. Molloy
definitely, "we're not going to hang around waiting for any chances to
come along sort of natural. We're going to slip a couple of knock-out
drops in old man Carmody's port one night after dinner and clear out
with the stuff while...."
"Knock-out drops?" said Chimp, impressed. "Have you got any
knock-out drops?"
"Sure we've got knock-out drops. Soapy never travels without them."
"The madam always packs them in their little bottle first thing before
even my clean collars," said Mr. Molloy proudly. "So you see,
everything's all arranged, Chimpie."
"Yeah?" said Mr. Twist, "and how about me?"
"How do you mean, how about you?"
"It seems to me," pointed out Mr. Twist, eyeing his business partner
in rather an unpleasant manner with his beady little eyes, "that you're
asking me to take a pretty big chance. While you're doping the old
man I'll be twenty miles away at Healthward Ho. How am I to know
you won't go off with the stuff and leave me to whistle for my share?"
It is only occasionally that one sees a man who cannot believe his
ears, but anybody who had been in Mr. Carmody's study at this
moment would have been able to enjoy that interesting experience.
A long moment of stunned and horrified amazement passed before
Mr. Molloy was able to decide that he really had heard correctly.
"Chimpie! You don't suppose we'd double-cross you?"
"Ee-magine!" said Mrs. Molloy.
"Well, mind you don't," said Mr. Twist coldly. "But you can't say I'm
not taking a chance. And now, talking turkey for a moment, how do
we share?"
"Equal shares, of course, Chimpie."
"You mean half for me and half for you and Dolly?"
Mr. Molloy winced as if the mere suggestion had touched an
exposed nerve.
"No, no, no, Chimpie! You get a third, I get a third, and the madam
gets a third."
"Not on your life!"
"What!"
"Not on your life. What do you think I am?"
"I don't know," said Mrs. Molloy acidly. "But, whatever it is, you're the
only one of it."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, that is so."
"Now, now, now," said Mr. Molloy, intervening. "Let's not get
personal. I can't figure this thing out, Chimpie. I can't see where your
kick comes in. You surely aren't suggesting that you should ought to
have as much as I and the wife put together?"
"No, I'm not. I'm suggesting I ought to have more."
"What!"
"Sixty-forty's my terms."
A feverish cry rang through the room, a cry that came straight from a
suffering heart. The temperamental Mrs. Molloy was very near the
point past which a sensitive woman cannot be pushed.
"Every time we get together on one of these jobs," she said, with
deep emotion, "we always have this same fuss about the divvying
up. Just when everything looks nice and settled you start this thing of
trying to hand I and Soapy the nub end of the deal. What's the
matter with you that you always want the earth? Be human, why
can't you, you poor lump of Camembert."
"I'm human all right."
"You've got to prove it to me."
"What makes you say I'm not human?"
"Well, look in the glass and see for yourself," said Mrs. Molloy
offensively.
The pacific Mr. Molloy felt it time to call the meeting to order once
more.
"Now, now, now! All this isn't getting us anywheres. Let's stick to
business. Where do you get that sixty-forty stuff, Chimp?"
"I'll tell you where I get it. I'm going into this thing as a favour, aren't
I? There's no need for me to sit in at this game at all, is there? I've
got a good, flourishing, respectable business of my own, haven't I? A
business that's on the level. Well, then."
Dolly sniffed. Her husband's soothing intervention had failed signally
to diminish her animosity.
"I don't know what your idea was in starting that Healthward Ho
joint," she said, "but I'll bet my diamond sunburst it isn't on the level."
"Certainly it's on the level. A man with brains can always make a
good living without descending to anything low and crooked. That's
why I say that if I go into this thing it will simply be because I want to
do a favour to two old friends."
"Old what?"
"Friends was what I said," repeated Mr. Twist. "If you don't like my
terms, say so and we'll call the deal off. It'll be all right by me. I'll
simply get along back to Healthward Ho and go on running my good,
flourishing, respectable business. Come to think of it, I'm not any too
solid on this thing, anyway. I was walking in my garden this morning
and a magpie come up to me as close as that."
Mrs. Molloy expressed the view that this was tough on the magpie,
but wanted to know what the bird's misfortune in finding itself so
close to Mr. Twist that it could not avoid taking a good, square look at
him had to do with the case.
"Well, I'm superstitious, same as everyone else. I saw the new moon
through the glass, what's more."
"Oh, stop stringing the beads and talk sense," said Dolly wearily.
"I'm talking sense all right. Sixty per cent. or I don't come in. You
wouldn't have asked me to come in if you could have done without
me. Think I don't know that? Sixty's moderate. I'm doing all the hard
work, aren't I?"
"Hard work?" Dolly laughed bitterly. "Where do you get the idea it's
going to be hard work? Everybody'll be out of the house on the night
of this concert thing they're having down in the village, there'll be a
window left open, and you'll just walk in and pack up the stuff. If
that's hard, what's easy? We're simply handing you slathers of
money for practically doing nothing."
"Sixty," said Mr. Twist. "And that's my last word."
"But, Chimpie ..." pleaded Mr. Molloy.
"Sixty."
"Have a heart!"
"Sixty."
"It isn't as though ..."
"Sixty."
Dolly threw up her hands despairingly.
"Oh, give it him," she said. "He won't be happy if you don't. If a guy's
middle name is Shylock, where's the use wasting time trying to do
anything about it?"
III
Mrs. Molloy's prediction that on the night of Rudge's annual dramatic
and musical entertainment the Hall would be completely emptied of
its occupants was not, as it happened, literally fulfilled. A wanderer
through the stable yard at about the hour of ten would have
perceived a light in an upper window: and had he taken the trouble