Sprawling belly-down on her bed, she opened her notebook to a clean page. On the left side she listed all the attacks made on the newspaper. Then, digging back through her memory, she started another list opposite the first: Press lever stolen Mr. Spaulding knew when we were coming and unpacked the press himself. Paper shipment burned I told Mr. Sp. that Mr. Torkelson expected the shipment that day. Typecase dumped over Mr. Sp. had the key to the print shop (which he said was stolen). Ink spilled and articles destroyed Mr. Sp. had time after losing the poker game to go by the print shop while Mule Tom was looking for me. Maybe angry about losing the game? What else? Mr. Spaulding had seemed annoyed to find Emma studying his map, and had looked through his papers nervously before addressing her. He had gambling debts. Gamblers get angry when they lose, Mr. Troxwell had said. A man in debt is a desperate man, Tildy had said. Emma chewed her pencil. She couldn’t imagine why Mr. Spaulding would bring her and Mother all the way to Twin Pines, then try to drive them away.
