“Then he’d better be reckoned up—and watched.”
“You might suggest that to Mr. Adair,” said Ralph, in a low voice.
“That is what I was thinking of doing. But you see,” said the eager Zeph, “I wanted to be sure that I really had something on the man. Even what I heard down the line is mighty little evidence.”
“We’ll admit that. But taken with what I know——”
Ralph proceeded to give his friend a full account of the incidents of this very day, when Whitey Malone had attacked both the supervisor’s daughter and Ralph himself.
“That fellow is egged on by McCarrey. I know that to be a fact. Mac is addressing meetings in Beeman’s Hall, and circulating a lot of literature that ought to be suppressed, and getting ready to deal the road a dirty blow through the dissatisfied element. But what can be proved against him?”
“He ought to be run out of the place.”
“You are suggesting fighting fire with fire,” Ralph rejoined, shaking his head. “But I know what Mr. Adair will say. He will declare for peace at any price until the enemy makes the first move.”
“Hey!” muttered Zeph in Ralph’s ear. “Do you know that fellow?”
They had been walking along the dark street, arm in arm. There were few pedestrians in sight. This was a busy part of the town in daylight, but there was little activity now.