“Sutherland, he send the Chinaman for you. He want to see you by his house ven you come in already.”
Robin walked over to the Sutherland cottage. Sutherland stood on the top step rolling a cigar between his lips.
“You wanted to see me?”
“Yes. Come on in. Still chilly in the evenin’s.”
Robin sat down in an upholstered chair in a comfortably fitted, homelike room. Sutherland stared at him for a minute.
“You’ll know me, I reckon, next time you see me,” Robin suggested dryly. That appraising stare ruffled him a trifle.
Sutherland grinned.
“I reckon I will,” said he. “What possessed you to jump on Mark Steele roughshod?”
“He had it coming,” Robin defended. “Anyway, I didn’t jump him. I just told him where he got off.”
“Well, I guess he got off all right,” Sutherland grumbled. “Now what’s the root of this trouble between you and Mark Steele? Strikes me it’s more than a girl. Twice you’ve called him a thief. I got a right to know.”