"Mighty queer, that is!" thought the Westerner, staring at the spot where the man had disappeared. "He don't act as if he intended to try to rustle the ranch. I reckon I'll wait a bit."
Badger had not long to wait. Fairfax Lee came down the walk from the street scarcely a minute later.
"If this wasn't New Haven, in the great and cultivated East, I should say the fellow is laying for Lee with a gun, or a lariat!"
As Lee came down the path, the man appeared from behind the shrubbery, as if he had just returned from a visit to one of the side doors, and placed himself in front of the politician. Lee stopped in a hesitating way, and it was clear to Badger that he was afraid of this intruder.
"What are you doing here?" Lee demanded. The man advanced a step, with a threatening whine.
"You wouldn't see me at your office, and I have come here, Lee. When are you going to get me that appointment?"
Lee was one of New Haven's prominent politicians.
"I have told you that I can't do anything for you, Gaston!" he declared.
"But you said before the election that you'd git me a job!"
"I said nothing of the kind!"