"Thank you." His eyes glanced over the stock of goods and he selected a few edibles to give him strength for the walk. "I'll leave my suitcase here if I may," he said, "and will call for it later." He turned to go.
"Wait just a minute," a voice spoke behind him. It was a commanding tone—implying the expectation of obedience. Bruce half turned. "Simon wants to talk to you," the merchant explained.
"I'll walk with you a way and show you the road," Simon continued. The room seemed deathly quiet as the two men went out together.
They walked side by side until a turn of the road took them out of eye-range of the store. "This is the road," Simon said. "All you have to do is follow it. Cabins are not so many that you could mistake it. But the main thing is—whether or not you want to go."
Bruce had no misunderstanding about the man's meaning. It was simply a threat, nothing more nor less.
"I've come a long way to go to that cabin," he replied. "I'm not likely to turn off now."
"There's nothing worth seeing when you get there. Just an old hag—a wrinkled old dame that looks like a witch."
Bruce felt a deep and little understood resentment at the words. Yet since he had as yet established no relations with the woman, he had no grounds for silencing the man. "I'll have to decide that," he replied. "I'm going to see some one else, too."
"Some one named—Linda?"
"Yes. You seem quite interested."