“This old railroad go there?” Scott asked.
The man hesitated a moment. “Goes to where the town used to be,” he said reluctantly. “Reckon we’ll walk back with you. Man we were lookin’ fer don’t seem to be comin’.”
“Where was he coming from? I didn’t know anybody ever came out this way.” The other fellow was asking so many questions that Scott felt justified in asking a good many himself.
“Been out huntin’,” the man replied. “Good many deer out this way.”
They moved forward and the two men moved with them. “What’s the railroad for in this wilderness?” Scott asked.
Again the man hesitated so long that Scott thought he was not going to answer at all. He could hardly have helped hearing him.
“Mill cuttin’ up the line haulin’ lumber down to the harbor,” he finally answered, as though he had weighed all the possibilities and decided to try the truth.
“Must be a pretty big outfit to afford a railroad like this,” Scott continued.
“Reckon it is,” the man replied after another pause. He was evidently giving careful thought to his answers.
“Are they located on the river?” Scott asked.