The woman looked at him suspiciously for a minute and seemed to be undecided whether or not to call her husband. Then she pointed to an empty bed in the corner.
“I don’t want to crowd you here,” Scott apologized.
“You won’t bother nobody,” the woman replied without looking up from her book.
Scott did not think much of his reception. He had not had anything to eat since morning, but the looks of the place did not encourage him to ask for anything. It would be better than sleeping out in the cold without blankets even if he were hungry. He walked over to the bunk and crawled in without any further ceremony than taking off his shoes.
For a few minutes he lay there and marveled at the tremendous chorus of snores which seemed to be coming from all parts of the little cabin, but he soon fell asleep in spite of the music and his hunger. In the morning Scott was astonished to see the number of people who rolled out of those bunks—men, women and children. It was evidently a big family, but he was not sure he had seen them all.
After the way he had been received the night before, Scott intended to thank them for the lodging and depart without breakfast, but the man would not have it so.
“Where did you get supper?” he asked.
“I did not have any,” Scott replied a little spitefully.
The man was very much put out and insisted on Scott’s staying to breakfast. Scott accepted, but before he was through he was sorry he had not stuck to his original purpose of going away hungry. When the man learned he was running the logging job on the other side of the mountain, he became so interested that Scott had a hard time getting away from him. If he had seen one of the boys slip around the house and run off up the trail in the direction from which he had come the night before, he might have been suspicious of so many questions.
It was seven o’clock before he got away from these people and started for the town. Even at that the marshal was not up when he arrived. He had recovered from his logging camp breakfast sufficiently to eat another at the little hotel while he was waiting for the marshal.