“Well, you couldn’t if you had my horse, but I’ll walk with you this time. We’ll be off the trail a good deal and I don’t want to be too conspicuous.”
They went back by another trail which the marshal knew to avoid the logging camp and any one who might be looking for them. When the marshal started out anywhere, it was usually well heralded all over the mountain.
They were walking rapidly up a steep mountain trail when the marshal suddenly stopped and held up his hand. Scott peeped through the bushes and was surprised to see that they were in sight of the trail on the main ridge just above the still. He followed the direction of the marshal’s pointing finger and saw one of Foster’s boys earnestly watching the trail Scott had gone down the day before.
They made a detour and crossed the main ridge trail back of the boy. Just as they started down the slope toward the still, three rifle shots rang out in the valley below.
“There is something doing down there,” the marshal whispered. “Sounds as though we ought to have brought the sheriff and a bunch of deputies.”
CHAPTER XXV
HOPWOOD SENDS FOSTER A MESSAGE
Hopwood did not go immediately back to camp to carry the message to MacAndrews. There would be plenty of time for that after dark. He thought it better to hang around and try to find out something of Foster’s plans. Instead of going down the trail he hid in the brush and watched, for he felt sure that Foster would come back that way when he found he had missed his mark.
He saw Foster come out of the woods and judged his state of mind pretty well from his looks. When he saw him shoot the squirrel he was convinced of his savage rage. In such a condition as that he might do anything. He thought of old Jarred and little Vic up there on the opposite mountain and wondered what form his rage would take.
Just then Foster could not have told him himself. He only knew that he had lost his opportunity in a game that he did not very clearly understand. Why had Scott gone to the still and not touched it? If he had destroyed the still and the supply of whisky in those barrels he could have understood that. He would have been trying to protect himself and his crew. But he had not destroyed it.
Then a new thought occurred to him. Perhaps Scott had gone there to destroy things but had been interrupted before he had a chance to carry out his purpose. Perhaps he had destroyed it after he himself had been there. There had been quite an interval between the time he had looked in the cabin and the time he discovered Scott on the opposite ridge. He decided to see; it would at least give him something to do.