“Pretty neat for an old man’s den,” Jarred chuckled with evident pride. “Vic did that for me this morning in spite of her crippled knee.”
There was an uncertain thump on the back step and Scott turned to see Vic hopping in on one foot. She certainly looked like a different girl from the one he had struggled with the night before. She hopped toward him without embarrassment and held out her hand.
“I am sorry I acted so badly last night,” she said frankly. “I hope that you will forget it. I would have been in a pickle without you.”
Could this be the little wildcat he had picked up in the road the night before? Scott stared at her open-mouthed for a moment before he could find his tongue.
“I could not very well expect anything else when I picked you up and carried you off against your will,” he laughed, when he had finally recovered from his astonishment.
“She says she is going to stay with me now,” Jarred said. “Says she has had a row with her father and is not going back. I don’t know what the trouble is and I’m afraid to look it up for fear I might have to send her back.”
He put his arm affectionately around the child and it was plain to see where he would put the blame. She cast an apprehensive glance at Scott and he knew she was worrying about the promise she had extracted from him the night before. He relieved her mind at once.
“There are one or two things I would like to know before I go on with this timber sale, Mr. Morgan, and I think you can probably answer my questions better than any one else if you will.”
Jarred nodded. “I’ll be glad to help you all I can.”
“I have already told you,” Scott proceeded, “that I am not willing to give the contract to either the Waits or the Morgans unless they will take it jointly. I have heard—and heard it so often that I think it must be true—that Mr. Reynolds promised this contract to the Waits. Of course either of you has a right to bid on it if you want to, and I can’t stop you. I could turn either of you down even though you were the high bidder, but you can easily see in what a disagreeable position that would place me and I don’t want to do it.”