In the meanwhile Scott was sitting down in the hotel waiting. He knew that nothing could come of this advertisement either on the bulletin board or in the local papers where he had sent it, and he wanted to be about his business. He knew what he was going to do now and he was anxious to be at it, but he knew what a hubbub the news would make among the Waits and he did not want to appear to run away. He had to wait at least till he had seen Foster Wait. It would never do for them to come down and find that he had left the country as soon as he had posted the notice. His duty did not require him to stay there, but his pride did.
He sat on the front porch, from which point of vantage he could bring the whole village under his surveillance at once. He could see the little white square of his posted notice on the bulletin board at the other end of the street, and he watched it curiously to see if any one would read it. He saw two or three from the east slope stop there, and come on to the Morgan store in apparent good humor. No one at all came down from the Wait territory, and Scott was disappointed because they were the ones on whom he was anxious to note the effect.
One hour crawled slowly after another and he patiently watched the lights and shadows creeping over the mountain slopes as the sun rose higher in the heavens. It was after ten o’clock when Scott happened to glance to his right and started to find Hopwood sitting in an inconspicuous place on the end of the porch.
“Where under the sun did you come from, Hopwood?” he exclaimed.
Hopwood spread his hands in both directions as he always did to indicate that he came from everywhere.
“Foster is pretty mad,” he remarked casually.
“Have you seen him?” Scott asked anxiously.
Hopwood nodded. “I saw them all.”
“I suppose they were holding a big family powwow over it and will all be swarming down here after a while to find out what it means.” Scott chuckled at the discomfiture he was causing the Waits, for he had taken a distinct dislike to the whole tribe with the exception of Hopwood.
“No,” Hopwood remarked quietly, “they are not coming, but maybe Foster will get up the nerve to come down alone. He’ll pretty near have to or he will be done for.”