CHAPTER XIII
FOSTER WAIT DEMANDS THE CONTRACT
The news that Foster Wait had been boasting among his followers of the terrible things he was going to do to the supervisor and the possibility of his coming down alone to make good his threats gave Scott a new interest in the meeting. He had taken an instinctive dislike to the man at first sight, and everything he had seen and heard of him since had only served to intensify that feeling.
Foster was a much larger man than Scott, but Scott had not needed Hopwood’s warning to tell him that the giant was a coward. He had seen it and felt it. Probably his followers knew it, too, and maybe that was the reason they had refused to back him up. That was one of the things he had wanted to ask Hopwood, but the man of the iron hat always disappeared before he found out half that he wanted to know.
A man appeared suddenly at the end of the village and Scott watched him eagerly, but it proved to be only the mail carrier who had stopped to read the notice. A new notice on the Caspar bulletin board was in itself an event. The time dragged slowly by and still the expected visitor did not arrive. Could Hopwood have failed in his prophecy? He had the reputation of being infallible.
Things always happen when they are least expected, and Foster Wait had ridden his white horse halfway up the village street before Scott saw him. But even then the suspense was not over for the rider stopped at the store instead of coming straight to the hotel as Scott had hoped. Probably he had dropped in there to bolster up his nerve with a little more bragging, Scott thought. If so, he must have had a great deal of bragging to do, for ten minutes elapsed and he had not come out.
Finally some one came out of the store and started for the hotel. Scott was disappointed to see that it was not Foster but one of the boys who stayed at the store. The boy shuffled along slowly looking everywhere except at Scott, and plainly showing that his errand was not to his liking. He headed for the corner of the house as though he were going around to the back door but changed his course suddenly and edged along the front of the porch. His actions were so peculiar that Scott watched him keenly.
The boy finally came to a halt about ten feet away and looked the front of the house over carefully as though he had come to estimate the cost of a new coat of paint.
“Foster says he wants to see you at the store right away,” the boy gulped suddenly without looking at Scott.
Scott was so amused at the boy’s embarrassment that he almost forgot to be indignant at Foster’s message, but he stiffened a little as he realized the impertinence of the command.
“Tell Mr. Wait that I am at the hotel and will be glad to see him any time he cares to come,” Scott said with forced dignity.