Everything was running as smoothly as a watch under MacAndrews’ efficient management, and Scott would have been serenely happy but for one thing. He had not seen Hopwood for three weeks. Not since the first day of his return from Washington. And he had come to rely on Hopwood more than he realized. There was no one else who could keep him posted. The agent told him what little he heard, and he visited old man Sanders one evening. But without Hopwood they were almost as much in the dark as he was.
One evening Sewall came to see him at the hotel which was considered neutral ground. He, too, was worrying about Hopwood.
“So you have not seen him, either,” he said, as he was preparing to leave. “I do not know what to make of it. He never disappeared this way before. I have searched for him everywhere on this side of the mountain but no one has seen him. No one has seen him on the other side.”
“Have you any suspicions about it?” Scott asked.
Sewall hesitated a moment. “He seems to have taken quite a shine to you and I thought maybe you had sent him on an errand somewhere. I wanted to find out before I said anything else.”
“Now what are you going to do?” Scott asked anxiously.
Again Sewall hesitated.
“This is not mere curiosity on my part,” Scott added. “I look upon Hopwood as a good friend of mine, and I am as anxious to find him as you are. If you have any theory and I can do anything to help I want to do it.”
Sewall still hesitated. “I don’t see how you can help me just now and I have not told any one my suspicions, but if you are a friend of his I might as well tell you what I am thinking. I can’t lower your opinion of Foster much. I have no basis for my suspicions, but I can’t help wondering if Foster has anything to do with it. He knows that Hopwood does not like him and he may have got him out of the way to keep him from working against him. I suppose you know how Hopwood came to be crazy?”
Scott nodded. “I heard about it,” he said. “But surely Foster would not do him any farther injury when he is already responsible for that.”