“I did not know that he cared that much about me,” Hopwood replied rather wistfully. “I’ll go right to him.”
“You should,” Scott urged him earnestly, “for he cares a great deal about you, and so do I. You ought not to scare us that way.”
Hopwood looked a little hurt. “I was trying to do something for you. That was why I went away.”
“For me!” Scott exclaimed in astonishment. “How is that?”
“Foster will shoot you if he gets a chance,” Hopwood replied confidently. “I went over to the county seat to try to get him arrested. If he was in jail it would be safer around here. It will never be safe while he is here.”
“But you can’t get a man arrested for what you think he is going to do, Hopwood,” Scott remonstrated.
“No, not for what he has done, either,” Hopwood replied bitterly. “He killed a little girl here years ago, Jarred’s daughter. It was not a fight, just plain murder. It was for that I wanted them to arrest him.”
Scott looked at him wonderingly. “What did they say?”
“They laughed at me,” Hopwood replied angrily. “Said they could not arrest any one on the word of a crazy man.”
“Did you have on your iron hat?” Scott asked, a little amused in spite of himself.