Scott turned back with a new thought. “Where did you get that stuff?” he asked sternly.
Dick winked at him slowly and shook his head. “A gentleman would never tell,” he replied knowingly.
Scott slammed the door in disgust and left him still explaining his gentility to the empty room.
Here was another thing he had to investigate.
CHAPTER XIX
HOPWOOD THROWS AWAY HIS IRON HAT
After dinner Scott stopped at the bunk house to see that his orders were carried out in regard to Dick. Dick had not delivered the message, but he did not have to. MacAndrews had spotted him shortly after Scott had discovered him and had started him down the track before dinner.
Scott decided to devote the afternoon to collecting news from his friends in the hope that he could find out something which would throw some light on Foster’s actions. The station agent had heard nothing and he went up to see old man Sanders. The old man greeted him with his usual cordiality.
“Come in, come in,” he said. “I hear you have beaten up the ogre and are succeeding in getting out the timber without his assistance. How did you do it?”
Scott sat down in the proffered chair a little wearily. “Every one seems to be more interested in my fighting ability than in anything else. It’s a fine reputation for a man who started out to be an angel of peace. Things are going pretty well but there is something about it I do not like. Foster Wait is hanging around the logging operation all the time, and I can’t find out what he is up to. Haven’t heard anything about it, have you?”
Mr. Sanders shook his head. “No,” he replied, “I have not heard anything at all. Hopwood seems to have deserted me, and Vic has not been down the mountain since the night you took her home. I can’t get around much myself and when those two desert me I don’t know much.”