Sim Gage and his companion, stupefied, sat looking at the bearer of this news.
"Who done it?" asked Wid Gardner grimly after a time. "That ain't no accident."
"Pop Bentley in here said Big Aleck, the squatter, come up the valley this morning right early——"
"That hellion!" exclaimed Sim. "He's always made trouble in this valley. We seen him down below here, driving a broad-tire wagon."
"Yes, a Company wagon, and a Company team. We found that wagon hitched above your lane, Sim. Your mail box was busted down. There wasn't no Big Aleck around, nor no one else."
"Not no one else?—No one in the house?"
"Nels said there wasn't."
"Light down, Sim," said Wid. "Let's go in and talk to Pop Bentley."
Pop Bentley, the keeper of the meager grocery store and little-used post-office, met them with gravity on his whiskered face. He was a tall and thin man, much stooped, who, as far as the memory of man, had always lived here in Two-Forks Valley.
"Well, you heard the news, I reckon," said he to his neighbors. Both men nodded.