“Well—I might be,” said Lockwood cautiously, “He’s expecting one, is he?”
“Sure. Burns, the other woods rider, he got throwed from his horse last week. Hit against a pine stump hard and was hurt right bad. It’s the busy season now, and Craig needs a man bad.”
“Yes, I was going down to see Craig,” Lockwood responded carelessly. “How far is the camp from here?”
“Couple of miles, straight down past the Powers’ place. Cross the bridge over the bayou and take the trail into the woods.”
“The Powers’ place?” said Lockwood. “That’s the——”
It was the opening he wanted, but at that instant a farmer drove up in a shaky buggy drawn by a mule, got out, and came up the steps. He was introduced to Lockwood, took a chew of tobacco, and finally went into the store, where he spent half an hour.
“Well, you’ll likely find Charley Craig at the camp ’bout noon,” Ferrell resumed when the customer had gone. “Not much before. He’s out in the saddle by daylight and don’t get back to the camp till dinner time. But if you’re a turpentine man he’ll sure be glad to see you.”
The mail rider came up then and took away the pouch, starting on his round of twenty-five miles through the isolated post offices of that river region. Another farmer came up, sat for some time on the steps and departed. Three men went by in a frightfully dilapidated Ford car. More people loafed in; a little group formed on the gallery; and Ferrell introduced Lockwood to them all with punctilious ceremony, with the air of presenting an honored guest.
It was an attention with which Lockwood would willingly have dispensed. At this rate, he thought, every one in the neighborhood would soon know his face.
He sat back, saying little, listening to the slow drawl of talk and the low-pitched laughter. They were unlettered and ragged and sunburned, these Alabama farmers, but they had the courtesy of gentlemen and the leisure of aristocrats. He heard the gossip of the country—of the rise in the river, flooding out the bottom lands, of the weather for cotton, of a nigger who had been stealing hogs, and of a man who had been shot near Nadawah.