CHAPTER XX
DON SEBASTIAN
When they returned to the veranda Payne sat down on the steps. Jake picked up his chair and looked at him thoughtfully.
“Now,” he said, “I want to know why you have been prowling about the shack at night. You had better begin at the beginning.”
“Very well. I guess you know I was put off this camp soon before you came?”
“I heard something about it,” Jake admitted.
Payne grinned as if he appreciated his tact, and then resumed: “In the settlement where I was raised, the old fellow who kept the store had a cheat-ledger. When somebody traded stale eggs and garden-truck for good groceries, and the storekeeper saw he couldn’t make trouble about it without losing a customer, he said nothing but scored it down against the man. Sometimes he had to wait a long while, but sooner or later he squared the account. Now that’s my plan with Don Ramon Oliva.”
“I see,” said Jake. “What have you against him?”