“I shouldn’t expect him until late in the summer, anyway.”
There was silence for a moment or two, and during it Hawtrey’s face grew set. It was unpleasant to look forward to the time when he would be required to relinquish the charge of the Range, and of late he had been wondering how he could make the most of the situation. Then Edmonds spoke again.
“It’s almost certain that the operation I suggested can result only one way, and it appears most unlikely that Wyllard would raise any trouble if you handed him several thousand dollars over and above what you had made by farming. I can’t imagine a man objecting to that kind of thing.”
Hawtrey sat still with indecision in his eyes for half a minute, and Edmonds, who was too wise to say anything, leaned back in his chair. Then Hawtrey turned to the drawer again with an air of sudden resolution.
“I’ll give you a check for a couple of thousand dollars, which is as far as I care to go just now,” he announced with studied carelessness.
He took a pen, and Edmonds watched him with quiet amusement as he wrote. As a matter of fact, Hawtrey was in one respect, at least, perfectly safe in entrusting the money to him. Edmonds had deprived a good many prairie farmers of their possessions in his time, but he never stooped to any crude trickery. He left that to the smaller fry. Just then he was playing a deep and cleverly thought-out game.
He pocketed the check that Hawtrey gave him, and then discussed other subjects for half an hour or so before he rose to go.
“You might ask them to get my team out. I’ve some business at Lander’s and have ordered a room there,” he said. “I’ll send you a line when there’s any change in the market.”