“We’ll do the best we kin fer ye.” Bill pocketed the money. This chap was easy. “Say are ye a friend of them Secrests? You was eatin’ there last night.”
“Certainly I am a friend of theirs, though I never saw any of them before last night. And I don’t like that, Mr.—” Not recalling Bill’s name Mr. Tudor paused for a moment. “That looks a little as if I were being spied on. Are there any parties around here from whom I may need to protect myself?”
Evan’s eyes flashed. Bill’s eyes fell. He was used to taking the initiative in threats. This was something new for him.
“If ye mind yer own business, I reckon ye needn’t be afraid of nobody.”
“That is good. I’ll not be, but it is just as well in a new country to be ready, I suppose. How are the village people about talking to strangers? I want a little material in the line of characters and I may wander among those interesting shacks a little. Will they throw me out?” Mr. Tudor’s face wore a whimsical smile.
“They might. I wouldn’t advise ye to git too smart around here.”
Bill sauntered off. He had come from the direction of Steeple Rocks, Mr. Tudor noted. He smiled to himself as he started the typewriter once more. He was paying Bill, Bill the chief sinner, aside from those who paid him for doing what he was doing.
Evan Tudor spent the rest of the day in spying out the land. He searched the woods, finding it a glorious grove of beautiful trees and interesting growths of bush and fern. He had the love of a scientist for the different phases of wild life and spent some time over curious flowers, taking a list of those he knew for future use in some setting of a story. Toward dark, he entered the Ives’ land and after dark he wandered around Steeple Rocks, feeling justified in the intrusion, for his quest was a trust.
But as it grew late he hurried back to his tent, for he rather expected that some watcher would know whether he spent the night in his tent or in “snooping.” He thought that so far he had escaped observation since evening fell. And after all, an early trip about would be only natural to a newcomer. Evan tried to put himself in the place of the evildoer, suspicious, fearful, and he wished at first to allay those suspicions.
As he approached his tent, he thought he heard a rustle in the bushes. He put a tree between himself and the noise, but hummed a little. A shot in the dark would be possible, but scarcely likely. Bill would be the first one to be suspected, and Bill, whether able to prove an alibi or not, did not want any investigating authorities.