“M-m-um, well,” he began, “thought it might int’rest you if the road was to cross the Branch there, instid of here,” emphasizing the location by again kicking the stake. “Probably you know why better than I do. I was jest spec’latin’ on that.”
“Jim,” said Avery, fixing him with a shrewd eye, “whar you been pokin’ round lately?”
Curious Jim shifted from one foot to the other.
“I can smell somethin’ comin’ plain as burnin’ grevvy—”
Cameron grinned in anticipation of his hearers’ astonishment when he should tell them what he knew.
“When the drive went through last week, I was to Tramworth. You know the back room in Bill Smeaton’s harness-shop. Well, I was settin’ there, pickin’ over some findin’s to mend my harness,—Bill havin’ gone out on a personal errand,—and somebody comes in, follered by another feller. One of ’em says, ‘Hey, Bill!’ Seein’ as my name’s Jim, I jest said nothin’”—a smile twitched Avery’s beard—“but set there. Pretty soon the feller what follered the first feller in, says, ‘Guess he’s gone out fur a drink,’ which was c’rrect. Then they sorter hung around fur a minute or two, talkin’ about the drive and this here new railroad, and some folks as ain’t more’n a mile from here; and then Fisty says, ‘Well, Red, Barney’s done us on the asbestos and that one-eyed ole’—”
“Go ahead,” interrupted Avery, “I been called thet afore now.”
“‘Has got it comin’ his way so fur,’” continued Cameron, “‘but the game ain’t all played out yet.’”
Curious Jim drew himself up and looked from one to the other of the partners. “That’s all—’cept they went out, Fisty and Jim Smeaton, and I climb out of the back window after a spell and waited till Bill Smeaton come back. Then I went in the front ag’in and got what I was after.”
“Wal, is thet all?” said Avery.