“I don’t believe it,” replied Ide, stoutly. “There are some things goin’ on here that I don’t understand the inside of up to now; but as for that young man, I picked him for square the first time I laid my eyes on him at Castonia. I’ve had him looked up by friends of mine outside, and now I know he’s square. You can’t break up our partnership by that kind of talk, Britt. Now own up! What’s the nigger in the woodpile here, anyway?” The little man was still unbending, but his eyes snapped with curiosity.
But the Honorable Pulaski’s shifty eyes dodged the inquiring stare of the Castonia man. The view down the tote road in the direction in which Nina Ide and Kate Arden had disappeared under convoy of Christopher Straight seemed to be a more welcome prospect than that frankly inquisitive face. And the view down the trail also suggested a safer topic for conversation.
“I believe in indulgin’ a girl’s whims, Rod, but this is a time when you’ve let yourself go too far. That lucivee[2] kitten that your daughter has lugged off home set this fire that we’ve been fightin’ up here. She set it maliciously, in the face and eyes of Sheriff Rodliff and myself. She’s the worst one of the whole lot, and as a plantation officer you know the Skeets and Bushees pretty well. Are you goin’ to let your girl take a critter like that back home with her?” He noted a flicker of consternation in the little man’s eyes. “Now, don’t be a fool in this thing. Let a half-dozen men run after that girl and fetch her back. She don’t belong in any decent home. John Barrett and I have arranged a plan to take care of her and keep her out of mischief.”
But again the timber magnate’s eyes failed to meet the test of Ide’s frank stare.
“I’ve known you a good many years, Pulaski,” said he. “I’ve done a lot of business with you, and you can’t fool me for a minute. You’ve been into a milk-pan, for I can see cream on your whiskers.”
“I’m only warnin’ you not to harbor such a criminal!” stormed the other. His wrath slipped its leash once more. The presence of Dwight Wade, his very silence, seemed tacit proclamation of victory and the boast of it. “The girl belongs back here, and we’re goin’ to have her back. If your men don’t fetch her, mine will.”
But Ide set his short legs astride a little more solidly.
“As first assessor of the nearest plantation, I can handle the State pauper business of these parts, and do it without help,” he said.
“You mean that meddlin’ girl of yours is runnin’ it,” taunted Britt.