XII—STARTING SOMETHING IN LEVANT
THE men were there in the morning—a mob of them.
They came riding and they footed it into the village. The tavern office was crowded and the yard was full.
The growing buzz of them woke me before sunup, and I wasted no time in dressing and getting down.
It was just as I had expected—the spirit of a lark was in them. They were not like men who had come dragging themselves to work. The men I knew—and I knew a lot of them on account of my early goings and comings about the countryside on my uncle’s affairs—were on my back in a moment, their mouths full of questions.
But I was not ready to talk turkey till I had settled on one point, and I told them to be easy for a few minutes.
I needed one man for a special purpose. I had left the selection of that man for morning, feeling instinctively that I would do better to pick from the crowd than to give away my plans overnight.
I saw him inside of ten seconds. It was as clear a case of the right man for the job as if I had specified and had received the goods.