“Once when I was a child I read a story of a man being killed at just such an out-of-the-way place. Every time I go up that crooked, lonesome hill road, I remember the picture in the book. It always makes me think of that story.”
When the fence was made secure, the two rode away to look after the cattle. And if a Shadow rode beside them, it was mercifully unseen, and in nowise dimming to the clear light of the spring day.
It was high noon when they reached Wykerton, where Hans Wyker still fed the traveling public, although the flourishing hotel where Virginia Aydelot first met John Jacobs had disappeared. The eating-place behind the general store room was divided into two parts, a blind partition wall cutting off a narrow section across the farther end. Ordinary diners went through the store into the dining room and were supplied from the long kitchen running parallel with this room.
There were some guests, however, who entered the farther room by a rear door and were likewise supplied from the kitchen on the side. But as there was no opening between the two rooms, many who ate at Wyker’s never knew of the narrow room beyond their own eating-place and of the two entrances into the kitchen covering the side of each room. Of course, the prime reason for such an arrangement lay in Wyker’s willingness to evade the law and supply customers with contraband drinks. But the infraction of one law is a breach in the wall through which many lawless elements may crowd. The place became, by natural 182 selection, the council chamber of the lawless, and many an evil deed was plotted therein.
“How would you like to keep a store in a place like this, Jacobs?” Asher Aydelot asked, as the two men waited for their meal.
“I had the chance once. I turned it down. How would you like to keep a tavern in such a place?” Jacobs returned.
“I turned down a bigger tavern than this once to be a farmer. I have never regretted it,” Asher replied.
“The Sunflower Ranch has always interested me. How long have you had it?” Jacobs asked.
“Since 1869. I was the first man on Grass River. Shirley came soon afterward,” Asher said.
“And your ranches are typical of you, too,” John Jacobs said thoughtfully. “How much do you own now?”