It was but a glance, and the latter stepped aside.
Men formed quick judgments on the frontier. As Carey passed the register he read the latest entry there, and like Champers he too drew his own conclusions. At the door he turned and said to Jacobs.
“Tell Bo Peep to have your best horse ready by one o’clock for a long ride.”
“All right, Doctor,” Jacobs responded.
Half an hour later the Jacobs House dining room was crowded for the midday meal. By natural selection men fell into their places. Stewart and Jacobs, with Dr. Carey and Pryor Gaines, the young minister school teacher, had a table to themselves. The other patrons sat at the long board, while the little side table for two was filled today 62 with Champers, the real estate man, and the latest arrival, Mr. Thomas Smith, of Wilmington, Delaware.
“Who’s the man with the dark mustache up there?” Thomas Smith asked.
“Doc Carey,” Champers replied with a scowl.
“You don’t seem to need him?” There was a double meaning in the query, and Champers caught both.
“No ways,” he responded.
“Has some influence here?” the stranger asserted rather than questioned.