“Fair.”
“Goin’ right up to see Jake?”
“Yes. Where is he?”
“In his shack. Say,” the old man shifted uneasily, “I’ve tho’t a crateful sence we wus yarnin’ last night, I guess. Don’t git shuvin’ Jake too close agin the wall. Give him your yarn easy. Kind o’ talk han’some by him. He’s goin’ to figger this thing out fer us. He’ll git givin’ us a lead, mebbe, when he ain’t calc’latin’ to. Savee?”
Tresler didn’t answer at once; in fact, he didn’t quite see the old man’s point. He completed his toilet by buckling on his belt and revolver. Then he prepared to depart.
“We’ll see. I intend to be governed by circumstances,” he said quietly.
“Jest so. An’ circumstances has the way o’ governin’ most things, anyways. Guess I’m jest astin’ you to rub the corners off’n them circumstances so they’ll run smooth.”
Tresler smiled at the manner of the old man’s advice, which was plain enough this time.
“I see. Well, so long.”
He hurried out and Joe watched him go. Then the little man rose from his seat and went out to Teddy Jinks’s kitchen on the pretense of yarning. In reality he knew that the foreman’s hut was in full view from the kitchen window.