Jake reached the door of the stable and knocked on it in a forceful and peremptory manner.
CHAPTER XX
BY THE LIGHT OF THE LAMP
Impelled by curiosity and nervous anticipation Tresler did not long remain in the shelter of the barn. It was too dark to see distinctly all that way off, so he closed up on the object of his watch. He intended to miss nothing of what was happening, so he crept out into the open, quite careless of the chances of being discovered at his undignified occupation.
And all the time he was a prey to unpleasant foreboding; that unaccountable foreboding so truly prophetic, which refuses to be shaken off. He knew that disaster was in the air as surely as if it had all happened, and there was nothing left for him but to gaze impotently upon the ruin. He had a certain amount of reason for his fears, of course, but that reason was largely speculative, and, had he been asked to state definitely what he anticipated, on whom disaster was to fall, he could not have answered with any real conviction. Something prompted him that Jake was to be the central figure, the prime mover. But beyond that his ideas were vague. The man’s very summons at the door was a positive aggravation, and suggested possibilities.
An answer came with the abrupt opening of the stable door, which revealed the lithe figure of the dusky half-breed, framed in a setting of dingy yellow light from the lantern within. He could see the insolent, upward stare of the man’s eyes as he looked up into the great man’s face; nor at that moment could he help thinking of all he had heard of “Tough” McCulloch. And the recollection brought him a further feeling of uneasiness for the man who had thus come to beard him in his own den.
But even while these thoughts passed swiftly through his brain the bullying, hectoring tones of Jake’s voice came to him. They were unnecessarily loud, and there was a thickness in them which corroborated the evidence of his uneven gait. Jake had certainly been priming himself with spirit.
“Where was you last night, Anton?” he heard him ask.