SECTION 9.
Billy Keating went out again, saying that he knew a man who might be willing to talk to him on the quiet, and give him some idea what was going to happen to Hal. Meantime Hal and Edstrom sat down to dinner with MacKellar. The family were afraid to use the dining-room of their home, but spread a little table in the upstairs hall. The distress of mind of MacKellar's wife and daughter was apparent, and this brought home to Hal the terror of life in this coal-country. Here were American women, in an American home, a home with evidences of refinement and culture; yet they felt and acted as if they were Russian conspirators, in terror of Siberia and the knout!
The reporter was gone a couple of hours; when he came back, he brought news. “You can prepare for trouble, young fellow.”
“Why so?”
“Jeff Cotton's in town.”
“How do you know?”
“I saw him in an automobile. If he left North Valley at this time, it was for something serious, you may be sure.”
“What does he mean to do?”
“There's no telling. He may have you slugged; he may have you run out of town and dumped out in the desert; he may just have you arrested.”
Hal considered for a moment. “For slander?”