He dismounted and gave his horse to one of the others,
telling them that he would do the scouting himself
this time, and he went back on foot to the house of
Pop. He made his steps noiseless as he came closer,
not that he expected to surprise Pop to any purpose,
but the natural instinct of the trailer made him advance
with caution, and, when he was close enough to the
door he heard: “Oh, he’s a clever
gent, well enough, but they ain’t any of ’em
so clever that they can’t learn somethin’
new.” Hal Dozier paused with his hand raised
to rap at the door and he heard Pop say in continuation:
“You write this down in red, sonny, and don’t
you never forget it: The wisest gent is the gent
that don’t take nothin’ for granted.”
It came to Hal Dozier that, if he delayed his entrance
for another moment, he might hear something distinctly
to his advantage; but his role of eavesdropper did
not fit with his broad shoulders, and, after knocking
on the door, he stepped in. Pop was putting away
the dishes, and Jud was scrubbing out the sink.
“The boys are working up the trail,” said
Hal Dozier, “but they can do it by themselves.
I know that the trail ends at the cliff. I’ll
tell you that poor kid walked to the edge of the cliff,
stopped there a minute; made up his mind that he was
bleeding to death, and then cut it short. He
jumped, missed the rocks underneath, and was carried
off by the river.” Dozier followed up his
statement with some curse words.
He watched the face of the other keenly, but the old
man was busy filling his pipe. His eyebrows,
to be sure, flicked up as he heard this tragedy announced,
and there was a breath from Jud. “I’ll
tell you, Dozier,” said the other, lighting
his pipe and then tamping the red-hot coals with his
calloused forefinger, “I’m kind of particular
about the way people cusses around Jud. He’s
kind of young, and they ain’t any kind of use
of him litterin’ up his mind with useless words.
Don’t mean no offense to you, Dozier.”
The deputy officer took a chair and tipped it back
against the wall. He felt that he had been thoroughly
checkmated in his first move; and yet he sensed an
atmosphere of suspicion in this little house.
It lingered in the air. Also, he noted that Jud
was watching him with rather wide eyes and a face
of unhealthy pallor; but that might very well be because
of the awe which the youngster felt in beholding Hal
Dozier, the manhunter, at close range. All these
things were decidedly small clews, but the marshal
was accustomed to acting on hints.
In the meantime, Pop, having put away the last of
the dishes in a cupboard, whose shelves were lined
with fresh white paper, offered Dozier a cup of coffee.
While he sipped it, the marshal complimented his host
on the precision with which he maintained his house.
“It looks like a woman’s hand had been
at work,” concluded the marshal.
