|THAT evening after supper, as Paul sat writing in his room, his
employer came to the door and looked in.
“Hello!” was his half-tentative greeting, as he slouched in and took
a chair near the table. “I've just been talkin' to my sister. She's
powerful tickled over the effect on Eth' of your trip over the mountain.
She says she's actually astonished. It seems like the gal's goin' to
quit 'er foolishness. I was gettin' powerful sick of it myself. It's
hard enough to know your own end's got to come some time ahead without
dyin' every time anybody else kicks the bucket.”
“I'm glad to know that Miss Ethel feels better.” Paul dipped his pen and
continued to write.
Hoag crossed his fat legs and, reaching down to his right shoe, he began
to fumble the string. “I want to see you about a certain matter,” he
began, clearing his throat. “I don't know as you will consider it any o'
my business exactly, but it is something that I thought you ought to be
prepared for.”
“What is it?” Paul put his pen into the rack and leaned toward the
speaker.
“Why, I was talkin' to Bob Mayburn this mornin'. You know his land joins
mine on the west. He had a few acres to rent an' was afraid he wouldn't
find a tenant; but he has hooked one at last, and who under the shinin'
sun do you reckon he got?”
“I haven't the slightest idea,” Paul answered.
“Jeff Warren,” Hoag said, his eyes bluntly fixed on the young man's face
in a groping stare of pleased curiosity.
“Oh!” Paul exclaimed. “I didn't know he was anywhere near Grayson.”
“He ain't got here yet,” Hoag went on, a note of vindictive harshness
creeping into his voice. “The triflin' skunk has been over in Alabama
with yore ma an' her sister tryin' to make a livin' farmin', but without
any sort o' headway. He wrote May-burn that he was up to his eyes in
debt over thar--plumb busted--an' that they'd all three got sick an'
tired o' livin' among strangers, an' was anxious to git back here whar
they are acquainted. May-burn's got a comfortable new frame cottage on
his land that's empty, but knowin' that Jeff couldn't pay for it, he
wrote 'im that it was already rented. Thar is an old log cabin close to
the cottage, an' accordin' to the agreement Jeff an' his lay-out is to
occupy that. It's tough on a feller of Jeff's high an' mighty pride, but
it is as good as he deserves.”
Paul made no reply, a shadow lay across his sensitive face. He took up
the pen again, but he did not begin to use it.
“I knowed you wouldn't like it a bit,” Hoag continued, unctuously.
“Here you are risin' as fast as a dog can trot, gittin' the respect an'
favorable opinion of the best folks in the county, an' it's tough to
have a thing like that revived right when you ain't lookin' for it. I've
no doubt you wouldn't have settled here if you had thought such a thing
would happen.”
“Warren is a free man.” Paul's brows met, and his eyes held a far-off
gleam. “He has as much right here as I.”
“Of course, of course,” Hoag admitted; “but he's got a nasty,
quarrelsome disposition, an' accordin' to some o' his friends he still
holds a big grudge ag'in' you. It was humiliatin' the way you plugged
'im an' left 'im to die like a pig in the woods. You see, whar I'm
interested is this: I want you to keep on workin' without interruption,
an' knowin' what a hot temper _you've_ got yourself--well, I see that
you an' him will jest have to hitch ag'in. I'm sorry he's comin' back
myself. I never liked 'im. It is not often that I belittle myself by
takin' notice of a triflin' clodhopper like him; but he's been in my way
several times, an' may step in ag'in, for all I know.”
Paul drew a ledger toward him and opened it. “I'm glad you told me
this,” he said. “I've got a lot of work to do before bedtime. I know you
will excuse me if I go at it.”
“Oh yes, oh yes!” Hoag rose, staring in a puzzled, thwarted sort of way.
“I don't want to hinder you. I'll be goin'. I just thought I'd throw
out a hint about the matter. It is well to be prepared for trouble if it
_has_ to come, an'--an' a man like Warren is sure to pick a row.”
Hoag lingered a moment, but seeing that the young man was at work he
left the room.