"You'll have only your own trouble for your trip," remarked Straight. "This man here said that Mr. Barrett was all ready to leave the woods. Mr. Wade has left the top of the mountain with the girl, and will meet Mr. Barrett to the south of Pogey Notch. You'll not have to go out of your way, sir," he explained.
"I'm here prepared to lead Mr. Barrett to the place, and I suggest that if he's ready we'll be on our way. You'll probably want to fetch the Half-way House at nightfall, sir."
This patent distrust of Pulaski Britt and his designs angered that gentleman quite beyond the power of even his profanity. But he knew Christopher Straight too well to attempt to bulldoze that hard-eyed old woodsman.
"Is this select assembly too good to have me come along?" he inquired, his thick lips curling under his beard.
"I think Mr. Wade will be glad to have you there," said Christopher, mildly. "He didn't say anything to the contrary. He expects Mr. Barrett to have some one to keep him company as far as the stage road, though he thought it probably would be a woodsman. But Mr. Wade gave particular instructions about any crowd comin' along, and he'll not meet any one if your boss MacLeod is in the party. That's straight talk. He's had all the trouble with your boss that he cares for."
After a withering survey of Straight, which the old guide endured with much composure, Britt beckoned Barrett away with a jerk of his head, and the two strolled behind the horse-hovel.
"There you have it, John," he snarled, more ireful as a champion than the unhappy principal. "It's a put-up job. He's goin' to plaster the girl onto you. It's his play. He's goin' to use it for all it's worth."
"It will be better for me to take her out than to have him chase along after me with the girl and the story--if that's the way he feels; and it's plain that he means to make trouble," said Barrett, moodily. "I can put her away somewhere in a boarding-school, and--"
The Honorable Pulaski broke upon this doleful capitulation with contemptuous brusqueness.
"You talk like a fool, John! Take that girl outside these woods and give her an education? File her teeth so that she can set 'em into your throat? You teach her to read and to write and to know things, and that's what it will amount to in the end. The girl has got to stay here!" He embraced the big woods in a vigorous gesture. "She belongs here! And the only way to keep her here is to put her in the hands of a man that--"
