"Humph!" The Swede shrugged his shoulders and wheeled around, gazing anxiously out of the window, where the path through the forest was visible.
"You know where he is, don't you?" Blodgett asked.
"Where?" Blodgett stamped his spurred boot.
"I doan' think he coomin' back." The Swede deliberately put a kettle on the stove and whistled indifferently.
Blodgett was evidently torn between a desire to maintain his dignity and authority as sheriff and a rather healthy reluctance to have any trouble with the great, hulking Swede.
"It's going to be hard for you if you're lying--"
He got no farther. The Swede stepped up to him with blazing eyes.
"You call me liar?" he yelled. "I throw you out the door!"
Blodgett backed quickly away--very quickly. His hand sought the latch behind him. "If you threaten me, the next thing you know you'll find yourself in jail!" he cried, shaking his fist.
The Swede's only answer was an ugly grin. Blodgett opened the door, slamming it after him as he went away.
The big lumberjack stood quiet for several minutes, listening to the sounds of retreat beaten by the hoofs of Blodgett's horse. Assured that the sheriff was safely out of the way, he crept to the window, thrust his head over the sill, and gave a low whistle.
There was a stir in the soap-plant outside and Marvin emerged, hurried around to the door, and entered the cabin.
"Good work!" he exclaimed, laughing and clapping the grinning Swede on the back. "You got rid of him very well, Oscar! Now I'll go on with my supper!"
He took off his coat and went over to the stove, where he began to shake the damper to let out the ashes. Oscar came and stood beside him.
"I know what he told you," Marvin interrupted, continuing to shake the ashes.
"Do that land belong to the railroad?" There was a slight note of alarm in the Swede's voice.
"It does now, Oscar," Marvin replied, throwing some paper and wood into the stove and lighting it; "but I sold the timber a long time before the railroad got the property, and I'm trying to save the timber for the man who bought it from me."
"Oh!" The Swede turned toward the door, as if to go. "Bane they arrest you for that?"
"Not unless they find me!" Marvin chuckled.
"An' me an' the boys--can they arrest oos?"