" He looked with admiration at the fresh scar
on the tree.
"But what is he doing?" asked Whitley.
Jake looked at him with that ugly, mirthless grin. "Mebbe he's huntin'
turkey too."
Whitley laughed, "I guess he was goin' too fast for that," he said;
but his companion's reply changed his laughter to fear.
"Thar's them that better be a follerin' of him mighty sudden."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you, Mister. The boys has had ther' eye on ye fer sometime.
We know yer huntin's all a blind, an' now Bill Davis he's come in. I
aint right shor' myself er I'd a kep' mum an' he'pped 'em take ye."
Whitley turned pale. "Do you mean that the people here think I'm a
revenue agent looking for moonshiners?"
"That's about hit, Mister, an' they'll be fer takin' ye out ter night
shor'."
The fellow's meaning was too clear to be mistaken, and for some time
Whitley remained silent. He was thinking hard. At last he said: "Jake,
I'll tell you something. The boys are mistaken. I'm not here to get
anybody into trouble, but because I'm in a hole myself."
"As how?" asked Jake, moving nearer and speaking in a lower tone.
"I won't tell you how unless you'll help me; and if you will, I'll pay
you more money than you can make in this business in a thousand years."
The moonshiner's eyes gleamed. "Bill Davis is sure after us an' that
thar' means trouble every time," he said slowly. "Ye heard him say as
how he'd see me agin, an' I never knowed him ter miss befo'.
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