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Kurt tried to remember instances when, in the Northwest wheat country, laborers and farmers had been cheated or deceived by men of large interests. It made him grave to discover that he could recall many such instances. His own father had long nursed a grievance against Anderson. Neuman, his father's friend, had a hard name. And there were many who had profited by the misfortune of others.
Jake fancied he knew why the rancher had put off his harvesting. And also he knew that the extra force of harvest-hands would not appear. He was regarded with curiosity by the women members of the Neuman household, and rather enjoyed it. There were several comely girls in evidence. Jake did not look a typical Northwest foreman and laborer.
"Well, then, give me Anderson's thirty thousand. I'll take it to him at once. Our debt will be paid. We'll have it off our minds." "No hurry about that," replied his father. "But there is hurry," returned Kurt, in a hot whisper. "Anderson came to see you to-day. He wants his money." "Neuman holds the small end of that debt. I'll pay him. Anderson can wait." Kurt felt no amaze.
Stolidly and slowly Neuman went out, precisely as he had entered, like a huge man in conflict with unintelligible thoughts. "Send him home in the car," called Anderson. For two fleeting days Lenore Anderson was happy when she forgot, miserable when she remembered. Then the third morning dawned.
During this period Kurt leaned against a tree, hidden in the shadow, with keen eyes watching and with puzzled, anxious mind. He had determined, in case his father left that office with Neuman, on one of those significant disappearances, to slip into the hotel at the side entrance and go up-stairs to listen at the door of the room with the closely drawn blind.
If it wasn't fer thet I'd sling my gun on you!... Do you git my hunch?" The name of Dorn made a slack figure of the aggressive Neuman. "All right I go," he said, gruffly, and without a word to his men he started off. Jake followed him. Neuman made a short cut to the gate, thus avoiding a meeting with any of his family.
Out in the wheat-fields were engines with steam already up, with combines and threshers and wagons waiting for the word to start. Jake enjoyed the keen curiosity roused by his approach. Neuman strode out from a group of waiting men. He was huge of build, ruddy-faced and bearded, with deep-set eyes. "Are you Neuman?" inquired Jake. "That's me," gruffly came the reply. "I'm Anderson's foreman.
Ranch after ranch he's gained by taking up and foreclosing mortgages. He's against labor. He grinds down the poor. He cheated Neuman out of a hundred thousand bushels of wheat. He bought up my debt. He meant to ruin me. He " "You're talking I.W.W. rot," whispered Kurt, shaking with the effort to subdue his feelings. "Anderson is fine, big, square a developer of the Northwest. Not an enemy!
It is certain, however, that on August 5, 1702, an English brigantine and a sloop came to Arecibo and landed 30 men, who were forced to reembark with considerable loss, though the details of this affair, as given by Friar Abbad, and repeated by Mr. Neuman, are evidently largely drawn from imagination.
He might hear some word to help explain his father's strange, significant intimations about Anderson. "...must have money," Glidden was saying. To Kurt's eyes treachery gleamed in that working face. Neuman bent over to whisper gruffly in Dorn's ear. One of the silent men standing rubbed his hands together. Old Dorn's head was bowed.
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