“Well, I’m sure I don’t know where you came from, Mr. Hopwood. You just seemed to appear on that log as if by magic, but I am glad to know you, all the same.” “Not Mr. Hopwood,” the man said solemnly, “just Hopwood. Hopwood Wait.” Scott looked at him with a new interest. So this was one of the Waits, the first one he had seen, and he wondered if the iron hat were a part of the family armor. It might have protected him from an airplane attack, but would have been of little use for anything else. He had understood that the Waits did not come over on this side of the valley. Could this man be scouting in enemy territory or had he come in hope of getting a pot shot at a Morgan? He decided to risk a question. “Aren’t you in dangerous territory here?” Hopwood shook his head slowly. “No, they all think I am crazy, but I have more sense than anybody else in the family. I can eat lunch with Jarred Morgan and supper with Foster Wait, and that’s more than anybody else can do,” he replied proudly. “Then you don’t believe in this family feud?” Scott inquired eagerly. Again Hopwood shook his head. “Why should I? They will all be killed if they keep it up. The cemetery is full of them now.” “Do you think that they would give it up if they had a good chance?” Hopwood nodded. “What makes you think so?” This man might be able to give him some useful information even if he was crazy. “Because they are scared,” Hopwood answered promptly. “Every one of them is scared except old Jarred and Vic. They don’t pay any attention to me and I hear them talk.” “Then why don’t they give it up?” “Because they are more scared to quit than they are to go on. If they should quit, old Jarred would kill them all, both Morgans and Waits.” Scott thought for a moment. Old Jarred Morgan seemed to be the key to the situation if this man knew what he was talking about. “Where could I find you if I should need you some time?” Scott asked. He thought he could see how this man might be very useful to him. “Almost anywhere,” was Hopwood’s unsatisfactory answer. Scott looked thoughtfully off through the woods a moment wondering what other useful information he could get out of this man, and when he looked back the man was gone. CHAPTER VI SCOTT TALKS WITH THE AGENT The disappearance of Hopwood had been so silent and so unexpected that Scott hardly knew whether it had not been a dream after all. He sat still for a moment to see whether he would come back, but, when he did not, he arose leisurely, and began to glance cautiously about him. He did not want to search because he thought that Hopwood must be behind a tree somewhere waiting to have the laugh on him. After all what difference did it make what had become of Hopwood? Scott felt that he had learned all that he could get out of him just now, and he had made up his mind what he wanted to do.