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He wondered what they were about, for the tanks of an empty oil ship are usually left open in fine weather. Presently he heard one of the men say to another as they stamped down the tarpaulined hatch, "There there's as good a prize ring as a man'd want." And then he began to understand. He stayed aft, while through the smoke of one long cigar he thought it out.
"This ain't no place t' fight," he protested. "The old man'd hear." "Y' can't git outen it that-a-way!" shouted One-Eye, arms in the air. "They's miles o' room outside! Come down into the yard! Mosey! Break trail! Vamose!" He waved the other out. Buoyed up by so much excitement, Johnnie managed to stand for a moment. "One-Eye!" he cried, all gratitude and pride; and, "One-Eye!"
Ain't it natural a man'd want to know who'd shot his two burros an' 'is pardner?" Casey had impulsively decided to throw in Barney for good measure. "Casey Ryan ain't the man to set under a bush an' be shot at like a rabbit. You can ask anybody if Casey ever backed up fer man er beast. I come up here huntin'. Shore I did. It wasn't sheep I was after that there's my mistake. It was goats."
While he hurtled down the road from Pinnacle to Lund, Casey pictured himself plodding through sand and sage and over malapai and up dry canyons, hazing a burro before him. "No, sir, the time for that is gone by. I could do in a week now what it took me a month to do then. I could get into country a man'd hate to tackle afoot, not knowing the water holes.
"Well, don't you run me off to no private rope party, neither, Macdonald, for I can tell you things that many a man'd pay me big money to keep my mouth shut on." "You'll have a chance, Thorn." "But I want it done in the right way, so's I'll git the credit and the fame."
"If Davie's askin' how the streets look, tell him I can't jest tell, for I come in the night, but the noise is amazin'." "Tell Davie I can see a church tower from the window, an' it's higher 'n' we ever dreamt of its bein', an' sweeter." "Tell Davie to lay listenin' to feet goin' up and down on stones is grand." "Tell Davie I hev seen the surgeon an' that I never thought a great man'd be so kind.
I'll see." He rose. "Is that all?" said Otto. "What more can I say?" "But what are you going to DO?" "I don't see how I can prevent a lot of ignorant people from gossiping." "Then you're not going straight down there? You're not going to do what a man'd do if he had the decency of a dog?" "You are insulting!
All of a sudden I heard a dog cry, and over near one of the other trees was a man that looked like a tramp trying to make a dog go ahead and kicking him awful 'cause the dog wouldn't go! The dog would cry and then the man'd kick him again and swear awful.
A black white man'd be as natural. Smoke, we just oughta travel to-morrow. The country's plumb dead of game. We ain't seen even a rabbit-track in a week, you know that. An' we gotta get out of this dead streak into somewhere that meat's runnin'." "They'll travel all the better with a day's rest for their feet and moccasins all around," Smoke counseled.
I'm sure you've paid your way twice over bringin' in wood, and grindin' coffee, an' the like. Many a man'd asked wages for the half you've done, so I'm gettin' off easy to call it square." And the good lady stood her ground unflinchingly. "You've been powerful good to me, ma'am. We'll be watchin' our chance to make it up to you, Loisy an' me. I'll be sendin' fer Loisy d'reckly now."
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