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Wickersham described you so that everybody knew you. I reckon if Keith had back-stood him you'd have had a harder time than you did." The cloud had gathered deeper on Bluffy's brow. He took another drink. " him! I'll blow up his mine and him, too!" he growled. "How did you say 'twas to be done?" Plume glanced around at the closed windows and lowered his voice as he made certain explanations.
"You needn't be so easy about him. He's been mean enough to you. Wasn't it him that gave the description of you that night when you stopped the stage?" Bill Bluffy's face changed, and there was a flash in his eye. "Who says I done it?" Plume laughed. "I don't say you did it. You needn't get mad with me. He says you did it. Keith said he didn't know what sort of man it was.
His white-handled pistol was out of his waistband with a movement so quick that he had it cocked and Keith was looking down the barrel before he took in what had been done. Quickness was Mr. Bluffy's strongest card, and he had played it often. Keith's face paled slightly. He looked steadily over the pistol, not three feet from him, at the drunken creature beyond it.
It was an old trick learned in his boyish days and practised on the Dennisons, and Gordon had by it ended many a contest, but never one more completely than this. A buzz of applause came from the bystanders, and more than one, with sudden friendliness, called to him to get Bluffy's pistol, which had fallen on the floor.
"I'll furnish the dynamite." "All right. Give me the money." But Plume demurred. "Not till it's done. I haven't any doubt about your doing it," he explained quickly, seeing a black look in Bluffy's eyes. "But you know yourself you're liable to get full, and you mayn't do it as well as you otherwise would." "Oh, if I say I'll do it, I'll do it." "You needn't be afraid of not getting your money."
He knew from this that he must be reaching the upper level. Now and then he spoke Bluffy's and Hennson's names, lest in the darkness he should pass them. Presently, as he stopped for a second to take breath, he thought he heard another sound besides the gurgling of the water as it swirled about the timbers. He listened intently. It was the boy's voice. "Hold me tight, father. Don't leave me."
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