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"You here," said he, softly. "I didn't see you at first. I must be getting nearsighted. You saw the whole thing, did you, Lanpher?" "Yeah," replied Lanpher. "Who pulled first?" "The stranger." The answer came patly from at least five different men. Racey looked grimly upon those present. "Most everybody seems shore the stranger's to blame," he observed.
You lie down now after Rod gets through with you and cool off cool off considerable, I would. Do you a heap o' good. Yeah." "And when you get all well, Lanpher," put in Racey, "will I still be a liar like you say?" Lanpher looked at Racey and looked away. His heated blood was cooling fast. His arm Lord, how it hurt!
Guess you must 'a' bothered Luke Tweezy some when you spoke to him that day in front of the Happy Heart just before you and Lanpher crawled yore cayuses and rode to Dale's on Soogan Creek.... Don't remember, huh? I do. You said, 'See you later, Luke, and he didn't speak back. Just kept on untying his hoss and keeping his head bent down like he hadn't heard a word you said. 'S'funny, huh?"
"Is he square?" probed the stranger. "Square as a billiard-ball," said Lanpher. "Why, Jack, he's so crooked he can't lay in bed straight." At which Racey Dawson was moved to rise and declare himself. Then the humour of it struck him. He grinned and hunkered down, his ears on the stretch.
"You need me to do anything you ain't got the nerve to do." "I got my duty to my company," Lanpher bluffed lamely. "Duty bedam. You ain't got the guts for a tough job, that's whatsa matter." This was rubbing it in. Lanpher plucked at the loose strings of his courage, and managed to draw out a faintly responsive twang. "I'll show you whether I got guts " he began. "Oh, look," said Alicran.
They were, it seemed, journeying homeward from the 88 whither they had gone in an endeavour to persuade Lanpher and Tweezy to sell the Dale mortgage. "Tweezy, huh?" said Racey. "He's just left here." "He must 'a' rode like the devil," said Mr. Saltoun. "He was in the office with Lanpher when we left." "I thought I noticed a feller off to the south of us as we come along," observed Loudon.
"This mortgage of Old Man Dale's now you figurin' on foreclosin' if he can't pay?" "Whadda you know about Dale's mortgage?" "I heard Lanpher yawpin' about it. He talks too loud sometimes, don't he? You gonna foreclose on him, I suppose?" "Like that!" Luke Tweezy snapped his teeth together with a click. "But foreclosing takes time. You can't sell a man up the minute his mortgage is due.
"I was just wondering. I got a curiosity to know why, thassall." "Then hogtie yore curiosity or you'll be gettin' yore time. I'm free to admit I need you, like I said before, but I can do without you if I gotta." "That's just where yo're dead wrong," Alicran promptly contradicted. "You can't do without me. Lanpher, I like the job of bein' yore foreman.
And you ain't thinkin' nothin' of yore precious skin, are yuh? Oh, no, not a-tall. I wonder what yore company would say to the li'l deal between you and me that started this business. I wonder what they'd think of Mr. Lanpher and his sense of duty. Yeah, I would wonder a whole lot." "Well " began Lanpher, lamely. "Hell!" snarled the stranger. "You make me sick! Now you listen to me.
And when you stop to think that I'd 'a' made the bet just the same if you'd wanted Lanpher and Tweezy in on it. Only you didn't." "Guess I must 'a' overlooked 'em, huh?" grinned Racey. "Feller can't think of everything, can he?" "I'm glad to see yo're taking it thisaway," approved Mr. Saltoun. "Working for six months for nothing don't seem to bother you a-tall."
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