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Updated: June 21, 2025
I left the rest of it to home." Malvey laughed. "That goes. How's things over to the Concho?" "I ain't been there since yesterday." The Spider blinked, which was a sign that he was pleased. He never laughed. Malvey winked at The Spider. "You ain't ridin' back that way to-day, mebby? I'd like to send word " Pete shook his head. "Nope. I aim to stay right here a spell."
He trusted no man and no man who knew him trusted him not even The Spider, though he could have sent Malvey to the penitentiary on any one of several counts. Malvey had no subtlety. He simply knew the game and possessed a tremendous amount of nerve. Like most red-headed men, he rode rough-shod and aggressively to his goal. He "bulled" his way through, when more capable men of equal nerve failed.
"Pete has not learned to talk yet he is so young?" Malvey slapped his thigh and guffawed. Pete stood solemnly eying him for a moment. Then he turned to the girl. "I ain't used to talkin' to women 'specially pretty ones like you." Boca clapped her hands. "There! 'Bool' Malvey has never said anything so clever as that." "Bool" Malvey frowned.
In a flash he realized that he was no match for Malvey's brute strength. He had no desire to kill Malvey but he did not intend that Malvey should kill him. Pete jerked his gun loose as Malvey staggered to his feet, but Pete dared not shoot on account of Boca. He saw Malvey's hand touch the butt of his gun when something crashed down from behind.
"Catch up his cayuse," commanded the chief deputy. Two of them, after a hard ride, finally put Blue Smoke within reach of a rope. He was led back to where Malvey lay. "Concho brand!" exclaimed the chief. "Young Pete's horse," asserted another. "There'll be hell to pay if Showdown gets wise to what happened to Bull Malvey," said the deputy, who recognized the dead outlaw.
Malvey at once thought of Young Pete then of The Spider's warning and finally that the solitary horseman might be some companion from below the border, cautiously awaiting his approach. Half-inclined to ride wide, he hesitated then loosening his gun he spurred his restless pony toward the other, prepared to "bull" through if questioned too closely.
He was half-asleep when he heard Boca tell Malvey that he was a pig and the son of a pig. Malvey laughed. There came the sound of a scuffle. Pete glanced over his shoulder. Malvey had his arm around the girl and was trying to kiss her. Flores was watching them, grinning in a kind of drunken indifference. Pete hesitated. He was there on sufferance a stranger.
The Spider nodded. Pete appreciated that his own absence was desired; that these men were quietly curious to find out who he was and what he had done that brought him to Showdown. But Malvey knew nothing about Pete, nor of any recent trouble over Concho way.
The Spider opened a new pack of cards, shuffled them, and began a game of solitaire. Occasionally he glanced out into the glare, blinking and muttering to himself. Malvey and Pete had been gone about an hour when a lean dog that had lain across from the hitching-rail, rose, shook himself, and turned to gaze up the street. The Spider called to the man in the patio. He came quickly.
Malvey tossed a coin on the bar noisily, and in that one act Pete read him for what he was a man who "bullied" his way through life with much bluster and profanity, but a man who, if he boasted, would make good his boast.
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