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Updated: May 19, 2025
Coming out of the flat near the cottonwood he met Ben Radford. The latter, his shoulder mending rapidly, grinned genially at the stray-man. "I'm right sorry I made that mistake, Ferguson," he said; "but Leviatt sure did give you a bad reputation." Ferguson smiled grimly. "He won't be sayin' bad things about anyone else," he said. And then his eyes softened.
That was somethin' which I was wantin' him to know. I don't want it to be said that I didn't give him a chance." Stafford rose from his chair, taking a step toward the stray-man. "Why, what ?" he began. But a look at the stray-man's face silenced him. "I've come over here to-day to show you that rustler I told you about yesterday. I'm goin' to look for him now.
Ferguson thought this to be the reason that they had not reported the incident to Stafford. There was now nothing for the stray-man to do but watch. The men who had killed Rope were wary and dangerous, and their next move might be directed at him. But he was not disturbed. One thought brought him a mighty satisfaction.
"Meanin' that if you'd been usin' your eyes you'd have seen that she's some took up with Stafford's new stray-man." "Well," returned Ben, "she's her own boss. If she's made friends with Ferguson that's her business." He laughed. "She's certainly clever," he added, "and mebbe she's got her own notion as to why she's made friends with him.
Something over two hours later the Two Diamond outfit, headed by the stray-man, clattered down into a little basin, where Ferguson had seen the cabin two days before. As the Two Diamond men came to within a hundred feet of the cabin two men, who had been at work in a small corral, suddenly dropped their branding irons and bolted toward the cabin.
He stood just inside, looking at Stafford and Leviatt with cold, alert eyes. He nodded shortly to Stafford, not removing his gaze from the range boss. The latter deliberately turned his back and looked out of the window. There was insolence in the movement, but apparently it had no effect upon the stray-man, beyond bringing a queer twitch into the corners of his mouth. He smiled at Stafford.
Fifteen minutes later Stafford entered the office to find his stray-man still seated in the chair, his head bowed in his hands. He did not look up as the manager entered, and the latter stepped over to him and laid a friendly hand on his shoulder. "I'm thankin' you for what you've done for me," he said. Ferguson rose, leaning one hand on the back of the chair upon which he had been sitting.
The cigarette was made finally, and then the stray-man lighted it and looked again at Leviatt, ignoring his question, asking another himself. "You workin' down the creek yesterday?" he said. "Up!" snapped Leviatt. The question had caught him off his guard or he would have evaded it. He had told the lie out of pure perverseness. Ferguson took a long pull at his cigarette.
When Ferguson stepped out of the door of the office, Stafford followed. The stray-man had said enough to arouse the manager's suspicions, and there was something about the stray-man's movements which gave the impression that he contemplated something more than merely pointing out the thief.
The following morning Stafford came upon Rope while the latter was throwing the saddle on his pony down at the corral gate. "I heard something about some trouble between Dave Leviatt an' the new stray-man," said Stafford. "I reckon it wasn't serious?" Rope turned a grave eye upon the manager. "Shucks," he returned, "I reckon it wasn't nothin' serious.
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