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Updated: June 19, 2025
The latter greeted the stray-man with a smile. "Somethin' doin'?" he questioned. "You might call it that," returned Ferguson. He went inside and seated himself near Stafford's desk. "I've come in to tell you that I saw some rustlers workin' on the herd yesterday," he said. Stafford sat suddenly erect, his eyes lighting interrogatively.
You're even writin' the real names an' tellin' how Stafford's stray-man butted in an' beat me shootin'. You knowin' this shows that him an' you has been travelin' pretty close together." For an instant Miss Radford forgot her anger. Her eyes snapped with a sudden interest. "Were you the man who hit the can five times?" she questioned, unable to conceal her eagerness.
His hatred beginning with the shooting match in Dry Bottom had been intensified by the discovery of Ferguson on the Radford porch in Bear Flat; by the incident at the bunkhouse, when Rope Jones had prevented Tucson from shooting the stray-man from behind, and by the discovery that the latter suspected him of complicity with the cattle thieves.
"Because if he is," resumed Leviatt, before the manager could reply, "he ought to manage to be around where them thieves are workin'." Stafford stiffened. He had developed a liking for the stray-man and he caught a note of venom in Leviatt's voice. "I reckon the stray-man knows what he's doin'," he replied.
The manager had observed certain signs that had convinced him that speech with the stray-man was unnecessary and futile. If he purposed to do anything he would do it in his own time and in his own way. Stafford mentally decided that the stray-man was "set in his ways." The wagon outfit had departed, this time down the river.
He saw her body shiver, and he caressed her hair slowly, telling her that he was sorry things had turned out so, and promising her that when he recovered he would bring the Two Diamond stray-man to a strict accounting providing the latter didn't leave the country before.
"It's nice that you've got such a heap of faith in him," he sneered. It was plain to her that he thought Ferguson had told her about the shooting match, and it was equally plain that he still harbored evil thoughts against the stray-man. And also, he suspected that something more than mere friendship existed between her and Ferguson.
Stafford had received no invitation to follow the stray-man, but impelled by the threat in the latter's eyes and by the hint of cold resolution that gave promise of imminent tragedy, he stepped down also, trailing the stray-man at a distance of twenty yards.
This had been all that Rope had said about his friend, but it showed that during his last conscious moments he had been thinking of the stray-man. As the days passed the words dwelt continually in Ferguson's mind. Each day that he rode abroad, searching for evidence against the murderers, brought him a day nearer to the vengeance upon which he had determined.
Meaningless words, as they appear here; meaningless to the group of men and to the Two Diamond manager; yet to Leviatt they were burdened with a dire significance. They told him that the stray-man was aware of his duplicity; they meant perhaps that the stray-man knew of his dealings with the cattle thieves whom he had visited yesterday in the hills near the river.
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