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Apparently satisfied and also plainly impressed with what he saw, the man grinned this time almost genially and answered Harlan's affirmative nod with: "Well, Haydon is expectin' you. You c'n let your paws down takin' a heap of care not to go to foolin' with your guns. I ain't takin' them; Haydon didn't say anything about it. You're ridin' that trail that forks off to the left."
I'll give you a chance to show me what you can do, but if you're takin' up my time on a bluff I'll break every bone in your body!" He led Jim to an open space behind the tents where presently there appeared a living convulsion in the shape of a bucking, squealing bronco seemingly held down to earth by two sweating, shirtless men.
It's not Jim McCann's b'y that'll be doin' the dirthy job that yer Mr. Champney Googe was after doin' six years gone, nor be after takin' the bread an' butter out of an honest man's mout' that has a wife an' three childer to feed. He's a convic', says Jim. "'What if he is? says I.
"One of the accomplices," he said briefly to Sautee, as he put the lad down and loosened the shirt at the throat. "He'll come around in a minute." Sautee's eyes were popping from his head. He leaned back upon the cases of dynamite and passed a clammy hand over his brow. "I've got Carlisle, too," said Rathburn. "Takin' it all around from under it ain't a bad morning's haul."
"Looks like a pretty stiff drill up those hills," remarked Bartley. "That's why he turned, right here. 'Tain't just the stealin' of my hosses that's interestin' him. He's takin' trouble to run a whizzer on me get me guessin'. Here is where we quit trailin' him. I got my plan workin' like a hen draggin' fence rails. We ain't goin' to trail Panhandle. We're goin' to ride 'round and meet him."
"So, come spring, they be takin' that singin' lady wid the eyes o' magic away from Chance Along. Maybe they'll be comin' for her widout waitin' for spring? She bes a wonder at the singin', an' no mistake the best I ever hear in all me v'yages into foreign ports. An' the looks o' her! Holy saints, they bain't scarce human!" Nick Leary grinned through his bandage.
We've got to eat and drink what they tell us to eat and drink, and have got to choose our time for eatin' and drinkin' to suit them. If they don't feel like takin' a glass of beer on Sunday, we must abstain. If they have not got any amusements up in their backwoods, we mustn't have none. We've got to regulate our whole lives to suit them. And then we have to pay their taxes to boot.
"Yer mare is winnin'," yelled a granger. "You bet she is," retorted Mr. Roberts. "See her! Ain't she takin' the kinks out of her speed? Ain't that a clip? Sit still, ye fool," he cried lustily, apostrophising the boy who was riding; "if ye git a move on ye I'll kill ye. Oh, my lord! if she ain't a-goin' to distance them! Yes, sir, she's a shuttin' 'em out.
The tears stood in the girl's eyes, as she spoke, and the Captain, noticing her emotion, thought it better to treat the matter seriously, for the present at any rate. "All right," he said. "'Independence shows a proper sperit and saves grocery bills, as old man Scudder said when his wife run off with the tin-peddler. What kind of a place was you thinkin' of takin'?"
Also there was a grudging note of admiration in his voice when he next spoke. "Ain't takin' no chances, be you?" he said dryly. "No. Don't you think we've taken enough already?" Mr. Clifford did not answer. He replaced the blank check in his pocketbook and, from another compartment, extracted some bills rolled in a tight little cylinder and wound about with elastic.
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