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Updated: June 24, 2025
"He'll not tell her?" "I wouldn't. It's no woman's business." "Maybe that's so. Well, it would have suited me to have Trampas die sooner." "How would it suit you to have him live longer?" inquired a member of the opposite faction, suspected of being himself a cattle thief. "I could answer your question, if I had other folks' calves I wanted to brand." This raised both a laugh and a silence.
Yes, the joke, as they put it, was on Steve. He had lost one point in the game to them. They were playing for names. He, being a chivalrous thief, was playing to hide names. They could only, among several likely confederates, guess Trampas and Shorty. So it had been a slip for him to curse the man who built the fire. At least, they so held it.
But how had he come to choose such a way of getting even as this, face to face? He knew many better ways; and now his own rash proclamation had trapped him. His words were like doors shutting him in to perform his threat to the letter, with witnesses at hand to see that he did so. Trampas looked at the sun and the shadow again. He had till sundown.
"Why, it was wet an' muddy work, yu' see. A man risked rheumatism some. He risked it a good deal. Well, I was going to tell about Senator Wise. When Senator Wise was speaking of his visit to Alaska " "Forty per cent, was it?" said Trampas. "Oh, I must call my wife'" said the traveller behind me. "This is what I came West for." And he hurried away.
But it'll be one of two ways, we're all goin' to Rawhide, or we're all goin' to Billings. We're all one party, yu' see." Trampas laughed audibly inside the door as he rejoined his men. "Let him keep up appearances," I heard him tell them. "It don't hurt us what he says to strangers." "But I'm goin' to eat hearty either way," continued the Virginian. "And I ain' goin' to be robbed.
An' I mus' say, when he got off he didn't look like a man does when he has the intention o' returnin'." At this Scipio coughed, and pared his nails attentively. We had already been avoiding each other's eye. Shorty did not count. Since he got aboard, his meek seat had been the bottom step. The thoughts of Trampas seemed to be in difficulty. "How long's this train been started?" he demanded.
"What odds" he pointed the frying-pan at the Southerner "d' yu' figure Trampas's being under any foreman's wing will make to a man like him? He's going to remember Mr. Trampas and his spite-work if he's got to tear him out from under the wing, and maybe tear off the wing in the operation.
"Then I wish it came this side Rawhide station." "Do yu'?" drawled the Virginian. And smiling at Scipio, he lounged in through the open door. "He beats me," said Scipio, shaking his head. "His trail is turruble hard to anticipate." We listened. "Work bein' done on the road, I see," the Virginian was saying, very friendly and conversational. "We see it too," said the voice of Trampas.
There was that horse thief awful good-lookin'. Taylor wanted to warn her about him, but Mrs. Taylor said she'd look after her if it was needed. Mr. Horse-thief gave it up quicker than most; but the schoolmarm couldn't have knowed he had a Mrs. Horse-thief camped on Poison Spider till afterwards. She wouldn't go ridin' with him. She'll go with some, takin' a kid along." "Bah!" said Trampas.
"Yes. Trampas. He's got a job at the ranch now." The Virginian said no more, but went on with his breakfast. His appearance was changed. Aged I would scarcely say, for this would seem as if he did not look young.
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