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Updated: May 29, 2025
"I'll sell for ten dollars a head, cash, and count and deliver them here tomorrow." "Sold!" snapped out Wiggate. "I can pay you tomorrow, but it'll take another day to get my men out here." "Thank you Mr. Wiggate," replied Pan, suddenly rather halting in speech. "That'll suit us." "May we pitch camp here?" "Sure. Get down and come in. Plenty of water and wood. Turn your horses loose.
"Hardman's men rode in to Marco this morning," replied Wiggate, coldly. "Ah-uh! And they told a cock-and-bull story about what happened out here!" flashed Pan hotly. "It placed you in a bad light, young man." "I reckon. Well, if you or any of your outfit or anybody else calls me a horse thief he wants to go for his gun. Do you understand that?"
"I can recommend Lying Juan as the best cook and most truthful man I ever knew," remarked Pan. Blinky rolled on the ground. "Haw! Haw! Wait till Lyin' Juan tells you one of his whoppers." "Lying Juan! I see. I was wondering about such a queer name for a most honest man," replied Wiggate. "I know he's a capital cook. And I guess I can risk the rest."
But breaking a big drove, or driving them to Marco that'd be a job I'd rather dodge. It'd take a month, even with a small herd." "Hardman an' Wiggate have several outfits working, mebbe fifty riders all told. They've been handlin' hosses. Reckon Wiggate would jump at buyin' up a thousand haid, all he could get. He's from St. Louis an' what he knows aboot wild hosses ain't a hell of a lot.
"Hell, no!" shouted Blinky, aflame with fury, bursting into the argument. "We was all there. We saw " "Blink, you keep out of this till I ask you to talk," ordered Pan. "Smith, I'd like to hear what he has to say." "Wiggate, you listen to me first," rejoined Pan, with no lessening his intensity. "There are three dead men across the field, not yet buried.
Wiggate expected the riders he had sent for to arrive before noon the next day; and it was his opinion that he would have all the horses he had purchased out of there in a week. Pan and Blinky did not share this opinion. Wiggate and his men were invited to try one of Lying Juan's suppers, which was so good that Juan had the offer of a new job. Upon being urged by Pan to accept it, he did so.
Wiggate had all his men, except the one he had sent back to Marco, with several of Pan's engaged in counting the captured wild horses. It was a difficult task and could hardly be accurate in short time. "Anxious to get back to Marco?" queried Wiggate, not unkindly as he saw Pan's restlessness. "Yes, I am, now the job's done," replied Pan heartily.
After concluding, with white face and sharp gesture, he indicated to his men that they were to corroborate his statement. "Mr. Wiggate, it's God's truth," spoke up Pan's father, earnestly. "It was just retribution. Hardman robbed me years ago." "Wal, Mr. Wiggate, my say is thet it'll be damned onhealthy fer anybody who doesn't believe my pard," added Blinky, in slow dark menace.
After a long interval fraught with anxiety and suspense, during which the horsemen approached steadily, growing more distinct, Blinky suddenly burst out: "Fellars, shore as you're born it's Wiggate." "The horse dealer from St. Louis!" ejaculated Pan in tremendous relief. "Blink, I believe you're right. I never saw one of those men before, or the horses either."
It's such a queer mixed-up business, this locating, working, and selling claims. I want none of it." "Hardman's men, either at his instigation or Dick's, deliberately ran two of my men out of their claims. They'll tell you so." "I'm astonished. I certainly am astonished," replied Wiggate, and he looked it. "Marco is the hardest town I ever rode into," declared Pan.
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