`Some fellers can freeze on to the dollars,' he laughed. `Me, I never could nohow.'
Green listened, throwing in a remark now and then, but in no wise returning the other's confidences. Only once he asked a direct question: `Ever run across a chap named Webb, a big, beefy feller with red hair?' `Don't remember any such. What was he?' `A damn thief--but he called himself a cattleman.'
The rasp in the voice made West look at the speaker. `I'm guessin' he ain't a friend o' yores,' he hazarded.
'Yo're right,' responded Green. `I'm aimin' to make cold meat of him someday.'
Night was coming on when they reached their destination and the town was showing signs of emerging from the stagnation of the day. Green left his packet at the honel, and having arranged for beds, he and his companion were free to `take in the town.' Their first call was at the stores, for both were in need of tobacco, and the old proprietor greeted them with an odd look of surprise. All he said, however, was, `Found that gold-mine yet?'
The cowpuncher shook his head and grinned. `Them tools o' yores has been plumb unlucky so far,' he said. `But the fishhooks came in right handy. Any news?'
`Well, I dunno as there is. The marshal has bin shootin' off his mouth about a feller who was reckoned to be prospectin', an' if I was that feller an' had to come to town, I'd have a fast hoss where I could get to him easy, in case I wanted to leave in a hurry.'
The hint was plain enough. `Tonk ain't the holy terror he'd like to be thought,' smiled Green. `All the same, if I was that feller I'd be mighty obliged to yu.'
They walked down the street in the direction of the Folly. The only bit of excitement was provided by a pup which, bolting headlong from a couple of yelling children, collided with a pedestrian. The latter, swinging a heavy foot, lifted the astonished cur well into the middle of the road, where it was triumphantly pounced upon by the pursuers. The pedestrian turned into the saloon, after hesitating outside the Dance Hall, where the stamping of many feet on the boarded floor and the howl of a tortured fiddle proclaimed that a dance was in progress. Green and his companion followed. One swift glance as they crossed the space between the door and the bar told Green that, in some quarters anyway, his appearance was unlooked for.
"Lo, Silas,' he said, and then, seeing Snap Lunt, Durran, and Nigger a little further along the bar, he added, `Howdy, boys; yu joinin' me?'
`Shore,' replied Snap, but the other two mumbled some excuse and turned away. Green laughed.
`Ain't swore off, have they, Snap?' he inquired.
`Not so as yu'd notice it, but they dassn't drink with yu; Blaynes is settin' over there.'
Green looked in the direcnion indicated and saw that the foreman of the Y Z was playing poker with Pete, Laban, and Tarman.
`It don't seem to worry yu none,' he said.
The little gunman smiled grimly. `I ain't scared o' Blaynes,' he said.
Green spun a dollar on the bar to pay for the drinks and Silas picked it up. `Why don't yu pay in dust?' he bantered.
`What, an' have all town campin' on my trail for the next week. Yu must think I'm well named,' retorted the puncher.
`I never did think that,' grinned Silas. `But say, you want to watch out; it isn't none o' my business, but some people was expectin' yu to-night.'
The speaker's glance rested for a second or two on Tarman and his companions. Through apparently playing cards, it was plain that they were also deep in conversation. At that moment a boy from the hotel entered and handed Pete a package. Green recognised it. The gambler read the contents, said something in a low voice, and they all laughed.
Green sensed that something was about to happen. That he had been deliberately sent into Hatchett's he had already suspected, but for what purpose he had yet to find out. Snap and West were busy swapping gold-mining experiences, for the gunman had also followed the trail of the pick and shovel, and this left the puncher at liberty to study his surroundings. The room was fairly full, and though he had no reason to think he was disliked, he knew that if it came to a showdown, most of the men present would stand aloof or take sides against him. The entry of four Double X punchers led by their one-eyed chief did not add to his feeling of security. As though they had been waiting for this reinforcement, the poker party broke up and adjourned to the bar. Again the door swung to admit Larry and Dirty. The former gave a whoop when he saw Green.
`Gee, Dirty, we shore are in luck. There's the ruddy minin' magnit, with nobody but Snap to waste his substance on. Let's provide him with a better opportunity.'
Disregarding the scowls of their foreman, they ranged themselves by the side of Green and his companion, and glass in hand smiled genially on those around them. They had come to town quite by chance, looking for no more than a drink or two and a game of cards, but when they saw the company in the saloon they realised that something was on. Others, not in any way interested, seemed to know it too and there was an air of general expectancy about the whole gathering. Then the marshal came in, glared savagely at Green for an instant, and joined Tarman's group at the bar.
Green, replying absently to Larry, was to all appearances ignorant of the fact that he was in a hornets' nest. West, at any rate, was not deceived, for he whispered, `Get outa this; it's a frame-up an' yu ain't gotta chance.'
Even had the cowpuncher been the man to take it, however, the warning came too late, for at the same moment Tarman lifted his hand and cried, `Set 'em up for the company, Silas.' Then he looked directly at Green, and added, `With one exception, o' course; I don't drink with rustlers.'
No sooner were the words spoken than Tarman found himself standing alone; Green's companions also fell away; it was entirely the business of the two principals, and however interested the others might be, none of them wanted to stop a bullet not intended for him. The cowpuncher did not reply immediately to the insult, and there was a moment of tense, hard-breathing silence. Then suddenly he straightened up.
`Tarman,' he said slowly, `I hope yu can shoot better than yu can ride.'
The big man's vanity was touched on the raw and his face flushed redly at this allusion to his downfall. He was about to make an angry reply when the marshal pushed forward, gun in hand.
`There'll be no shootin' here, gents, 'less I do it,' he said. `I'll bore the first man that tries to pull a gun. If yu gotta difference, settle it some other way. Yu got all out-doors to do it in.'
Green laughed outright, for he knew now that Tarman had never intended to get into a gun-fight with him, the marshal's intervention having been carefully arranged. So that the big man's protest and the officer's refusal to consider it did not surprise him.
`It can't be did, Mr. Tarman,' Tonk said. `I gotta see the law...'
`Drop that gun, marshal; I've got yu covered,' broke in a sharp voice.
The marshal's eyes positively bulged as he saw Green's right-hand gun, held close to the hip, was aimed at his heart. How it had come to be drawn he could not comprehend. He could have sworn he was watching his man, and he had seen no movement, and a gasp of astonishment from the onlookers proclaimed that they were equally puzzled. The marshal's pistol clanked on the floor; he was not anxious to wear wings. The cowpuncher holstered his own weapon, then looked at Tarman.
`That lets the marshal out,' he said. `He's spoke his little piece an' obeyed orders. What's the next move in this frame-up?'
`I dunno what yo're talkin' about,' retorted Tarman. `If the marshal hadn't butted in I'd have shot it out with you, an' been damn glad o' the chance.'