"
"All knock-kneed animals do, yu heathen," supplied Red.
`Hey, yu, let up on that and have a drink on th' house," invited
Cowan. "If I gits that durn war whoop I'll make yu think there's been a
cyclone. I'll see how long that bum hangs around this here burg, I
will."
Red's eyes narrowed and his temper got the upper hand. "He ain't no
bum when yu gives him rotgut at a quarter of a dollar a glass, is he?
Any time that `bum' gits razzled out for nothin' more'n this, why, I
goes too; an' I ain't sayin' nothin' about goin' peaceable-like,
neither."
"I knowed somethin' like this `ud happen," dolefully sang out Billy
Williams, strong on the side of his pessimism.
"For th' Lord's sake, have you broke out?" asked Red, disgustedly.
"I'm goin' to hit the trail-but just keep this afore yore mind: if By-
and-by gits in any accidents or ain't in sight when I comes to town
again, this here climate'll be a heep sight hotter'n it is now. No
hard feelings, sabe? It's just a casual bit of advice. Come on,
fellows, let's amble -I'm hungry."
As they raced across the plain toward the ranch a pair of beady
eyes, snapping with a drunken rage, watched them from an arroyo; and
when Cowan entered the saloon the next morning he could not find By-
and-by's rifle, which he had placed behind the bar. He also missed a
handful of cartridges from the box near the cash drawer; and had he
looked closely at his bottled whisky he would have noticed a loss
there.
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