“Aw, come off! Ye know. Fix it onto some feller we can git. Take him out, fix up yer case, railroad him an’ git yer money. Think I dunno how you detectives work? Ye must think I’m simple. It’s done right ’long—grab a feller that ain’t got no friends an’ send him up. What chance has a feller here got when he gits drug into the courts outside? Puh!” He expectorated profusely and waited.
Douglas laughed out in contempt. He took a couple of slow strides forward. Snake shifted again, and his eyes narrowed once more.
“You’re barking up the wrong tree,” the blond man derided. “I’m no detective. I’m hunting nobody. I’m in here for—my health. See?”
Snake saw—or thought he did. Instantly he changed front.
“I knowed it. Ye needn’t jump onto me, now. I was jest a-tryin’ ye out. If ye was a real detective ye’d be down snoopin’ round houses, not a-hidin’ out up here. Wal, ye come to the right place, stranger. Where ye from? What’d ye do? Go on, tell a feller. I’ll keep it dark. Got money, o’ course. Gimme some an’ I’ll fetch ye all the feed ye want.”
“And fetch the officers along too, when they come.”
“Aw no. That talk I jest give ye was all moonshine—not a true word into it. I was jest makin’ sure o’ ye, I tell ye. Now I know ye I’ll——”
“Shut up!” Hampton’s anger broke out. “I’ve been making sure of you, too. You’re a liar. You’re a treacherous sneak. You’d sell a hunted man to me—you’d sell an innocent man to me—you’d sell me, too. You think I’m after somebody, eh? Well, you’re right. I’m after the man who thought he was going to get my gun and money, the man who didn’t get them and is trying to trap me now, the man who sneaked up and let that copperhead out of the box! I’m after Snake Sanders! And I’ve got him!”
So rapid had been his words, so swift was his following leap, that Snake stood flat-footed as a big fist smacked into his face. He was knocked headlong backward.
Into the bushes he sprawled with a crash of breaking branch and twig. Into the bushes Douglas jumped after him. But Sanders, though dazed by the impact of the blow and the shock of finding himself caught, was neither senseless nor helpless. He wriggled over and seemed to curve upward. Head-first, like a striking reptile, he threw himself at the legs of the man above. His punisher lurched over him and fell.