“I c’n break ’er, son—jest as easy. Now gentle down an’ come to th’ bed with me. We’ll all set together, me in th’ middle, holdin’ onto both o’ ye friendly like; an’ we’ll talk about Tony an’ yer trip out West.”
Winnie the Weeper half rose at this, and glanced about, ready to dart out of the tent before Bill could drag her maquereau to the bedside.
“Look, ma’am,” said Bill; and he flipped his right hand downward as does a man who has had his hand in mud and rids himself of it. And nestled in the palm of it the girl saw a stubby .32 automatic pistol, which theretofore had hung inside Bill’s sleeve, attached to a rubber band that was bound about his elbow.
“I’m tellin’ ye frankly,” he drawled, “that yer man couldn’t ’a’ shot me when I was walkin’ on ’im a minute back. I coulda flipped this gun, dropped, and bored ’im while his bullet was goin’ over my head. I coulda read in his eye th’ instant he was gonta pull trigger—but that look didn’t come there. I hate to brag, but this here case is diff’rent. I’m workin’ for th’ best friend I got. Set down, ma’am—tha-a-a-at’s right. Now, son—”
And he led the unprotesting gambler to the bed, back upon which the girl had already sunk and was weeping softly, and sat himself down between them, with a hand gripping the wrist of each.
“Now we’re all hi-yu skookum,” he remarked jocularly. “Let’s have th’ yarn from one end to t’other, an’ le’s don’t make no mistakes.”
CHAPTER XXXIII
HORSEMEN IN THE NIGHT
MEANWHILE Cole of Spyglass Mountain of days had worked at fencing his claim or studying, and of nights had kept vigil at the eye-piece of his telescope, lost to this earth, his mind and soul transported to other worlds all bright and peaceful.
Once as he walked up the trail to the observatory a bullet had whizzed close to his head, followed by the distant bark of a heavy firearm. And when Sweet’s vaqueros had driven the first of the cattle into the mountains the herd had stampeded Argo, at graze on his rope beside the lake, and Joshua had scoured the country a week before he found him. The gray had pulled his pin and raced away in a frenzy of fright as the cowpunchers, with deliberate intent, drove the cows upon him, yelling and firing into the air.
These things worried Joshua, for it seemed next to impossible for him to fight back. He could not have overtaken the mounted cowboys on foot and fought it out with them; and afterward he was unable to tell who had been responsible because he knew none of Sweet’s men. Had he carried a gun when fired upon as he climbed Spyglass Mountain he would have been helpless to use it, since he had gained no sight of the man who had shot toward him.