“What do you know of Wycliff?�
“Oh, not much,� sneered the big fellow, “except that he is the most stubborn cuss, and can shoot the straightest and quickest of any man I ever knew.� Then, as the little man waited, he continued:—
“He was a cow-boy on my ranch. One day the Indians tried to stampede his herd. There were seven red devils, and he all alone against them. We found four ‘good Indians,’ Indians that would never steal any more cattle, one just dying, and two had returned to the reservation to report that Wycliff was ‘bad medicine.’ We found Wycliff, nearly dead, with one eye shot out, behind a breastwork of dead cattle.�
The big ranchman did not attempt to disguise his contempt for the little man, and without a word of farewell, he strode down into the dirt of the street, to greet his former employee. Meanwhile one of the loungers at the hotel had overheard the Colonel’s story. Before night it was repeated, with numerous additions, all through Papyrus, and all the Baldwins’ money would not have hired the biggest bully in the town to approach John Wycliff with evil intent.
The ranchman stepped up to Hugh Maxwell, who was overseeing the work, saying:—
“I want to borrow one of your men—Wycliff—for awhile, if I may do so.�
“All right,� was the reply. “Only return him in good condition.�
Then the two walked off down the street, and the Colonel told Wycliff of his conversation with Zechariah Baldwin.
“I’m not afraid of anything in that direction,� replied Wycliff. “I am blessed with lots of good friends in Papyrus, and one of Zack Baldwin’s own gang gave away the whole plot to me. I have friends in Zack Baldwin’s own house. I have taken all the precautions I care to. I have sent away my wife and child, for the present, up into the country. Such of our household goods as are valuable merely for their associations—our pictures, my mounted cougar, everything which money could not replace—all these things I have taken to a neighbor’s. As for me, I don’t know as I should live a week if some one did not threaten to injure me.� And Wycliff laughed.
“I came to town,� said Colonel Lathrop, “to see about your share in the Rattlesnake. I hope you haven’t sold it.�