“I’ve seen trouble build up before,” he said. “My father saw a lot more of it, when he wore this belt all the time. Things don’t change very much, out here.”
Simon Templar peeled off his socks and sat rubbing one instep, developing his own estimates.
3
They were drinking coffee after breakfast at the long communal table outside the kitchen with the four cowboys, Jim and Smoky and Nails and Elmer, and Don Morland said, “How far can Valmon really go?”
Jim drained his cup and got up, hitching his belt, and as if he was the spokesman for the others he said, “Well, you can go as far as you like, an’ if he wants to fight we’ll be right there with you.”
The others nodded and grinned in the slow slight way of their kind, as they also got to their feet, and Nails said, “You bet.”
“Let’s git goin’,” said Jim, with the speechmaking finished.
Hank Reefe watched them go, dawdling to roll a cigarette.
“They’re good boys,” he said.
“But what can Valmon do?” Morland protested.