"Kidnappin' innercent punchers like Wolf Forbes," accused Pete.
"Cuss it!" snorted Buffalo. "What I want you fools to tell me is how he got there?"
"You can't slip out that way," asserted Rod.
They listened to what Brazos was saying under the canvas. "Tied up four ways from th' Jack," he announced. "Rolled up in a stinkin' hide, he was, all but his head an' arms. Cuss me! this is somethin' new to me; an' I reckoned I'd been up ag'in' everythin' in human cussedness. How fur did he come this way?"
"How in h—l do I know!" blazed Buffalo, his thin chin whiskers bobbing pugnaciously. "I didn't even know he was there!"
"You can't never tell," said a voice back in the crowd. "Sometimes it comes out in a man when he's even older'n Buffalo. Reckon it's th' breed."
"I'll show you what's in my breed!" shouted the freighter, pushing into the press. "Let me git a-holt of th' skunk as said that an'—an'—an'—" he faltered.
Pete grabbed him and pulled him back again. "None of that!" he warned. "You stay right here till we find out more about this!"
"Startin' a passenger business, too, I reckon," said the same voice. "Bein' an old hand on th' cattle trail he knowed a herd will often foller if one cow crosses a river."
"He got so used to skinnin' buffalers that he's itchin' to try it on a human," said another. "I says he shows spunk, pickin' Wolf to try it on."