His words cut Sonora to the quick, and it was with difficulty that he braced himself to hear the worst.
“Who’s the man?” he inquired gruffly.
The Sheriff’s eyes fastened themselves upon him; at length with deadly coldness he drawled out:
“Johnson’s the man.”
All the colour went out of Sonora’s face, while his lips ejaculated:
“Gol A’mighty!”
“You lie!” blazed Trinidad in the next breath, and made a quick movement towards the Sheriff.
But Rance was not to be denied. Seeing Nick advancing towards them he called upon him to verify his words; but that individual merely looked first at one and then the other and did not answer, which silence infuriated Sonora.
“Why, you tol’ me...?” he said with an angry look in his eye.
“Tol’ you, Sonora? Why he tol’ me the same thing,” protested Trinidad with an earnestness that, at any other time, would have sent his listeners into fits of laughter.