“To-night?”
“We’re going to take you back to-night.”
“Can I stop at the house first?”
“No. We got a warrant to search the place, and we’re going to leave a couple of my men here to do it the first thing in the morning. I got an idea you ain’t the only one around there that knows something about this business.”
As they talked, one of the deputies had taken a case from a pack and opened it.
“Look here!” he called. “It’s it, all right!”
“It’s what?” asked Custer.
“Oh, pe-ru-na, of course!” replied the deputy facetiously. “What did you think it was? I hope you never thought it none of that hootch stolen from a government bonded warehouse in New York!”
The others laughed at his joke.
“It’s too bad,” said the marshal, not at all unkindly, “for a decent young fellow like you to get mixed up in a nasty business like this.”