McKinney made no reply, but looked stolidly out across the valley.
"Them fellers come up into town for tobacco, Doc." Curly threw out the suggestion cheerfully.
"Tobacco ain't drugs," said Doc Tomlinson, annoyed. He was sensitive about allusions to his stock of drugs, which had been imported some years before, and under a misapprehension as to Heart's Desire's future.
"We might shoot up the surveyors," said Curly, tentatively. But Dan Anderson shook his head.
"That's the worst of it," he answered, "We might shoot any one of us here, and the world wouldn't care. But if we shot even a leg off one of the least of these, them States folks would never rest content. For me, I'm goin' in with the railroad. Looks like I'd have to be corporation counsel."
"Well, I reckon we won't have to drive our cows quite so far to market," apologized McKinney, striving to see the silver lining.
"Oh, drop it," snapped Doc Tomlinson. "I might as well say I could get in my drugs easier. Cows can walk; and as for importin' things, everybody knows that Tom Osby can haul in everything that's needed in this valley."
The members of the plebiscite fell silent for a time, willing to wait for Tom Osby's arrival, whenever that might be.
"Now, we ain't downtrod none in this country," finally began Doc Tomlinson, who had made political speeches in Kansas.
"Is anybody?" asked Curly, who had never lived anywhere but on the free range.