“What did you write on the sheet of paper?” asked Carl.
Havens looked at the sheriff and the forest ranger with a smile.
“You won’t arrest me for inciting a riot, will you?” he asked.
“You’ve already paid too many fines in this town,” laughed the sheriff.
“Well, under promise of immunity, then,” Havens went on, “the words were ‘Hit him again.’ How does that strike you?”
“If you had showed the paper to me before you sealed it up,” the sheriff laughed, “I would have added my name to yours at the bottom of the instructions.”
“Do you really think he will hit him again?” asked Carl.
“Hit him again?” repeated the sheriff, “He’ll hit the clerk, and the ex-deputy, and the house detective, until he drives them out of town, and pay his fine out of the thousand dollars.”
“Don’t you let him do that,” advised Havens. “If he just gives each of them a good licking once, that’ll be sufficient. There are too many fresh hotel clerks and deputy sheriffs in the world, also house detectives, and if he reduced the list by three, that’ll be enough.”
“Holy Smoke!” shouted Carl rising to his feet and making for the door. “Are we going to talk here all day without anything to eat?”