“On deck, Ned,” came the answer, close to his shoulder.
“Step out there and relieve Sloper of his gun. Be careful not to get between us, remember. If he’s going to be allowed to walk around till Harry’s uncle comes back to settle his case, I don’t think it’s wise he should go armed. Men sometimes get mad and do things they’re sorry for afterwards. You hear what I’m saying, Sloper. There’s no harm going to come to you until Colonel Job comes back; but it’s just as well that your claws are trimmed. And if you know what’s good for you, don’t try any kind of slippery trick on us. I can shoot to hit, and I will. Get that?”
“Oh! that’s all right,” replied the other, in an apparently careless tone, though his face was drawn with anger and his eyes blazed with the venom of a panther at bay, “keep right along with your little circus. It gives you some fun and it don’t hurt me any. Somebody’s been killin’ one of my birds, and that’s what I’m huffy about.”
Ned waited until Jack had stepped forward and whipped the heavy revolver out of its leather holster before he went on to say anything further. When this had been accomplished he proceeded to tell the man something more.
“A hawk was your undoing, Sloper. It pounced on your bird and was going to make a meal of it, when one of my chums used his gun to knock the pirate over. Then we found a little note fastened to the bird’s leg. I have that note here, and mean to give it to the Colonel when he gets back. I won’t say what it contains; there’s no need of it with you. But we expect that Colonel Haines will have little trouble in fastening the guilt on the right party, after he sees the handwriting and compares it with that of the punchers working for him. And then it’ll be good-bye for some one.”
“Yes,” declared Jimmy, hotly, determined to have his say in the matter, “and the same feller ought to thank his lucky stars if he gets away from here without being treated to a rope necklace, or given a coat of tar and feathers. I’ve heard that men have been up against that sort of medicine out here for less things than tryin’ to turn the herds of their employers over to the cattle rustlers.”
The puncher looked at Jimmy, and his upper lip drew back with what was more like a snarl than anything else.
“You got to prove a thing first,” he snapped. “It’s easy to say that a man’s gone bad, but my word’s as good as the next one. Wait and see what the Kunnel thinks. You’re all down on me, I know, but you don’t see me shakin’ in my boots, do ye? Somebody hooked one of my birds, I’m asayin’, and used it to send a message with. That’s all there is to the thing. It ain’t agoin’ to bother me any, I’m atellin’ ye.”
“Oh! Chunky told us you’d give us that sort of a yarn,” Jimmy declared, “but it don’t go down one little bit. We’re on to your curves, Mr. Sloper, let me tell you. You’ll sing small when the Colonel comes home.”
“Rats! Nobody’ll be gladder to meet him than me!” asserted the other, with a great showing of effrontery that Ned knew was only assumed.