“I don’t know what you’re driving at,” said the doctor, inclined to walk away and leave him.
“I mean that Hun Shanklin queered all of you,” said Ten-Gallon. “You had the wrong figgers, and you filed on the wrong claim!”
Pressed for an explanation of how he knew, Ten-Gallon told them that he had been Shanklin’s partner at the beginning, and that Shanklin had deceived and cheated both him and Boyle.
“Ah, then he did double-cross my son!” cried the Governor triumphantly, seizing this vindication for the young man’s deed with avid eagerness.
“He sure did,” Ten-Gallon agreed; “and he done it right! I know all about you”–nodding to the doctor–“and what happened to you back of that tent in Comanche that night. Shanklin had it in for you ever since you showed up his game the night that sucker feller was goin’ to put down that wad of money. He’d been layin’ for you, one way and another, for a couple of days or so. You walked right into his hand that night.”
“I seemed to,” admitted Slavens with bitter recollection.
“Shanklin knew about copper in these rocks over here––” 319
“So it’s copper?” said Slavens, unable to restrain his words.
“Copper; that’s what it is,” nodded Ten-Gallon. “But it ain’t on this claim, and I’ll show that in a minute, too. Hun had been writin’ to Jerry about it, tryin’ to git up a company to pay him for what he knew, so they could locate the man that drawed Number One there, see? Well, Hun, he’d known about that copper a long time; he could go to it with his eyes shut. So he got the description of the land as soon as the survey maps was out, and he offered to sell the location for five thousand dollars. He had samples of the ore, and it run rich, and it is rich, richest in this state, I’m here to tell you, gentlemen.
“But Jerry wouldn’t give him no five thousand for what he knew. So Hun he got some other fellers on the string, and him and me was partners on the deal and was goin’ to split even on account of some things I knew and was to keep under my katy.