CHAPTER XXVI
PAYMENT ON ACCOUNT
Mackenzie raised his eyes slowly from his task of blending tobacco, looked for a moment into Reid’s determined face, remembering with a falling heart that he had taken his own revolver off and hung it in the wagon when he came in, to relieve himself of the weight.
“Hurry––hand it out!”
Reid lifted himself slightly, elbow still pressed close to his side, raising his face a foot nearer Mackenzie’s, his eyes drawn small, the corners of his mouth twitching.
Mackenzie’s hands were poised one above the other, as he had suspended his milling operations. As quickly as the hand of a prestidigitator flashes, Mackenzie swept the one that held the tobacco, dashing the powdered mixture into Reid’s eyes.
Reid fired as he sprang to his feet, gasping and choking, momentarily blinded by the fiery tobacco. Mackenzie felt the bullet lift his hair as it passed his temple, and before it was many rods on its way through the canvas top of the wagon he had grappled with Reid and wrenched his gun away.
Reid had no hands for a fight, even if it had been in him to attempt it, being busy with his streaming eyes. He cursed Mackenzie as he sputtered and swabbed.
“Damn it all, Mackenzie, can’t you take a joke?” he said.