“Hold on, Puffesser!” broke in Haywire, quickly. “I got one I’ll sell cheap. Good gosh, yes! Five year old, but better’n they make ’em now. Distance sights.”
“All right. Sneak it into my room with a box of cartridges to fit, and I’ll pay you for it; bring along that gun you’re keeping for Sagebrush Beam, too. He wants it. There’s the other ten. You’ll earn it by keeping your mouth shut real tight. And listen! Will you or Hassayamp be on deck along about sunup in the morning?”
“Hassayamp wont; that’s certain,” said Haywire, staring at Tompkins. “I’m liable to be, if ye want me.”
“All right. You know Mesquite Harrison? He’s coming to see me. Bring him right to my room, savvy? Then if you hear him yell, be deaf in both ears, and if you see anything funny going on, be blind in both eyes.”
“All right, Puffesser. Gosh, ye don’t talk like the same feller ye was—”
“Never mind. Your job is to be a human sphinx. Supper ready?”
“Bell’s just about to ring, Puffesser. I’ll be along d’rectly.”
Seeking his own cell, Tompkins enjoyed a thorough wash-up, and before he finished heard signs of life in the adjoining room which tokened that Miss Gilman had returned. On his way to the dining-room he encountered Hassayamp, looking more melancholy than ever, and was given a cheerless nod; then a flicker of interest seized the hotel-proprietor.
“Say, Puffesser! Thought you aimed to stay awhile in the desert?”
“So I did, Mr. Foster,” said Tompkins blandly. “So I did. But I regret to say that I had trouble with my companion. Perhaps you observed that I was alone when we met each other this afternoon? Luckily I was able to follow the tracks of your car back to town, or I might have been lost. I trust your stomach trouble has quite passed over?”