Jim Allen’s freckled face split in a wide grin.
“Yuh try livin’ in the desert where yuh got to track lizards or go hungry an’ yuh’ll soon learn trackin’!”
Suddenly the restraint between the two dropped away. They were once more boys, brothers. Jim pointed at Jack’s high heels and then threw back his head and laughed aloud.
“The only lollygaholopus an’ wampus on stilts out of a museum! Ha-ha-ha!”
“Yuh darn little hoss thief!” Jack retorted. “Yuh still got Honey Boy, the hoss yuh stole from me? Lissen, you! Yuh want to stop laughin’ or some day the top of your head will fall off.”
The two stood there and thoroughly abused each other, mixing their abuse with fighting words. But in each case the fighting words were terms of endearment.
But again the twins grew silent. Jack was thinking of the day after to-morrow when he intended to post his list of undesirables. Jim headed the list.
“Listen, Jack,” the little outlaw said earnestly. “I’m thinkin’ that quartz gang what robbed Pop last week sure dropped that Mex kid, thinkin’ it was Pop. They tried to down him deliberate. I figger some gent knows Pop is due to strike it rich and figgered on buyin’ the American Beauty cheap from the widow. An’ don’t forget that gent is runnin’ with the quartz gang!”
He lowered his voice and explained his theory, but after he had finished, Jack shook his head.
“I don’t blame yuh, but your life has made yuh too darn suspicious. Yuh suspect everybody.”