“Can you shoot?”
“A little.”
“Kill any o’ them Bolsheviks?”
“That would be guesswork. Did you ever kill a man?”
“Nope. Didn’t have to. I’m pretty good on the draw, and where I come from they knew it and didn’t bother me.” 195
“I see.”
“Shootin’ these days is all in the movies. I was ridin’ for a film company when your old man lassoed me for this job. Never know when you’re well off—huh? I thought there wouldn’t be nothin’ to do but grub pile three times a day and the old man’s cheroots in between. And here I be now, ridin’ along with a bunch of pirates! Whata you know about that? And some of them nice boys, too. If they were riff-raff, barroom bums, I could get a line on it. But I’ll have to pass the buck.”
“You haven’t got an extra gun anywhere, have you?”
“We’d be headin’ east if I had”—grimly. “I’d have pared down the odds this mornin’. That hombre with the hop-a-long didn’t leave me a quill toothpick. Was you thinkin’ of startin’ somethin’?”—hopefully.
“No, but I’d feel more comfortable if Miss Norman could carry a gun.”