“I heard you the first time,” Murtry interrupted with an oath. “Now shut your yap an’ get out!”
Benton did not move. Seeing this, Murtry’s great hamlike hands twisted about convulsively; his lips drew back against his uneven teeth, and with an enraged snarl he quickly rushed at the youth.
“I’ll show you if you move or not!” he shouted. “Once I get a hold of you, I’ll——”
Murtry suddenly brought up with a sharp exclamation. Ten feet from Benton, he had stopped with an expression of bewilderment on his broad face. He was gazing like a man fascinated into the barrel of an automatic.
“I came ready for you,” said young Benton coolly. “I’m not on your claim, and I don’t see you or anybody else throwing me off of government land. And now, you can at least listen to what I have to say, even if you don’t care to——”
“I’ll listen, you young pup,” Murtry said, “but there’s a day comin’. You’ll wake up some day an’ learn that what I say goes in this neck of the woods.”
Murtry advanced a step as he said this. “And you,” said Benton as he menaced Murtry with his weapon, “may never wake up, if you come another step in this direction. There, that’s better,” he went on as Murtry retreated a step. “From what I’ve been told, Murtry, you’re a mighty rich man. It won’t bother you in the least to sell—or give me, for that matter—some of your water. You’ve got your pile made. Now be decent and give me a chance to get out of this country with a little money for all the hardship I’ve gone through. Will you listen to a sensible proposition?”
“Rave on,” said Murtry sullenly. “You’ve got me dead to rights. Talk away if it does you any good, but you’ll get nothin’ out of me.”
“I’ll give you a third of all the money I take out,” said Benton, speaking slowly and distinctly. “If you’ll give me the water to work the ground. Is it a go?”
Murtry opened his lips as if he intended to reply; then closed them tightly. A minute passed and he seemed to reconsider. “You might as well trot along,” he said contemptuously. “Use your brains. Why would I take a third? If there’s any money there, I can have it all after you starve out; an’ if there ain’t anything there, what’s the idee of my takin’ a third!”