“An’ this is on’y the beginning.” Jake continued his remarks from the next ridge. “The railroad’s not far away, an’ as I remember the country hereabouts, she runs right out in the open, with nary a snitch of cover for over twenty miles. There’ll be nothing to stop ’em from shooting us down by volleys at long range. So it all boils down to this—some one’s got to hold ’em at the next good stand while the others make their getaway.”
They had been carrying two rifles apiece. Now Sliver quietly appropriated Jake’s extra weapon. “With three rifles I orter be good for two hours.”
“When I said ‘some one’”—Jake quietly repossessed himself of the weapon—“I naterally allowed his name was Jake Evers. Git! before I bust you over the head.”
“If ’twasn’t for them”—Sliver’s hard glance went out to the chaparral—“there’s nothing I’d like better ’n to take time to rub your long hoss face in the dust.”
The threat, however, produced from Jake only his wolf grin. “You damned fool! D’you know what’s going to happen to the man that stays behind? He’s a-going to be what the society columns call ‘the piece de resistence’ at a Mexican barbecure. There ain’t a thing in the line of torture that them bandits won’t do to you.”
“You ked never stan’ it.” Sliver displayed great solicitude. “You’re getting along, Jake, an’ your nerve ain’t what it used to be.”
“You’ve said it.” Jake’s cold eye warmed. He placed a friendly hand on Sliver’s shoulder. “You’re dead right, Son. I’m getting on. What’s more, I’m that dyed-in-the-wool with deviltry ’twon’t hurt anybody when I pinch out. But you’re young yet. You’ll—”
“—hit El Paso an’ go straight to the devil. You know it darned well. We’ll gamble for it.” He spat on a pebble and threw it up. “Wet or dry, which? Wet! I win!”
“Jest my luck!” Jake’s complaint was sincere as though, instead of death or torture, life and fortune had been the hazard. “I don’t have no chance at all except with cards. What did I wanter go an’ do that for, anyway, an’ me with a deck right here in my pocket?”
“Too late!” Sliver pressed his triumph. “Now git!”