Wade stared at him in amazement, for there was a queer significance in Tommy’s tone.
“An outlaw!” repeated Tommy, slapping his breast. “Yes, s’r, I’m an outlaw! An outlaw so fur as P’laski Britt is concerned. I’ve showed him I can run him! Did you see him lookin’ at me? He’ll dream of me after this when he has the nightmare.”
He took Wade by the arm.
“I ’ain’t been sayin’ much, Mr. Wade, but I see how things are gettin’ ready to move in this valley. You ain’t built for an outlaw. But you need one in your business. I’m the one from now on.”
He pulled his thin hand out of his mitten and shook it towards the north in the direction in which Blunder Lake lay.
“You need an outlaw in your business, I say! I’m tough from now on. I’ll be so tough in April that you’ll have to discharge me. There’s no knowin’ what an outlaw will do, is there, Mr. Wade? I’d ruther go to jail as an outlaw than as a drunk, like I’ve done every summer. They look up to outlaws. They make drunks scrub the floors and empty the slops.” His voice trembled. “Oh, you needn’t worry, Mr. Wade! I’ll be proud to be an outlaw. And I ain’t northin’ but old Tommy Eye, anyway.”
He slid down off the load and went between the horses’ heads, and fondled them and kissed them above their eyes.
“Brace up, old fellers!” he said. “You won’t have to pull no more to-day. I reckon you’ve done your stunt!”
“I—I don’t understand this outlaw business, Tommy,” stammered Wade, looking down on him from the load. Tommy peered up, his head between the shaggy manes of the horses.
“Don’t you try to, Mr. Wade!” he cried, earnestly. “There ain’t no good in tryin’ to understand outlaws. They ain’t no kind to hitch up to very close. Don’t you try to understand them!” And as he bent to unhook the trace-chains he muttered to himself: “I ain’t sure as I understand much about ’em myself, but there’s one outlawin’ job that it’s come to my mind can be done without takin’ private lessons off’n Jesse James, or whoever is topnotcher in the line just now. In the mean time, let’s see that warden try to arrest me!”