There were four public stables in the city, so I found by asking questions. I tackled the biggest one first. The man in the office was pulling off hip rubber boots with the air of one who has decided to call it a day. He laughed at me when I asked for a horse.
“My friend, every cayuse in my stable that can walk, trot, run, or limp, or even can cover ground by rolling over is hired and has either started for the Blacksnake country where that new strike has been reported or else is going to start with a crazy prospector astraddle.”
I offered to buy a horse. He said that he didn’t do business that way—he had made promises and would keep them. I asked for names of men who had hired. I found a few and was turned down; they all expected to get rich if they could get to Blacksnake.
I had no better luck at the other stables.
“Bright Eyes” had made me—it looked as if it would also unmake me.
“You can’t get it out of their heads in these parts that first-comers on a strike ain’t due to be millionaires,” one man told me. “If you want a hoss you’ll have to carpenter together a new one. The only plugs in the city that haven’t been nailed by prospectors are the spare hosses of the stage company—and old Uncle Sam’s mail keeps his thumb down hard on those critters.”
Then I set my teeth and began to hunt all the harder for my friend. I got word of him here and there, but an eel in a dock quicksand could not have been more of a dodger. It was evident that success had put springs into the legs and restlessness into the heart of this new Rockebilt of Breed City. The trail grew hot—the trail grew cold. It was late in the evening when I finally caught up with him. He was clinking glasses with “Dirty-shirt” Maddox, in a bar down an alley where Breed City’s virtuous ten-o’clock-closing ordinance could be more safely violated.
“I’ve done a lot for you, Mr. Mann, but I can’t monkey-doodle with the company hosses at this time o’ year when the mud makes double work.”
I drew him outdoors and down the alley.
“I’m meddling with another man’s secret, my friend, but I’m going to tell you enough so that you’ll understand what this means to a poor old man and;—and—a girl back East.”