"I've got witnesses."
"Well, we'll let that matteh slide till the mines make a showin'. Meantime, there's talk goin' on in this town concernin' the gel an' her livin' at Three Star. I look to you to contradict that so't of gossip, Plimsoll, from now on."
Plimsoll flushed angrily.
"Who in hell do you think you are?" he demanded. "Who appointed you censor to any man's speech?"
"A man's speech don't have to be censored, Plimsoll. An' I reckon you know who I am."
"You come here looking for trouble, with me?"
"I never hunt trouble, Jim. If I can't help buttin' into it, like a man might ride into a rattlesnake in the mesquite, I aim to handle it. Ef I ever got into real trouble, an' it resembled you, I'd make you climb so fast, Plimsoll, you'd wish you had horns on yore knees an' eyebrows."
Plimsoll forced a laugh. "Fair warning, Sandy. I never raise a fuss with a two-gun man. It ain't healthy. You've got me wrong in this matter."
"Glad to hear it. Then there won't be no argyment. Game open?"
"Wide. An' a little hundred-proof stuff to take the alkali out of your throats. How about it?"