“Yes!� Mr. Manley answered. Then, as his eye roved over the small crowd in front of the restaurant, he added. “We were havin’ a little argument, that’s all. It’s all over now.�
The cowboys looked dubious at this explanation of the yelling, but the gathered people slowly drifted away. The boys remounted their ponies, which, like good Western horses, had stood quiet when the reins were thrown over their heads and left dangling.
Roy urged his animal over to Nick.
“Say, Nick,� he said in a low voice, “you and Gus didn’t see anything of a puncher in a checkered shirt busting out of Rimor’s, did you?�
“No, we didn’t, Roy,� Nick answered.
“He the bucker what was doin’ the yelling?� Gus asked casually. It would take a great deal to startle Gus out of his placid way. When he acted, he acted quickly. When he did nothing, to quote himself, he “did it just as slow as he knew how.� Gus was a product of New Mexico.
“He didn’t do any yelling,� Teddy answered. “That was done by the New York plug-ugly they’ve got in there for a barkeeper. Dad taught him a few things about the use of a revolver.�
“Kill him?� Gus drawled, as though he were asking the time of day.
“Certainly not!� Roy answered, startled. “He just clubbed him. Put his right arm out of commission by a crack from the butt of his gun.�
Nick Looker nodded approvingly. Nick was young and fair-haired. He had not the assumed callousness of Gus. He knew, though, that beneath this pretended hardness, Gus had a heart as soft as a woman’s.