“We are not afraid to come in town, Mr. Coyote,” he murmured.
“Drop that name,” said Rathburn sharply in an undertone. “Is Eagen here?”
“He is here,” replied Gomez with another display of his white teeth. “You want to see him? He is up talking with Mr. Doane.”
Doane! Rathburn remembered the name instantly 217 as being the same which had been spoken by Laura Mallory the night before. He remembered, too, the man who had been there and who had driven away to town in the little car. He surmised that this man had been Doane; and it had been he who had brought the information of Rathburn’s arrival and the posse’s pursuit to the girl.
“You want to see him?” asked Gomez craftily.
Rathburn had a consuming aversion for the wily Mexican. He hated the shifty look in his eyes and his oily tongue.
“Not yet,” he answered shortly.
“He will be here maybe,” said Gomez eagerly. “It is you change your mind?”
Rathburn scowled. The Mexican then knew all about the proposition Eagen had made to him the night before. Perhaps he could get more information from him than he had suspected.
“What job is it Eagen is planning?” he asked in a low voice.