Poor little Henry did seem pitifully exposed. From where they stood, he was clearly outlined in the bare sand. Ed grunted.
“The only way this bad man can hit him is shoot straight up in the air,” Ed explained impatiently. “Henry’s protected. There’s thirty inches of sand in front of his head. That isn’t what bothers me: I want to know what that little devil’s going to do. I’m worrying about the other guy.”
“Protected?” The traveling man squinted against the white, glaring light of sun on sand. “Say, he does seem to be behind a little riffle, at that. But thirty inches—gosh! That isn’t much.”
“He’ll keep on fussing till he gets into a proper jam, sometime,” went on the gloomy Ed, following his own train of thought. “You can’t get away with funny-business forever. What’s that? Aw, thirty inches is plenty. This crazy man’s gun only shoots through fourteen.”
“Oh,” said the traveling man, opening his eyes. And “Oh,” he said again, in enlightenment. “He knows, hey? That’s the reason he looked at the cowboy’s gun and ca’tridges, was it?”
“Sure,” replied Ed, in scorn at the obviousness of the question. He returned to the puncher’s original remark. “Do something with Henry? Say, you don’t know what you’re talking about! He’s as stubborn as a mule. You’d think being turned down by three examining boards’d be enough for anybody. Now, wouldn’t you—at his age? But no sir—”
“Ready?” roared Sam, and raised his arm.
A hurrying series of reports rolled out over the desert wastes. The cowboy’s gun spoke with the signal from the railroad track. The rifle was over the log; he worked it savagely. The spectators shuddered. It looked like certain death for Henry. Bullets kicked up the sand in front of his nose and to either side of him, and went tearing off down-country with the urgent whine of the ricochet. Ed chuckled.
“See?” he said gleefully to the traveling man. “Notice twigs falling from that dark-green bush about twenty yards in front of Henry? Thought he’d do something like that. He’s lined up behind it so this Chihuahua can’t see him at all. Has to feel for him.”