“It’s as I said,” was Gopher Gabe’s comment; “some street rowdies that have got it in fer Cody jumped on him in hyer and tried to do him.”
“Why war they layin’ fer him in hyar?” asked Nomad.
“You can answer that as easy as I can,” the saloon keeper replied. “How am I to know anything about it? Everything was runnin’ along smooth upstairs when this thing happened. If I should make a guess, it’d be that they sneaked down hyer, thinking to find somethin’ they could lug off. Then, when Cody come down they thought he was after ’em; and so they tried to get ’em.”
It seemed so reasonable an explanation that most of the men who heard it believed it to be the true one.
CHAPTER XIX.
SHIFTING THE PRISONERS.
The Fool of Folly Mountain had no more than got home when he had callers, though the hour was so late that it verged upon morning. He had lighted his lamp and was thinking of turning in for the balance of the night, when they tapped on his door. When he admitted them he saw that they were Gopher Gabe and White-eyed Moses.
“Have seats, gentlemen,” he said, in his suave manner. “Sorry I can’t offer you cushioned rockers, but stools are all I’ve got in stock right now. I haven’t much time to sit down myself, so don’t find the need of soft chairs.”
He pushed out two stools for them.