But the apelike man followed Benson when the latter set out to seek a safer stopping place.
It was found by and by, in a hole, after a careful climb across a rocky slope.
“There’s a few bushes growing in the crevices here,” said Benson, “and they’ll help to hide us; while this position, away up here, gives us such an outlook that Cody’s crowd can’t come on us easy without us seeing them. So we can talk things over.”
Gorilla Jake dropped down inside the hole with Benson.
“First,” said Benson, “what brought you here?”
“I might answer by sayin’ my feet,” the apelike man answered, spreading his mouth in a horrid grin; “but that wouldn’t be explainin’, would it? So I forks over the information that I was on my way to Blossom Range, and was keepin’ out of the reg’lar trails simply as a matter of habit.”
“Any sheriffs chasin’ you?”
Gorilla Jake hesitated.
“Not this trip.”
“The last I heard of you,” said Benson, ignoring the hesitation, “was when it seemed you was going to hang for killing Nat Spargo, over in Valley Falls.”