“’Jever see anything like it! Every bush round Blossom Range seems to be hidin’ an agent, and the town is full o’ thieves. That’s why I allus keep that door locked when I’m out of the house, or at work back in the mine. I was glad to git that stuff into the hands of the express company, fer I expected every night to be knocked on the head before mornin’, so long as I had it in hyer. Thar’s plenty men in this town would kill ye fer a bag o’ gold dust.”
“I’m afraid that’s right.”
“I’m shore of it. And sense Tim Benson is round hyer, I ain’t takin’ no chances.”
He indicated the two big revolvers under his coat.
“I keep ’em strapped to me constant,” he confessed. “It will be him er me, if we meet; and I know it.”
He put the nuggets away. On coming back, he asked how Brown was getting along.
Knowing that the man he called Benson had gone to the Casino, Buffalo Bill was tempted to tell him of it; which would perhaps send him down there, looking for him. If a duel came of it, there might be some surprising developments.
But the scout put the temptation aside.
He did not know how much he could believe of what Juniper Joe and Jackson Dane had said. And, if all were true, he did not care to take the responsibility of setting two men to shooting at each other.
“I’m still stalled!” he admitted to himself, when he left Juniper Joe’s cabin.