He looked hard at Slocum.
“I was on my way to the town. Will it be safe to go now?”
“I’d advise agin’ it, as I said, and that’s why I’m here. Keep away frum it.”
“All right,” he said. “Work this trick, and hang Buffalo Bill as soon as he hits Scarlet Gulch. Then we’ll have a free hand for a while, and I’ll have the revenge I swore I’d have when I broke out of that jail. But, just the same, I’m going into the town to-night. I’ve got a reason which says I’ve got to go, and I’m going.”
He laughed recklessly.
“Call off your dogs of war, Slocum, while I’m there; get ’em all to drinking in the Flash Light. You can get ’em so drunk on Rainey’s pizen that they won’t know anything until morning. I’ve got a reason to be in that town, and in I’m going, even if Buffalo Bill was there himself.”
CHAPTER XXXIV.
LURED INTO DANGER.
It needed no very strong invitation to set the crowd at Rainey’s to filling themselves full of “pizen.” A simple hint from Slocum that Rainey was “setting ’em up” was all that was necessary.
Slocum drank with the rest of them; but while the others were soon half intoxicated, Slocum’s red face, growing redder and redder, and the strange and shiny brightness of his prominent eyes, alone indicated that he had been drinking more than his ordinary amount.
While the loafers and the “bad men” of the town were thus celebrating at the Flash Light, a handsomely dressed mounted man appeared in the streets, accompanied by three others.