Wild Bill, having settled the situation in his mind, strolled out to the front of the hotel, filled his pipe again, and seated himself in the chair he had occupied for most of the day.
He was waiting for the stranger, and he had not long to wait. Clancy came out, unhitched his horse, climbed into the saddle, and clattered back toward the bottom of the cañon. A few minutes later the stranger followed, pulled up a chair a few feet from Wild Bill’s, and seated himself.
“Howdy,” said Wild Bill, with a friendly nod, by way of breaking the ice.
“How do you do, sir?” answered the stranger, with all the elaborate courtesy of an Easterner. “Will you try one of these?”
He offered Wild Bill a cigar, and the latter accepted it amiably.
“Stranger, I take it?” pursued Wild Bill.
“Well, yes,” answered the other. “I came in on the afternoon stage from Montegordo.”
“Looking up the mines?”
A suspicious look crossed the stranger’s face.
“Figuring on examining the Forty Thieves,” pursued Wild Bill, “with the intention of handing out one hundred thousand cold plunks for the same?”