The revelation came in Silas Mallinsbee's own statement of the result of that interview.
"Gordon, my boy," he said. He had quickly abandoned the use of Gordon's formal address. "If that feller gets around here too frequent with his blackmail, I'm going to kill him."
Then he thrust the patch over his left eye high up on to his forehead, and Gordon realized the angry light shining in the man's eyes. With one eye covered his face had almost been expressionless. His evident surprise at this realization did not fail to attract the rancher's attention.
His angry eyes softened to a smile of amusement.
"You're wonderin' 'bout that patch?" he went on. "Wal, when I get up against a feller who's brighter than I am in a deal, I don't figure to take chances. Ever played 'draw' with a one-eyed man? No? Wal, I did—once. An' I ain't recovered from all he taught me yet. He taught me that two eyes can just about give away double as much as one. Which, in financial dealings, is quite a piece. I guess that patch has saved me quite a few dollars in its time. An' it makes me kind of sore to think I didn't meet that one-eyed 'sharp' earlier in life."
Gordon nodded as he folded up the plan of the town lying on his desk.
"You were using it on—Mr. David Slosson. Say, is he smart, or is he just a—crook?"
Mallinsbee rose from his chair and moved cumbersomely over to the doorway, and stood with his back turned, gazing out.
"I ain't fixed him that way—yet. He's sure a crook, anyway. That's a cinch. 'Bout the other we'll know later. Say, I'm open to graft anybody on this thing—reasonably. It's part of the game. It's more. It's the game itself. But I don't submit to blackmail."
"There doesn't seem much difference," said Gordon, drawing some letter-paper towards him, and preparing to write.