There was no doubt of this man’s rule. Without a word the men filed out of the store, each one with his thoughts bent upon the possibilities of acquiring the knowledge necessary.
CHAPTER XI
STRANGERS IN SUFFERING CREEK
Bill watched the men depart. The stolid Minky, too, followed them with his eyes. But as they disappeared through the doorway he turned to the gambler, and, in surprise, discovered that he was reclining in a chair, stretched out in an attitude of repose, with his shrewd eyes tightly closed. He was about to speak when the swing-doors opened, and two strangers strolled in.
Minky greeted them, “Howdy?” and received an amiable response. The newcomers were ordinary enough to satisfy even the suspicious storekeeper. In fact, they looked like men from some city, who had possibly come to Suffering Creek with the purpose of ascertaining the possibilities of the camp as a place in which to try their fortunes. Both were clad in store clothes of fair quality, wearing hats of the black prairie type, and only the extreme tanning of their somewhat genial faces belied the city theory.
Minky noted all these things while he served them the drinks they called for, and, in the most approvedly casual manner, put the usual question to them.
“Wher’ you from?” he inquired, as though the matter were not of the least consequence.
He was told Spawn City without hesitation, and in response to his remark that they had “come quite a piece,” they equally amiably assured him that they had.