Tank looked at him baleful. “What do ya wish me to do—upset your rotten dive and bleed on the ceilin’?” sez he. “I didn’t come here determined to smear up your place with my life blood; and I want ya to understand that I didn’t punch this hole in myself simply to cool off. I know what you’re afraid of—You’re scared that some o’ your liquor has got into my blood, an’ that it’ll leak out and set your floor on fire.”
“You run get a bucket for him to bleed into,” sez Maxwell to the bartender.
“Yes,” sez Tank, sarcastic; “and be sure to get a big one, as I am minded to draw off all o’ my blood, just to see how much I have in me at this time o’ the year.”
Sayin’ which, Tank walked over an’ sittin’ on the bed, held out his boot for me to pull off. He had been stabbed through the leg, through the thick part o’ the calf, and a jet was spoutin’ out of the top cut, and a steady stream oozin’ from the bottom one. I put my finger knuckle above the top jet, and the palm of my other hand over the lower one, and then sent Maxwell after a small rope and some bandages.
While he was gone, a couple o’ the girls strolled down the hall to see what the excitement was; but Tank began to lecture about morals and manners, and they didn’t bother us long. We patched Tank up in good order, and made him lie down again. He said that he had been woke up when his leg got stabbed, and had grappled with a man; but the man had got out the window again.
Skelty had built his place on a side hill. The bar and dinin’ hall was in front, and a small dance hall and kitchen back of it. Upstairs were bedrooms, and the ground sloped so, that the back rooms were only about five feet from the ground. This made the downstairs easier to heat in winter—and it was also convenient for any one who wanted to get in through a window.
Me and Spider ate breakfast next mornin’; but we wouldn’t let Tank eat, rememberin’ the Friar’s rules for wounds. When we started away, Tank insisted on goin’ along; so we had to ride slow. We went north, instead of in the direction we wanted to go, for fear some one might be spyin’ on us. I was mighty sorry we had come, even though I had found out that Promotheus was under suspicion; and as soon as we had come to a pass where we could see a good distance in all directions, I sent Spider on a circle to tell the boys to bring things to a head as soon as possible.
Tank’s leg ached him consid’able; and we had to ride purty slow; but by noon we had come to the Simpsons’ cabin. We told ’em that Ty Jones was suspicious about the Greasers and intended to get square with all who had took a hand in removin’ ’em; so they agreed to stand with us whenever we were ready to make a raid on Ty.
I made Tank lie down all afternoon, and drink all the water he could swallow, but that night when I started to ride over to the look-out, he insisted on goin’ along. It was a hard ride, and I wanted him to wait until the next night, but he tagged along, so I had to ride slow. We had figured out that the feller who had tried to get him had seen the hat on his foot at the head o’ the bed; and before he had had time to locate him proper, the noise the other one had made slammin’ the window to my room had scared him, so he had taken his stab haphazard.
This must ’a’ been the way, ’cause when drinkin’, Tank was usually a regular long range snorer, and only a hurried man would have mistaken his feet for his head. Tank insisted that he had seen the feller’s outline again’ the window, and that it had been Dixon. I doubted this; but Tank insisted that the feller had had a neck like a beer bottle, and then I had to give in.