Kiddie watched Abe Harum striking a match. It was a safety, with a brown head.
"What sort of lucifers are yours, Isa?" Kiddie inquired.
Isa Blagg handed him his box, which was partly open, showing about a dozen matches with pink heads.
"Ah," Kiddie nodded. "Where'd you get 'em?"
"Bought 'em in Brierley's saloon in Laramie," said Isa. "Why?"
"Nothing," replied Kiddie, "only they're the same sort as a broken one I found in the canoe. Chap as left that pipe must have tried to light it in a high wind. There was quite half a dozen dead lucifers lyin' around."
"An' it don't appear as he lighted his pipe after all," added Rube Carter. "It's as dry as a bone, just as if it hadn't been smoked for months and months."
Abe Harum leant over and took a pinch of the tobacco ashes, smelling it.
"Thick twist," he said, "strong enough to pull your head off."
Kiddie had taken three dead matches from his pocket and laid them on the edge of the table in front of Rube.