"What've you got against him?" demanded Mr. Bluffy. "I thought you and him was thick as thieves?"
"It's a public benefit I'm after," declared Plume, unblushingly. "I am for New Leeds first, last, and all the time."
"You must think you are New Leeds," observed Bluffy.
Plume laughed.
"I've got nothing against him particularly, though he's injured me deeply. Hasn't he thrown all the men out of work!" He pushed the bottle over toward the other, and he poured out another drink and tossed it off. "You needn't be so easy about him. He's been mean enough to you. Wasn't it him that gave the description of you that night when you stopped the stage?"
Bill Bluffy's face changed, and there was a flash in his eye.
"Who says I done it?"
Plume laughed. "I don't say you did it. You needn't get mad with me. He says you did it. Keith said he didn't know what sort of man it was. Wickersham described you so that everybody knew you. I reckon if Keith had back-stood him you'd have had a harder time than you did."
The cloud had gathered deeper on Bluffy's brow. He took another drink.
"---- him! I'll blow up his ---- mine and him, too!" he growled. "How did you say 'twas to be done?"