“Yuh know what I mean—empty pack sacks.”
Cloudy was almost crying with alcoholic mirth.
“Chasin’ it where?” demanded Kohler.
Cloudy wiped his eyes on his sleeve and explained as well as he could what McGurk had told them. He drew diagrams in the air with both hands and otherwise illustrated how McGurk, Whaley, and Burns had chased three riders and one pack animal almost all the way from the border to the Tumbling H Ranch.
He dilated on the fact that the packhorse had been left at the ranch, and how the officers, suspecting such a thing, had come back in time to capture the horse, but lost the man who was taking it away. And then he leaned against the bar and sobbed out the fact that the packhorse carried nothing but empty pack sacks.
Baldy, Kohler, and Baum laughed with Cloudy. They slapped him on the back and bought more liquor. Jim Reed came in from the Greenhorn country and joined them. Of course Cloudy had to tell the story all over again, with certain variations, and Jim Reed laughed.
Faro Lanning came from his private room at the rear of the building, and Cloudy felt obliged to tell the story to Faro. By this time his continuity was very bad, so he was prompted by Baldy, Kohler, and Baum, and Reed, who knew the story probably better than Cloudy did.
Faro listened attentively and joined in the inevitable laugh at the expense of the revenue officers. In fact the story went over so well that Cloudy wanted to hire a hall and charge a nominal admission. He was serious. So was Baldy.
The story meant much to Baldy. He knew that some outfit had got wind of their crossing with the big cargo, and had hijacked them out of it. He felt sure that the officers had heard the shooting and had run into the men who had ambushed him. But he was at a loss to understand who had removed the cargo from the pack animal.
He wondered if Big Medicine and his men were this outfit. It looked very much as if they had pulled the trick.