“Me neither. Big Medicine did. Hell, yeah! Repeats things that Shakespeare said. I don’t sabe what it means, but it kinda pleases Big Medicine; so we listen. Oh, he’s smart, all right. And if yuh don’t think he’ll fight, try him.”
“I’ll take yore word for it,” grinned Sleepy. “He throwed a man out just as we rode up.”
Ike grunted softly and looked at Sleepy.
“He did?”
“Him, or somebody else in the house,” nodded Sleepy. “Anyway, this feller sure came out all spraddled, clawed his way onto his horse, and fogged away toward town.”
“That was Jim Reed,” stated Ike wonderingly. “Wasn’t nobody else but Jim Reed. He showed up when me and Big Medicine was talkin’, so I came down here to the barn. Well, I’ll be darned! Throwed him plumb out, eh?”
“Right on his neck.”
“Uh-huh. Well, well! Him and Jim Reed was good friends.”
“I’ll betcha,” grinned Sleepy. “He must ’a’ jist loved old Jim.”
“It shore has the earmarks of brotherly love,” grinned Ike. “I don’t like Jim Reed. He’s from Greenhorn. Owns some mines, and I reckon he’s been tryin’ to peddle part of ’em to Big Medicine. How did yore pardner like his bath?”