Dawn drove away from the hitch-rack, and Roaring watched until she disappeared. The men were coming from the restaurant, so he went to meet them. But he didn’t tell them that he was going out to talk with Moses Conley.
Hashknife and Sleepy got a room at the Turquoise Hotel and put their horses in the livery-stable. Jimmy Moran had taken a liking to them and had introduced them to every one they met.
It was about an hour after dark when Lovely Lucas came into the Ranger saloon, where Hashknife, Sleepy and Jimmy were playing seven-up, and announced that the Big 4 outfit had come to town in force.
“The whole works, I tell you,” declared Lovely. “Old Man Moran, Slim Regan, Clayton, Allard, Creswell and Pitts. They’re all in the Black Horse, except Slim. He went down to see the sheriff.”
The game broke up immediately, and the four men trailed up the street past the sheriff’s office, where they found Wind River Jim alone.
“Yeah, it was about that shootin’ today,” said Wind River. “The whole Big 4 is b’ilin’ mad. They hopped all over Roarin’ when he said there wasn’t anythin’ to be done about it. He’s over in the Black Horse, arguin’ about it with ’em right now.”
“Pretty sore, eh?” said Lovely.
“Right to a head.”
Jimmy touched Hashknife on the arm.
“I’ll see you later, Hartley,” he said.