“Huh!” snorted Wind River. “Well, now, from where I set, you’ve got a fine chance, Ryker.”
“I have a right to see him!” snapped the lawyer.
“Yea-a-a-ah, the devil you have!”
Wind River jerked his feet off the desk and faced Ryker.
“Your rights and wrongs don’t mean nothin’ to me. If you keep your hat on until I let you see Pete Conley, they’ll have to saw it off when you’re dead.”
“I wonder how Roaring Rigby ever happened to appoint such an ignorant person,” said the lawyer.
“Because he couldn’t trust the smart ones, that’s why. The smarter they are the crookeder they are, Ryker, and I’ve heard that you’re the smartest man in this valley.”
Ryker walked back to the door, boiling with wrath.
“I’m going to find the sheriff,” he said hotly. “You can’t call me a crook and get away with it.”
“Well, you’re a friend of English Ed.”