“We ain’t got time,” said Asher. “We’re on business. But at that, I’d like to hear what yuh tell him.”
“Mebbe he’ll tell yuh later,” laughed Sleepy.
“It all depends,” said Hill, and they moved aside to let Hashknife and Sleepy start on down the road.
As soon as the two cowboys and their pack horses had disappeared, Hill took a bottle from his pocket and passed it around. They were all half drunk, but there was no hilarity.
“That’s enough hooch for now,” declared Hill. “We don’t want to be drunk. I’d sure like to know who them two dead men are. They don’t belong around here.”
“What we ought to have done is to make them two whippoorwills tell us all about it,” said Paul Dazey. “We ain’t got much sense.”
“And if you’d ’a’ seen them two fellers back out of the Arrow bunk house, with their six-guns all set, you’d say it wasn’t none of our —— business,” declared Mel Asher. “We showed pretty good sense, if anybody rises up to ask yuh.”
The sheriff and Sunshine were both asleep in the sheriff’s office when Hashknife and Sleepy hammered on the door. It was nearly morning, but not near enough for Sunshine to awake in good spirits. He came to the door, looked them over with sleepy eyes and wanted to know what in —— they meant by trying to knock down the door.
Hashknife led him out to the horses and showed him the two dead men. This served to jar the sleep out of Sunshine and send him back into the office, where he yelled at the sheriff—
“Hey, Sudden! Git up! There’s been a eppy-demic.”