“He ain’t been there long, and I never know him.”
“How long has he been there?”
“Three, four weeks. Hank North tells me he’s old friend of Butch Van Deen. I see him once in a while, but I don’t know him.”
Cultus did not stay much longer. He rode back to Medicine Tree, pondering over two things he didn’t know before; that Tony Gibbs had traded a forty-one revolver to Hank North of the Triangle X crowd, and that Terry Ione was a fairly new arrival in Painted Valley.
There was only one drawback to the forty-one bullet as evidence; it might be said that it might have been fired previous to the killing of Ben Kelton, or since, as far as that was concerned, by some over-enthusiastic cowboy, and the bullet lodged in the wall of the store. But Blaze had said that he distinctly heard the bullet strike the building, and that was the only bullet hole Cultus was able to find over there.
As for the shooting of Buck Gillis, the bullets which killed him were of .44 calibre, and Cultus was certain that Blaze carried a forty-five. This seemed to clear Blaze of the killing of Buck Gillis, anyway.
Cultus rode back to town, determined to find the present owner of that forty-one, and if possible to find out more about Terry Ione.
After Cultus left the War Dance, Della accepted several drinks. She seldom drank anything, and these few drinks of liquor made her reckless.
“What did that homely puncher talk to you about?” asked Butch. He had noticed that Della left him abruptly, after a conversation which looked very much like an argument.
“Somebody else trying to tell me my business,” she replied.