“No,” smiled Cultus. “He was kneelin’ to the gods of luck. But yuh might fix ’em up a little if yuh will. I’ll make it right with yuh.”
“Oh, I’d do that anyway; thanks just the same, Collins. They ain’t so bad. I’ve got some great salve for that kinda thing.”
“That’s great. Buenas noches.”
CHAPTER XXII: BARTER AND DOUBLE-CROSS
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Butch.”
Kendall Marsh had been drinking rather heavily, but now he shoved the bottle aside and looked quizzically at Butch Van Deen. There was only one lamp lighted in the Triangle X ranch-house. Hank North humped in an old rocker, while Mac Rawls sprawled on the old horsehair sofa, smoking a cigarette. Butch Van Deen leaned against the side of the fireplace, his thumbs hooked over his cartridge belt.
“Yuh don’t know what I’m talkin’ about, eh?” he queried. “You heard what I said, didn’t yuh?”
“You asked me if Cultus Collins is working for me. I don’t even know him; so that’s your answer. Now, what’s the idea of the question?”
“That’s kinda funny, Marsh. This afternoon Collins had a talk with Della in the saloon. I kinda kept cases in the way she acted, and I could see that she was sore about somethin’. They didn’t talk long before she left him; but she said somethin’ to him, and then went away for good, and I saw him kinda grin.
“A little later I got hold of Della and I asked her what Collins had to say. She wanted to know how long Collins had been workin’ for you, and I said she was crazy; that Collins never did work for you. And she jist the same as said I was crazy myself. She said that Collins knew too much not to be workin’ for you. And here’s another thing, Marsh; Collins told her that you would never pay her a cent, and warned her to pull out before somethin’ happened to her.”