“Cheap! She’s crazy. I’ll change her tune pretty quick. You tell her to come out here to-morrow and I’ll talk business with her. If I ever get her out here, she’ll take what I give her. You might bring her out in the afternoon. And don’t let everybody in the town see you start, because it might be necessary for her to leave the valley from here.”
Butch hitched up his belt and rolled a cigarette.
“She’ll be disappointed at not gettin’ the ten thousand,” he said meaningly, and Kendall Marsh laughed.
“I guess you know what I mean, Butch. Let’s all have another big drink. And keep an eye on Alden, will you? I don’t think the kid would ever talk; but he’s drinking too much. I’ll leave it to you to handle him. What’s our alleged sheriff doing toward catching Blaze Nolan?”
Butch drank his liquor with a grin.
“He’s settin’ in his little office, waitin’ for Blaze to walk in and give himself up.”
“Don’t be too damn’ sure,” warned Hank. “Bad News and this Collins are pretty thick, and if Collins is hornin’ in on our business, we better watch both of ’em. Collins is no fool. When him and that Kelton girl rode in from the Padre Canyon the other night at the JK, and told what happened to them, I jist decided that Collins wasn’t anybody’s fool.”
“We’ll make him sick, if he fools with us,” said Marsh warmly.
“Oh, yea-a-ah!” sarcastically. “You’ve got to change yore luck, if yuh do. Leave it to Butch. He shortened Butch’s chin two inches with one punch. Where’s Alden and Terry to-night?”
“Medicine Tree,” growled Marsh. “Alden came out here drunk as a fool, and I bawled him out for it. I guess he got mad. Anyway, he and Terry pulled out for town, and they’re probably both drunk by this time.”