“Don’tcha understand, Blaze? Why, half of this danged valley is mortgaged to the bank, and Kendall Marsh will close ’em out just as sure as fate.”
Blaze nodded slowly. He had already heard this from Marsh’s own lips; so it was not news to him.
“How do the folks feel about it?”
“What can they do?” countered Bad News. “Jim Kelton says he’ll stick until they’re cuttin’ ice in Death Valley; but that’s bluff. Old Jim has had plenty hard luck. Right now, if he sold every danged head of stock he owns, he’d jist about pay his mortgage. But he says he’ll do it, rather than to let Kendall Marsh get control of the Red Horse Pass.”
“He’s a fighter,” said Blaze thoughtfully.
“Shore he is. But it takes money to fight money, Blaze. I seen Jane and Harry the other day in Broad Arrow. They came in on the train from the west, but I dunno where they’ve been. The old man ain’t very well. Rheumatism, I reckon. Old Joe Brown and his gang at the Bar Anchor are all fine. I seen Sam Hawker the other day. He said the O Bar B was as good as even a horse doctor could expect. I reckon that’s all the news, except Jules Mendoza, and I see yo’re ridin’ one of his painted hawses.”
“I’m stayin’ out at his place,” smiled Blaze. “He’s my friend.”
“He’s all right,” nodded Bad News. “White Injun, Blaze. Lotsa folk don’t like him, but he’s no quitter on a friend. How’s Tony Gibbs and Mex Skinner?”
“Same as ever.”
“Uh-huh. Say! Buck Gillis will be glad to see yuh, Blaze. He speaks about yuh real often. Says you was the best prisoner he ever had.”