“He’s goin’ to own the Valley, if he keeps on.”
“And turn Medicine Tree into a sheep camp. Oh, I heard a lot of talk in Marshville. I reckon the feed is played out on them hills over there. They shore look it.”
“Turn Medicine Tree into a sheep camp,” mused Blaze. “Sometimes I don’t care—and then I do care. Funny, ain’t it. Sometimes I want to go away from here and let things go hang. Don’t the Bible say somethin’ about an eye for an eye? And then it says to love those who hate yuh.
“But what’s the difference? They see things from their angle, and I see ’em from mine. It’s all past and done, but I’d like to know who fired them other three shots besides my two and Kelton’s one.”
“Wasn’t it young Marsh who testified that you and Ben fought over a dance-hall girl?”
Blaze’s jaws snapped shut and his eyes hardened.
“Dirty little liar! He was drunk. He said that Ben told him we quarrelled over that girl before, and that I might get him. I don’t know what Ben told him, but it was a lie about that girl. I never even spoke to her. She could have proved that much, but she got scared and pulled out. That shore blocked me from any alibi in that direction, and they soaked me plenty. It wasn’t a just decision, and they knew it, but they got away with it. You knew Kendall Marsh got me out on parole, didn’t yuh?”
“No, I didn’t know it. What was his interest?”
Blaze shook his head.
“I can’t tell you what it was. In fact, I dunno why I’m tellin’ you all this stuff, Collins—unless it’s because you acted damn decent about that stolen horse. If you had been as brainless as some cowboys I know, you’d have shot or jailed me before this. I don’t know what I’d have done under the circumstances.”