‘Well, that’s nice of yuh, Morgan.’
‘It’ll help me out a whole lot.’
Hashknife promised to talk it over with Nan, and they rode on. Sleepy was rather jubilant over the chance to go to work, especially if Hashknife was to have charge of the ranch. But Hashknife had little to say about it.
‘Don’t yuh think he’s a little previous about takin’ over the 6X6?’ asked Hashknife.
‘Looks thataway,’ replied Lem. ‘Still, he might as well, I suppose. Now, that he owns the Oasis, he’ll probably drink himself to death. Dave’s all right, though. He’s all excited over that 6X6.’
‘Probably was an awful blow to find the safe empty,’ grinned Sleepy.
‘Sure. Just between us, I’ll bet old Napoleon Bonaparte Briggs did clean out that safe. He just about emptied it and headed out of the country.’
‘What about his share of the 6X6?’ queried Hashknife. ‘The banker at Mesa City mentioned it to you, didn’t he?’
‘Mebby Briggs’s share was in the safe,’ chuckled Lem. ‘Briggs hated Dave Morgan, and he knew Dave would inherit the 6X6; so he just took his share out of the safe and busted up the partnership. Anyway, it’s too bad they didn’t turn that key over to me.’
They left the main road and soon came to the spot where Ben Leach had been killed. Hashknife had never had much of that incident explained to him, but Lem pointed out where Ben had fallen, according to what the others had told him, because they had moved the body before he had a chance to view it.