“Wonders’ll never cease,” grinned Hashknife.
Doc Clevis squinted at him, as if wondering if this tall cowboy was in earnest or not.
“Where does the Swede figure into this?” asked Pinch.
“We found him settin’ beside the road,” explained Skelton. “He’s too drunk to know anythin’.”
“Lemme look at that rifle,” ordered the sheriff.
Sleepy handed down the rifle, and the crowd moved in to look at it. The sheriff levered out three cartridges and slipped a white cigaret-paper into the breech.
“Been shot lately,” he announced, peering down the barrel.
“It was beside the road,” said Skelton.
“Yeah?”
The sheriff looked quizzically at Skelton. “You found the Swede beside the road, too? ’Pears to me that you found a lot of things beside the road. Was the rifle near the Swede?”