Chuckwalla fingered his mustaches violently.
“That’s shore clear to me,” he said. “Yore horse and saddle? Say, Rance, where was you that night?”
“Don’t go barkin’ at shadders,” advised Rance.
“A-a-aw, damn yuh, Rance; I didn’t mean that. Can’t yuh prove where yuh was?”
“Nope. Anyway, nobody asked me—yet. Remember that Slim and his two deputies ate breakfast with us that mornin’? They’d jist found the horse and saddle.”
“Well, why didn’t they arrest yuh, Rance?”
“Because they don’t know where I cached that money.”
“Well, I’ll be damned!”
“And as long as I can’t come out and tell where it is, they’re scared to arrest me. Anyway, that’s what Jim Langley told me; and he got it from Merkle.”
Chuckwalla tugged at his mustaches, his eyes half-closed in deep meditation.