“You better go home and think it over, Chuckwalla.”
“Mebby I better. Say, they’ll take care of him, won’t they?”
“Fine.”
“Uh-huh. But I’m goin’ to git him out, jist the same.”
Chuckwalla managed to mount his horse, and Hashknife gave him the lead-rope to Rance’s mount, explaining that there was no use of keeping the horse in town.
“You tell that Slim Caldwell that I’m comin’ back,” said Chuckwalla. “I’m a man of m’ word, by God.”
Jim Langley and his two men were at the office when Hashknife returned, and there was considerable speculation over what Chuckwalla Ike might do.
“He’s a tough old rooster,” laughed Langley. “Yuh never can tell about his kind.”
“He won’t do anythin’,” declared Slim. “And old Rance won’t never tell anything. Yuh may convict him, Merkle, but you’ll never find that money. It’s a big mistake, arrestin’ him, anyway.”
“That may be; but I’ll take the chance. What else can I do?”