“Thank you, Slim,” said Lila, trying to smile. “It was something that couldn’t be avoided. We’ll all live through it. It was hard to believe, at first, but now it doesn’t matter so much.”
“That’s a good way to look at it,” said Slim. “You know how I feel about it. If I had a school in my pocket, it’d be yours, Lila.”
“And I appreciate it, Slim. Please don’t tell Rance McCoy about it. He has troubles enough of his own now.”
“I won’t tell him, Lila. Be good, folks.”
It was nearly dark when Slim opened the gate. A man was coming toward him, and he looked up to see Angel McCoy, evidently coming to the Parker home. Neither of them spoke. Angel reached for the latch of the gate, but Slim swayed in front of him. And without any preliminary motions of any kind, Slim smashed Angel square on the point of the chin with his right fist.
It was a knock-out punch, perfectly timed and executed. Angel simply folded up and went sprawling in the dust. Slim looked at him for several moments, turned and went on toward his office, trying to rub some feeling back into his right knuckles.
Angel was “out” for more than a minute. He finally got to his feet, braced himself against the fence, and waited for his mind to clear. He had intended having a talk with Lila, but just now his jaw was half-paralyzed and there was a chunk of skin missing from his closely shaven chin. As soon as his legs would permit of safe locomotion, he went back toward the main street.
It was about nine o’clock when Chuckwalla Ike came back to Red Arrow. He was cold sober and wanted to see Rance McCoy, but Scotty McKay, alone in the office, refused his request.
“I have an or-rder to let no one see him,” said Scotty. “Ye might come tomorrow, Chuckwalla.”
“Yeah, I might,” agreed Chuckwalla, and went away. He had a drink at the Red Arrow, and it was there that he learned that Lila had been asked to resign as teacher of the Red Arrow school.