“Yuh might say we are,” agreed Chuckwalla, yanking hard on one side of his mustache. “What’r yuh absorbin’, Butch?”

“Cawn juice,” drawled Butch. “Say, Rance, I heard yuh was lookin’ for Billy DuMond.”

Old Rance shot him a sidelong glance.

“Didja?”

“Yeah.”

They drank thirstily and clattered their glasses on the bar.

“Holy hell!” snorted Chuckwalla. “Either I’m gettin’ awful neck-tender, or they’re puttin’ dynamite in the hooch. I jist laid m’self a blister from gullet to gut. Whooee-e-e!”

“That stuff is twenty year old,” declared the bartender.

“Yeah, it’s shore got all its teeth.”

“You’re gettin’ old,” declared Butch, laughing.