“Well.” Mrs. Parker thought it over carefully. “Well, I don’t think that it’s so bad. Rance took care of you and gave you an education. You’ve got to give him credit for that.”
“Oh, I do give him credit. But I’ll pay him back for all that.”
“If I know anything about Rance McCoy, he ain’t looking for pay. And it’ll take you a mighty long time to ever earn enough to pay him back.”
The next day was payday on some of the ranches, and, being Saturday, nearly all the cattlemen came to town. The Red Arrow Saloon was crowded with chap-clad gentry all day. Some of the boys would drop in at the Eagle, buy a round of drinks and go out, none of them offering to buck the games.
Jim Langley came in from the JML, bringing Jess Fohl and “Roper” Briggs, two of his cowboys. Langley was a well-built, dark-faced man, whose hair was sprinkled with gray. He was not a mixer, and seldom came to town. Chuck Ring swore that Langley had a “past.”
“Don’t talk much,” observed Chuck wisely. “Does a lot of thinkin’. And he packs his gun too handy for a feller that’s easy in the mind.”
But there was nothing reticent about Fohl and Briggs. They were a tough pair, and they wanted it understood. Both were less than thirty years of age. Fohl was bow-legged, his head typically Prussian. Briggs was wry-necked, had little chin, and a pair of tiny blue eyes, which were so round that it gave one the feeling that here was a piece of human taxidermy in which the workman had inserted bird-eyes in a human head.
These three men had a drink at the Eagle, sized up the place curiously, and went over to the Red Arrow to find out the why-for of the boycott on the Eagle. And they found out. Several of the boys were just drunk enough to speak plain about Angel McCoy. Billy DuMond was there, drinking plenty, but keeping an eye on the front door and keeping his gun handy.
The lamps were already lighted when Langley and his two men came to the Red Arrow. The games were crowded.
“Well, is it true that Angel crooked the old man out of twenty-five hundred?” queried Langley, talking to those at the bar.