He was just a little sick all over, yet he gave Len Kelsey a fairly good description of the robber—as good as usually is given. A masked man of medium height. Might have been tall, or possibly short. Wore black sombrero, striped shirt, overalls and boots. No vest. The shirt might have been blue and white—or red and green. The messenger wasn’t sure. He noted particularly that the robber had a six-shooter in his right hand, and that he wore leather cuffs—black leather, with silver stars in a circle around the upper edge of the cuffs.
“Was there any money in the safe?” asked Len.
“A lot of it,” declared the messenger. “I don’t know how much. I’d like to see a doctor about my head.”
Slim Coleman, of the Lazy B, happened to be there at the depot, and he walked back with Len Kelsey.
“What do yuh think about it, Len?” he asked.
“I dunno,” lied Len.
Slim had noted the expression of Len’s face when the messenger told about the leather cuffs.
When Joe Rich had left Pinnacle City he was wearing a blue and white striped shirt, black sombrero, overalls and a pair of black leather cuffs, on which were riveted a lot of small, silver stars. Joe had done the decorating himself, and Slim knew that no other cowboy in the Tumbling River country wore a cuff like Joe’s.
Len did not seem inclined to talk about it so Slim went back to the depot, where old Doctor Curzon was bandaging up the messenger’s head. A drink of raw liquor had helped to make the messenger more sociable and willing to talk.
“You got a good look at his gun, didn’t yuh?” asked Slim.