Neither Merrick nor Collins said anything until they were well out of earshot, when Collins glanced back and said:
“Don’t fool with that jigger, Ed. Holee ⸺, didja see his eyes? Didja? My ⸺, it went to forty below right then!”
Merrick nodded grimly.
“I guess that detective wasn’t far off when he said that Hartley wasn’t all smiles.”
Hashknife leaned against the gate-post and watched them fade away in the dust. His eyes were normal now—lazy gray eyes which looked out across the hills, but did not see them; and there was a smile on his wide mouth. Laura was calling him from the veranda and he turned slowly to go back.
It was supper time when Honey and Sleepy came back to the HJ and they brought Slim Coleman with them. They had met Slim near the west end of the bridge, and he rode over with them to have some supper before going back to the Lazy B.
Slim was almost the counterpart of Hashknife physically, being rather a high-pocket sort of individual. The girls welcomed Slim, for he was as one of the family—an old-timer in the Tumbling River and a bunkie of Honey Bee’s when Honey was at the Lazy B.
“It’s shore tough, this here offerin’ of a reward, dead or alive, for Joe Rich,” said Slim, who did not have a particle of diplomacy in his system.
Peggy gasped and fled from the room, while Honey proceeded to upbraid Slim for making such a foolish remark before Peggy.
“Well, how’d I know?” wailed Slim. “Nobody told me she was still feelin’ right toward Joe.”