“That’s funny. He started for town yesterday. I’ve been all over this darned place and I can’t find him and nobody has seen him.”
Kelsey did not show much interest, so Curt snorted and walked away. He was a little worried about Slim. Honey Bee and the two girls drove into town and left their rig at the livery-stable. Uncle Hozie and Aunt Emma were in town, and the old lady immediately took charge of the girls, much to Honey’s relief, because he didn’t know what to do with them.
The Heavenly Triplets were in town but were keeping strictly sober. One reason was that they were not only broke but badly in debt. The morning train had brought the conductor, brakeman and fireman of the cattle-train to identify the dead brakeman, and to testify at the inquest.
Curt Bellew, still looking for the missing Slim, ran into Honey Bee. It seemed that everybody in town knew by this time that Slim was missing.
“Aw, he was at the HJ all night,” said Honey. “He was goin’ home, all right, Curt, but somebody bent a gun over his head. By golly, we had quite a shootin’ scrape out there! Somebody emptied a gun at Hashknife Hartley, but didn’t touch him.”
“Honey, you ain’t lyin’, are yuh?” asked Curt. There were several interested listeners.
“I shore ain’t, Curt,” declared Honey. “Slim needed a little patchin’ up, but he’s all right.”
“Where is he now?”
“I can’t tell yuh, Curt—because I don’t know m’self.”
Several questions were fired at Honey, but he had the same answer for each. In the meantime Curt went back to Kelsey’s office and asked him whether he had heard about the shooting at the HJ.