In dejected silence, the two listened to the receding tinkle of the sheriff’s spurs.
“Well, my short-complected amigo, yuh shore done us proud this day,” Tad broke the silence. “You and that hair-trigger temper uh yourn kin shore git us into more trouble than ten judges and a herd uh law sharps kin git us outa. Yuh mighta put off the show till after we’d grazed some. I’m ga’ant as a dogie in the spring follerin’ a hard winter.”
“And if I hadn’t took it up when that box-ankled shovel swinger insulted us, we’d uh bin run outa town for a coupla uh sheepherders. You was doin’ a heap uh yellin’ and so on, fer a gent that hates fightin’. It was you that busted that purty, shiny window by th’owin’ that drink mixer through it. Yuh mighta slung him out the door, jest as easy, but no, yuh had tuh go bustin’ things. That glass’ll set us back the price of ten good drunks and a reasonable fine. Got ary terbaccer tuh go with this here brown paper, Ox?”
Tad handed over a thin sack with a pinch of tobacco in the bottom.
“Gimme butts on ’er, runt. It’s the tailin’s uh the last sack uh what was once a full caddy uh smokin. Fer which yo’re still owin’ me for yore half uh the price. Say, what ails that sheriff, I wonder? He like tuh busted a ham-string when yuh joshed him about that Fox feller. Shorty, there’s somethin’ danged queer about the whole deal. Raisin’ a li’l’ ol’ ruckus in yonder saloon ain’t no penitentiary offense. The way that ol’ sheriff took on, a man’d thought we’d killed a few folks. Is them bars yonder solid?”
“Solid as rocks, Tad. Even if they was loose, we bin on short grazin’ so long that we’re too weak to pry ’em loose. If the paint hoss hadn’t got drowned crossin’ the Missouri and our beds and grub got lost, we’d uh bin to the Wyomin’ line by now.”
“And if you and that overworked temper uh yourn hadn’t broke out and run hog wild yesterday, we’d uh got a square meal and a job with that outfit we struck at noon.”
“Work fer that spread after that black-muzzled wagon-boss asked me was I expectin’ boy’s wages and could I hold down a hoss wrangler’s job! I wisht yuh had let me finish workin’ that smart Aleck over, Ox. I was jest gettin’ my second wind when yuh drug me off him.”
“Say!”
“Huh?” Shorty, startled by the vehemence of his partner’s exclamation, turned from his inspection of the bars across the one window. “What bit yuh?”