Hoag stood silent, facing his companion. His countenance became rigid and his heavy brows fell together; there was a peculiar twitching about his nostrils. “I don't know what I said about him an' her, an' I care less.” He spoke in halting, uncertain tones. “I've got no use for 'im, an' never had.”
“Well, I thought there'd be no harm in puttin' you on yore guard.” Trawley looked at his chief as if perplexed over his mood. “He's a hot-headed devil, that will shoot at the drop of a hat.”
Hoag stood rigid. There was a fixed stare in his eyes. His lips quivered, as if on the verge of utterance, and then he looked down at the ground. Trawley eyed him in slow surprise for a moment, then he said:
“I hope, Cap, you don't think I am meddlin' in yore private business. It is not often that I tote any sort o' tale betwixt two men; but Jeff is such a rampant daredevil, an' so crazy right now, that—”
“I'm not afraid of 'im. Good God, don't think that!” Hoag was quite pale. “It was only—say, Sid, it's like this: do you think that a man like me, with all I've got at stake, one way or another, can afford to—to take even chances with a shiftless fool like Jeff Warren?”
“It ain't what you, or me, or anybody can afford to do,” the stable-owner returned, “or want to do, for that matter; when a chap like Jeff is loaded for bear an' on our trail we've either got to git ready for 'im or—or swear out a peace-warrant, an' me or you'd rather be hung than do the like o' that. As for me, in all rows I treat everybody alike. If a black buck nigger wants satisfaction out o' me he can git it—you bet he can.”
“Yes, yes, I know,” Hoag said, his eyes shifting restlessly in their deep sockets, his fingers fumbling his whip. “I was just wondering; did he—did you notice whether Warren was totin' a gun or not?”
“I think he was; that's why I mentioned the matter to you. In fact, he was inquiring if anybody had seen you—said he knowed enough law to know that if he went to yore house on such serious business that he'd be held accountable, wharas, if you an' him met on a public highway it would be all right, beca'se it was your unjustified remark ag'in' a woman that started the thing.”
Hoag stared into the face of his companion for another minute. It was as if he wanted some sort of advice and did not know how to ask for it. He shrugged his shoulders, lashed the hot air with his whip, cleared his throat, and said:
“I hope you don't think I'm afraid o' the dirty puppy, Sid?”