The other ignored his comment. “And after that, it ain’t likely you’ll do much more eating.”
“I don’t quite get the point of that joke.”
“You’ll get it soon enough! You’d savez it now, if you weren’t a muttonhead. As it is, I’ll have to explain it. Do you remember capturing Tony Chaves two years ago, lieutenant?”
The ranger nodded, with surprise in his round, innocent eyes. 239
“What happened to him?” demanded the other. A child could have seen that he was ridden by a leering, savage triumph.
“Killed trying to escape four days later.”
“Who killed him?”
“I did. It was necessary. I regretted it.”
A sudden spasm of cruelty swept over the face of the man confronting him. “Tony was my partner.”
“Your partner?”