CHAPTER XXXIX
BEAR CAT AWAKE
At exactly eleven o’clock Houck, Bandy Walker, and the big young cowpuncher who had ridden into town with them met at the corner of one of the freight wagons. Houck talked, the others listened, except for a comment or two. A cattleman passing them on his way to the bank recalled afterward that the low voice of the Brown’s Park man was deadly serious.
The two big men walked into the bank. Bandy stayed with the horses. In the building, not counting the cashier and his assistant, were two or three patrons of the institution. One was Sturgis, a round little man who had recently started a drug-store in Bear Cat. He was talking to the assistant cashier. The cattleman was arranging with Ferril for a loan.
The attention of the cattleman drifted from the business in hand. “Carryin’ a good deal of hardware, ain’t they, Gus?”
Ferril smiled. “Most of the boys are quittin’ that foolishness, but some of ’em can’t get it out of their heads that they look big when they’re gun-toters. Kind of a kid business, looks to me.”
The eyes of the cattleman rested on Houck. “I wouldn’t call that big black fellow a kid. Who is he?”
“Don’t know. Reckon we’re due to find out. He’s breakin’ away from the other fellow and movin’ this way.”