"You want to be careful what you say, Mr. Elliot. It will be used against you." Gopher shot a squirt of tobacco unerringly at the open door of the stove. "You was seen talking with Trelawney and Northrup. Money passed from you to them."
"I gave them a loan of ten dollars each because they were broke. Is that criminal?" demanded Gordon angrily.
"That's your story. You'll git a chance to tell it to the jury, I shouldn't wonder. Mebbe they'll believe it. You never can tell."
"Believe it! Why, you muttonhead, I found him where he was bleeding to death and brought him in."
"That's what I heard say. Kinder queer, ain't it, you happened to be the man that found him?"
"Nothing queer about it. I was riding in from Seven-Mile Creek Camp." Gordon was exasperated, but not at all alarmed.
"So you was. While you was out at the camp, you asked one of the boys how big the pay-roll would be."
"Does that prove I was planning a hold-up? Isn't that the last thing I would have asked if I had intended robbery?"
"Don't ask me. I ain't no psychologist. All I know is you took an interest in the bank-roll on the way."
"I'm here for the Government investigating Macdonald. I was getting information—earning my pay. Can you understand that?"