"Ought to. Johnny an' me've been friends for years."
"Know Jack Richie?"
"Know him 'most as well as I do Johnny. An' I know Cap'n Burr, too. Didn't yuh see me there at his house?"
"The Cap'n knows lots o' folks, an' it ain't hard to scrape acquaintance with a couple o' soft-hearted women."
"I brought up a letter from Cap'n Burr to his wife. You ask her."
"Oh, shore. Yuh might 'a' carried a letter an' still be what I take yuh for.'"
"Now we're back where we started. What do yuh take me for?"
Mackenzie made no reply. Again there fell between the two men that spirit-breaking silence. It endured a full five minutes, to be broken finally by Mackenzie.
"Git aboard yore hoss," said the ranch-owner. "An' don't go after no gun."
"I'd rather draw what's comin' to me on the ground," objected Loudon. "It ain't so far to fall."