Hopalong Cassidy Sees Red

Bill grinned sheepishly. 'Mebby—but for a little while I couldn't see it that way. Have one with me, after which I'm goin' up an' skin that SV man before you can get a crack at him. He's fair lopsided with money. If I can't play poker in Kane's, I shore can send a lot of folks to his place with nothin' left but their pants an' socks!'

'Don't overdo it,' warned Fisher. 'Come on—I'm headin' back an' I'll leave you at Quayle's.'

'How'd you ever come to let that yearlin'-mad foreman keep away from yore game?' asked Bill as they started up the street. 'Strikes me you shore overlooked somethin'.'

'Does look like it, from a distance,' admitted Fisher, grinning. 'Reckon we was goin' too easy with him; but we didn't know you was goin' to turn up an' horn in. We never like to stampede a good prospect by bein' hasty. We felt him out a little an' I was figgerin' on amusin' him right soon. There's somethin' cussed queer about him. We're all guessin', an' guessin' different.'

'Yes?' inquired Bill carelessly. 'I didn't notice nothin' queer about him. He acts a little too shore of hisself, which is how I like 'em. You ain't got a chance to get him now, for I'm goin' to set on his fool head an' burn a nice, big BL on his flank. So any little thing that you know shore will come in handy. I'd do th' same for you. I'm through spoilin' yore game in Kane's, an' I didn't take yore job. What's so queer about him?'

Fisher glanced at his companion and shook his head. 'It ain't nothin' about cards. He figgered in a mistake that was made, an' don't know how lucky he was. Th' boss don't often slip up—an' there's a white man an' some Mexicans in this town that are cussed lucky too. They blundered, but they got what they went after. An' nobody's heard a word about th' gent that was unlucky, which makes me suspicious. I got a headache tryin' to figger it.' He shook his head again and then exclaimed in sudden anger: 'An' I've quit tryin'! Kane was all set to throw me into th' discard as soon as you come along. He can think what he wants to, for all I care. But let me tell you this: If you win a big roll in this town, an' th' one you got now is plenty big enough, be careful how you wander around after dark. I reckon I owe you that much, anyhow.'

Bill stopped in front of the hotel. 'I don't know what yo're talkin' about, but that don't make no difference. Th' last part was plain. Come in an' have somethin'.'

Fisher looked at him and smiled. 'Friend, I'd just as soon be seen goin' in there now as I would be seen rustlin' a herd; an' it might even be worse for me. Let it go till you come up to our place. Adios.'

CHAPTER VIII

NOTES COMPARED

ENTERING the barroom of the hotel Bill bought a cigar, talked aimlessly for a few minutes with Ed Doane and then wandered into the office, where Johnny was seated in a chair tipped back against the wall and talking to the proprietor. Bill nodded, took a seat and let himself into the conversation by easy stages, until Quayle was talking to him as much as he was to Johnny, and the burden of his words was Ridley's death.

Bill spat in disgust. 'That ain't th' way to get a man!' he exclaimed. 'Looks like some Mexican had a grudge agin' him—somebody he's mebby fired off his payroll, or suspected of cattle-liftin'.'

'You're a stranger here,' replied the proprietor. 'I can tell ut aisy.'

'I am, an' glad of it,' replied Bill, smiling; 'but I'm learnin' th' ways of yore town rapid. I already know Fisher's poker game, Thorpe's nature, an' Pecos Kane's looks an' disposition. I cleaned Fisher at poker, Thorpe has threatened to make me climb up a wall, an' Kane told me, cold an' personal, to quit playin' poker in his place. I also learned that a white man an' some Mexicans made a big mistake, but got what they went after; that Fisher figgers different from Kane an' th' others; an' that Kane won't slip up th' next time, after dark, 'specially if he don't use th' same fellers. All that I heard; but what it's about I don't know, or care.'

Johnny was laughing at the humor of the newcomer, and waved from Bill to Quayle. 'Tim, this is Bill Long, that we heard about, for I saw him clean out Fisher. Long, this is Quayle, an' my name's Nelson. Cuss it, man! I'd say you was gettin' acquainted fast. What was that you was sayin' about th' white man an' th' Mexicans, an' some mistake? It was sort of riled up.'

'It is riled up,' chuckled Bill, crossing his legs. 'I gave it out just like I got it. As I says to Fisher last night, I'm a imitator. Any news about th' robbery?'

Quayle snorted. 'Fine chance! An' d'ye think they'd be after tellin' on thimselves? That's th' only way for any news to be heard.'

'I may be a stranger,' replied Bill; 'but I'm no stranger to human nature, which is about th' same in one place as it is in another. If that reward don't pan out some news, then I'm loco.'

Quayle listened to a call from the kitchen. 'It's th' only chance, then,' he flung over his shoulder as he left them. 'It's that darned Mick. I'll be back soon.'

Johnny, with a glance at the barroom door, leaned slightly forward and whispered one word, his eyes moist: 'Hoppy!'

Bill Long squirmed and grinned. 'You flat-headed sage-hen!' he breathed. 'I want to see you in secret.'

Johnny nodded. 'I reckon th' reward might start somethin' out in th' open, but I wouldn't want to be th' man that tried for it.' His voice dropped to a whisper. 'We'll take a ride this afternoon from Kane's, plain an' open.' In his natural voice he continued. 'But, Twitchell an' Carpenter are shore powerful. An' they've got th' men an' th' money.'

'Do you reckon anybody had a personal grudge?' asked Bill. 'I'll fix it.'

'I'm near as much a stranger here as you are,' answered Johnny, 'though I sold Ridley some cattle. I met him before, on th' range around Gunsight. Nice feller, he was. What time?'

'He must 'a' been a good man, to work for th' T & C,' replied Bill. 'After dinner.'

'He was.'

'Oh, well; it ain't my funeral. Feel like a little game?'

'I used to think I could play poker,' chuckled Johnny; 'but I woke up last night. Seein' as how I still got them yearlin's to buy, I don't feel like playin'.'

Quayle's voice boomed out suddenly from the kitchen. 'If yer fingers was feet ye'd be as good! Hould it, now—if ut slips this time I'll be after bustin' yer head. I've showed ye a dozen times how to put it back, an' still ye yell fer me. There, now— hould it! Hand me th' wire—annybody'd think—blast th' blasted man that made ut! Some Dootchman, I'll wager.'

'Shure an' we ought to get a new wan—it's warped crooked, an' cracked—'

'We should, should we?' roared the proprietor. 'An' who are 'we'? Only tin years old, an' it's a new wan we'd be gettin', is ut? What we ought to be gettin' is a new cook, an' wan that's not cracked. Now, th' nixt time ye poke ut, poke gintly—ye ain't makin' post holes with that poker. An' now look at me—'A door slammed and a washbasin sounded like tin.

Ed Doane's laugh sounded from the barroom and he appeared in the doorway, where he grinned. 'I hear it; frequent, but it's allus funny. Sometimes they near come to blows.'

'Stove?' queried Bill.

'Shore—th' grate's buckled out of shape, an' it's a little short. Murphy gets mad at th' fire an' prods it good— an' then th' show starts all over again. It's funnier than th' devil when th' old man gets a blister from it, for he talks so that nobody but Murphy can understand one word in ten. Easy! Here he comes.'

'Buy a new wan, is ut?' muttered the proprietor, his red face bearing a diagonal streak of soot. 'Shure—for him to spile, like he spiled this wan. Ah, byes, I'm tellin' ye th' hotel business ain't what it used to be.'

'Yore face looks funny,' said Ed.

Quayle turned on him. 'Oh, it does, does ut? Well, if my face don't suit ye—now would ye look at that?' he demanded as he caught sight of his reflection in the dingy mirror over the desk. 'But it ain't so bad, at that; th' black's above th' red!'

'Hey, Tim!' came from the kitchen. 'Thought ye said ye fixed ut? Ut's down agin!'

'I—I—I!' sputtered Quayle wildly. He spread the soot over his face with a despairing sweep of his sleeve,