"Is he enough? I can spare another--two if I got to."
"Well, yuh see, I was countin' on borrowin' Johnny Ramsay from Jack Richie, an' there's Chuck Morgan o' the Bar S. I guess I can get him."
"Get him, an' I'll give him a job after it's all over. Wish I could get Johnny Ramsay, too, but he'd never quit Richie. Well, yuh shore done noble in findin' out that truck about Pete O'Leary."
"Yuh've got to thank Miss Saltoun for that. She done it all."
"Her! Old Salt's daughter! Say, I take it all back. She can come out here whenever she wants. I'll be proud to shake her hand, I will. Well, I did hope it'd be Dorothy, but now I suppose it's Miss Saltoun. Dunno's I blame yuh. Dunno's I blame yuh."
"As usual, yo're a-barkin' up the wrong stump. I'm gun-shy of all women, an' I don't want to talk about 'em."
"Oh, all right, all right," said Scotty, hastily. "How soon can yuh start?"
"Take Brown Jug. He'll tote yuh from hell to breakfast an' never feel it. Yuh'll find the outfit som'ers over north o' Miner Mountain, I guess. Tell Telescope I want him to go with yuh, an' the rest of 'em are to come home on the jump. Doubleday an' Swing have got their hands full twenty times over. First thing I know there won't be a cayuse left on the ranch."
Two days later Loudon and Laguerre rode into Rocket and spent the night at the hotel. The landlord, Dave Sinclair, had an interesting tale to tell.
"Yest'day," said Dave, "Lanky Bob finds Jim Hallaway's body in a gully near the Bend trail. Jim had been shot in the back, an' he'd been dead quite a while. Jim an' his brother Tom have a little ranch near the Twin Peaks, an' Tom hadn't missed him none 'cause Jim, when he left the ranch, expected to be gone a month.
"Come to find out, Jim had been ridin' a bald-face pinto. Accordin' to Tom's description that pinto was the livin' image of the one that friend o' Block's was ridin' the day they come into my place a-lookin' for information. The sheriff's got a warrant out for that Cutting gent."
"Hope he gets him," said Loudon; "but he won't. He's got too big a start. I'd shore admire to know what he done with my hoss."
"You hoss brak hees laig," stated Laguerre. "Sartain shore dat what happen."
"I guess yo're right," glumly agreed Loudon. "He wouldn't change Ranger for no bald-face pinto less'n the chestnut was out o' whack for keeps."