Part 6 (1/2)
”Pore old--er chap, don't you know! And the lady?”
”Dying out down at the Hacienda. The padre sits with her.”
”And the young chief?”
”Do you still hate him?”
”Why should I care?”
”Tell me on the dead-thieving Curly, you do care some what happens to Holy Cross? Don't you remember old Ryan inviting yo' wolves to eat up the Hacienda?”
”They had stewed Ryan for breakfast afterwards, and he sure squealed!”
”Yesterday I seen a bar keep' who belongs to Ryan go up against young Jim and rob him of a thousand dollars over a sure-thing horse race. Any day you'll see Ryan's hired robbers running the crooked faro and monte games where Balshannon is losing what's left of Holy Cross. Ryan hired the range wolves, and they went straight for his own throat, but now the town wolves are eating yo' best friends.”
”The only friends I have excep' my gang,” said Curly. ”Why don't you shoot up them town scouts, and that Ryan?”
”My gun against a hundred, Curly? No. I tried to get these crooks run out of the city, but Ryan's too strong for me. If I shoot him up I'd only get lynched by his friends.”
”Show me yo' cyards, old Chalkeye--let me see yo' play.”
”I aim to turn the range wolves loose in Grave City.”
”The range wolves is some fastidious, Chalkeye, and wants clean meat for their kill.”
”You don't want to save your friends?”
”The boss wolf leads, not me, and he wants good meat. I must point to good meat, or he ain't hungry none.”
”Ryan has lots of wealth.”
”We ate some once, and he's got monotonous.”
”How about his son, the millionaire?”
”My wolves would sh.o.r.ely enjoy a millionaire, but--shucks! We'll never get so much as a smell at him.”
”Cayn't you suggest some plan for checking Ryan?”
”I'll think that over. I cal'late to spend some weeks in Grave City.”
”Two thousand dollars dead or alive! Why, lad, you're crazy.”
”When I'm disguised you'll never know it's me.”
”Disguised? As how?”
”As a woman perhaps, or maybe as a man. I dunno yet.”