human
It's all right, strangers. You've nothing to fear from me. I'll be dead in ten minutes.
gpt
Who killed you?
human
Was it the two ornery scrubs we're after?
gpt
I've put the last shot in myself. If you'd been half an hour earlier I might have had a chance.
human
What's the matter? What's happened? Tom, give him a drink out of the flask.
gpt
No, give me water, said the man.
human
I emptied my canteen this morning.
gpt
Two days ago I had a fight with two men, and I've been lying here ever since. They did me up, so that I knew I'd got to die if no help came. And I knew that was just about as likely as a snowstorm, but I couldn't help bankin' on the possibility. So I laid here two days and threw rocks at the coyote that came and sat on that heap of stones and waited for me to die. This morning I drank the last of the water and I said to myself that if nobody came by the time the sun was straight above that peak yonder I'd put a bullet into my heart. I had two left, and I used one on the coyote that had been a-settin' on that rock watchin' me the whole morning. I was bound he shouldn't pick my bones, he'd been so sassy and so sure about it. You'll find his carcass down the canyon a ways. That tired my arm and I waited and rested a spell before I tried it on myself. But I was weaker than I thought and I couldn't hold the gun steady, and the bullet didn't go where I meant it to. But I'm bleedin' to death.
human
The two men--what became of them? I reckon they're the ones we're lookin' for!
gpt
Are you? Well, I guess you'll find 'em scattered down the canyon, or else up there, and he pointed to the mountain side above.
human
They couldn't get very far.
gpt
Did you kill 'em? asked Tom anxiously.
human
You've spoiled a job we've come here for if you did.
gpt
I reckon I did, he replied complacently.
human
Anyway, I hope so.
gpt
What was the matter? Did they do you up?
human
Well, I'll tell you about the whole business. My name's Bill Frank, and I've been here in the mountains since--well, a long time, huntin' for the lost Dick Winter's mine. I found it, too. It was right in here behind me, but he'd worked it clean out. I reckon it was nothin' but a pocket, but a mighty big, rich one, and then the vein had pinched. So then I went to work and hunted for the gold he'd taken out. I found it all, or all he told me about. You see, I knew Dick. I was with him when he died, and he told me what he'd got. There was a Dutch oven and a pail and a coffee pot, all full of lumps, and two tomato cans full of little ones, and a whisky flask full of dust, and a gunny sack full of ore that was just lousy with gold. Much good it will do me now, or them other fellows, either, damn their souls! Well, I'd hid the coffee pot and the pail and the Dutch oven and the whisky flask and one tomato can down by the spring, where I had my camp. I knew pretty well where the rest of it was, after I'd found that much, and I came up here two days ago, in the morning, and looked around till I found the gunny sack. I brought it here and threw it inside this place, which poor Dick Winters had blasted out, never dreamin' of such a thing as that anybody would show up. Then I went away again to find the other tomato can, and when I came back two men were here packin' out my sack of ore.
gpt
What did they look like?
human
One was tall and thin and youngish like, with a bad look, and the other was short and stout and a good deal older, and he had a red, round face.
gpt
The damned, ornery scrubs! They're the ones we're after, Tom exclaimed, jumping up.
human
You didn't kill 'em, stranger?
gpt
I guess I did. I sure reckon you'll find 'em scattered promiscuous down the canyon. I drew my gun and told 'em to drop it, that it was mine. They began to shoot, and so did I, and I backed 'em out, and made 'em drop the sack, and started 'em on the run. They couldn't shoot as well as I could, and I know I hit one of 'em in the head and the other one mighty near the heart. I poked my head out for a last blaze at 'em, to make sure of my work, and the short one, he let drive at me and took me in the lung, and that's the one that did me up. But they'd broken one leg before.
human
Can't you-all pull through if we tote you out of here?
gpt
No; I'm done for. You can't do nothin' for me. Then he turned to Tom.
human
Pardner, I did you a bad trick when I saw you before, though I had to do it. And when I told you good-bye I said I hoped that if I ever saw you again I could treat you whiter than I did that time. Well, I've got the chance now. That tomato can and that gunny sack are over there behind your pardner, and you and him can have 'em. The other tomato can and the whisky flask and the coffee pot and the pail and the Dutch oven are under some big rocks behind a boulder south from the spring, if them two thieves didn't carry 'em away, and you and your pardner can have it all. The trail takes you to the spring.
gpt
Hold on, pard! Ain't you-all got some folks somewhere who ought to have this? Tell us where they are and we'll see that they get it.
human
There ain't anybody who'd care whether I'm dead or alive, except to get that gold, and I'd rather you'd have it. You're white, anyway, and you've treated me white, both of you, and I've always been sorry I had to play Thomson Tuttle here that mean trick, because he was a gentleman about it, and sand clean through.
gpt
Stranger, he said,
human
I held you up, and held a gun on you-all one night, last spring, up near the White Sands.
gpt
Oh, that time! Tom exclaimed.
human
That was all right. I reckoned you-all had good reason for it.
gpt
Yes, he whispered,
human
Did you have Will Whittaker's body? Who killed him? Tom, the whisky, quick! We must keep him alive till he can tell!