human
I've had a notion that Jake Winthrop would look in here,
gpt
He did, he confided.
human
Baxter once worked with him on the railroad, and Jake crawled up to the back of his shack at night. Baxter gave him a different hat and a jacket.
gpt
That's quite right, said the other man.
human
I figured the troopers would know what he was wearing. I drove him quite a piece toward the railroad early in the morning, and I've a notion he got off with a freight-train that was taking a crowd of boys from down East to do something farther on up the track. If he did, he must have jumped off quietly when they stopped to let the Pacific express by. Next thing, two or three troopers turned up, and I guess they heard about the train and wired up the line; but they haven't got Winthrop yet. Corporal Slaney, who sent two of them south, is in the settlement now. He's plumb sure that Jake's hanging round here waiting to make a break for the U.䒷. boundary.
gpt
What had he on when he first struck you?
human
Then, he declared,
gpt
Slaney's trailing a man with an old black plug hat and a brown duck jacket; the latter would certainly fix him, as blue's much more common. Now if he saw that man riding south at night he'd probably call off the troopers, and they'd work the trail right down to the frontier. As they wouldn't get their man, they'd no doubt give the thing up, deciding he'd already slipped across.
human
But how's he going to see him, when Jake's up the track?
gpt
It strikes me there ought to be a black plug hat and a brown duck jacket somewhere in this settlement, drawled Thorne.
human
I'll leave you to find them.