human
Shucks, he grinned, straightening up.
gpt
It's as big as an egg, but besides th' skin bein' broke an' a lot of blood, there ain't nothin' th' matter. I'll wash it off--an' if you keep yore hat on, nobody'll know it. I reckon that hat just about saved that thick skull of yourn.
human
What did you see when you found me?
gpt
Hoped I could tell him by th' yelp, but I can't, unless, mebby, I go around an' make everybody in this part of th' country yelp for me. But I don't reckon that's hardly reasonable.
human
Yo're right, grinned Johnny.
gpt
Well, he said, after a moment's thought,
human
I don't go back home without eleven hundred dollars, U. S., an' my guns; but I got to send th' boys back. They can't help me none, bein' known as my friends. Besides, we're all broke, an' they're needed on th' ranch. If I _knowed_ that Kane had a hand in this, I'd cussed soon get that money back!
gpt
Yo're shore plumb set on that Kane idear.
human
I showed that wad of bills in just two places: Ed's bar, an' Kane's joint.
gpt
Ed's bar is out of it if nobody else was in there at th' time.
human
Only Ridley, Ed, an' myself.
gpt
Somebody could 'a' looked in th' window,
human
Nobody did, because I was lookin' around.
gpt
If you go in Kane's an' make a gunplay, you'll never know how it happened or who done it; an' if you go in, without a gunplay, an' let 'em know what you think, some Greaser'll hide a knife in you. Then you'll never get it back.
human
Just th' same, that's th' place to start from, persisted Johnny doggedly.
gpt
An' from th' inside, too.
human
That may be so, but startin' it from there means to end it there an' then. You can't buck Kane in his own place. It's been tried more'n once. I ain't shore you can buck him in this town, or part of th' country. Bigger people than you are suspected of payin' him money to let 'em alone. You'd be surprised if I named names. Look here: I better speak a little piece about this part of th' country. This county is unorganized an' ain't got no courts, nor nothin' else except a peace officer which we calls sheriff. It's big, but it ain't got many votes, an' what it has is one-third Greaser. Most Greasers don't amount to much in a stand-up fight, but their votes count. They are all for Kane. We've only had one election for sheriff, an' although Corwin is purty well known, he won easy. Kane did it, an' when anybody says 'Corwin,' they might as well say 'Kane.' He is boss of this section. His gamblin'-joint is his headquarters, an' it's guarded forty ways from th' jack. His gang is made up of all kinds, from th' near decent down to th' night killer. When Kane wants a man killed, that man don't live long. Corwin takes his orders before an' after a play like this one. Yo're expected to report it to him. Comin' down to cases, th' pack has got to be fed, an' they have got to make a killin' once in a while. Even if Kane ain't in on it direct, he'll get most of that money across his bar or tables. To wind up a long speech, you better go home with yore men, for that ain't enough money to get killed over.
gpt
Mebby not if it was mine! snapped Johnny.
human
An' I ain't shore about that, neither. An' there's more'n money in this, an' more than th' way I was handled. Somebody in this wart of a town has got Johnny Nelson's two guns--an' nobody steals _them_ an' keeps 'em! I got friends, lots of 'em, in Montanny, that would lend me th' money quick; but there ain't nobody can give me them six-guns but th' thief that's got 'em. I'm rooted--solid.
gpt
All right, said Idaho.
human
Yo're talkin' foolish, but cussed if I don't like to hear it. So me an' you are goin' to hog-tie that gang. If I get Corwin in th' ruckus, I'll be satisfied.
gpt
Yo're th' one that's talkin' foolish, retorted Johnny, fighting back his grin.
human
An I'm cussed if _I_ don't like to hear it. But there's this correction: Me an' you ain't goin' to bulldog that gang at all. _I_ am. Yo're goin' to sprawl on yore saddle an' light out for wherever you belong, an' stay there. Yo're a marked man an' wouldn't last th' swish of a longhorn's tail. Yore brand is registered--they got you in their brand books; but they ain't got mine. I'm not wearin' no brand. I ain't even ear-notched, 'though I must 'a' been a 'sleeper' when I let 'em put this walnut on my head. I'm a plain, ornery maverick. Think I'm comin' out in th' open? I don't want no brass band playin' when I go to war. I'm a Injun.
gpt
Yo're a little striped animal in this town--one of them kind that's onpleasant up-wind from a feller, snorted Idaho.
human
How can you play Injun when they know yo're hangin' 'round here lookin' for yore money? Answer me that, maverick!
gpt
I'm comin' to that. Can you get me an old hat? One that's plumb wore out?
human
Reckon so, grunted Idaho, in surprise.
gpt
Th' clerk might be able to dig one up.
human
No, not th' clerk; but Ed Doane, corrected Johnny.
gpt
Now you think hard before you answer this one: Could you see my face plain when you found me? Could _they_ have seen it plain enough to be shore it was me?
human
I'm gettin' th' drift of this Injun business, he muttered.
gpt
Mebby--mebby--cuss it, it _will_ work! I couldn't see nothin' but a bump on th' ground along that wall till I lit a match. I'll get you a hat an' I'll plant it, too.
human
Plant anythin' else you want that don't look like anythin' I own. Be shore that hat ain't like mine.
gpt
That yore outfit?