“I’ve got to take out that stage.”
“Soapy” Slade, the dealer, spoke up—
“I’d hate to own a business that can’t take care of itself long enough
to let me play a little.”
Hank, I got a fine idea right there, like I mostly always do; so I says:
“Devil Creek, I deputize you to take that stage to Manzanita. You ain’t
got nothing to do, have you?”
Well, he didn’t; so I gave him my gun and told him to go to it, ’cause
the stage is all loaded and the team is filled with hay. I made up my
mind right there, Hank, that I’d have a hundred or nothing out of that
check-rack, and I was right. I only had fourteen dollars to lose,
anyway; so I wasn’t as bad off as if I was flush.
I went down to the stage office, and pretty soon a feller comes out of
the barn and slips into the office. He’s a woolly-looking pelican, Hank.
He says to me:
“Gave my bronc a feed in the barn. Who are you?”
“I’m the owner of the hay,” says I, and he laid a dollar on the table.
“Been any strangers around here lately?” he asks, and I says no—nobody
except Devil Creek.
“Ain’t seen nothing of a gent about five feet ten inches tall,
sandy-haired, crooked nose and one squinty eye?”
“Mister,” says I, “I ain’t superstitious noways, but, if I do, I’ll sure
make it a point to kill him.”
“Good!” says he. “He needs it. That’s a description of ‘Dynamite’
Carson. He’s the _hombre_ what held up the U. P. Railroad a couple of
weeks ago and punctured the sheriff’s earthly envelope. Worth a
thousand, dead or alive, and I’d advise you to take no chances on making
him a prisoner.”
Well, Hank, he fed his bronc and then drifted away. I asked him what was
his business, and he said that detectives ain’t in the habit of coming
into a country and announcing their business.
Hank, after he’s gone, I set right down and figured out what I could do
with that thousand dollars. The description covers Devil Creek to a
gnat’s appendix. I’m still figuring when the door opens and in comes
Uncle Gabe. He looks at me foolish-like and then snorts:
“Dobie, what in —— does this mean? Where is that stage?”