"Huh!" said the Swede, "huh! Don't owe 'im nothin'."
The cowboy addressed the Swede. "Stranger, I don't see how you come to
be so gay around here."
Old Scully was instantly alert. "Stop!" he shouted, holding his hand
forth, fingers upward. "Bill, you shut up!"
The cowboy spat carelessly into the sawdust box. "I didn't say a word,
did I?" he asked.
"Mr. Scully," called the Swede, "how much do I owe you?" It was seen
that he was attired for departure, and that he had his valise in his
hand.
"You don't owe me nothin'," repeated Scully in his same imperturbable
way.
"Huh!" said the Swede. "I guess you're right. I guess if it was any
way at all, you'd owe me somethin'. That's what I guess." He turned to
the cowboy. "'Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!'" he mimicked, and then
guffawed victoriously. "'Kill him!'" He was convulsed with ironical
humor.
But he might have been jeering the dead. The three men were immovable
and silent, staring with glassy eyes at the stove.
The Swede opened the door and passed into the storm, giving one
derisive glance backward at the still group.
As soon as the door was closed, Scully and the cowboy leaped to their
feet and began to curse. They trampled to and fro, waving their arms
and smashing into the air with their fists. "Oh, but that was a hard
minute!" wailed Scully. "That was a hard minute! Him there leerin' and
scoffin'! One bang at his nose was worth forty dollars to me that
minute! How did you stand it, Bill?"
"How did I stand it?" cried the cowboy in a quivering voice. "How did
I stand it? Oh!"
The old man burst into sudden brogue. "I'd loike to take that Swade,"
he wailed, "and hould 'im down on a shtone flure and bate 'im to a
jelly wid a shtick!"
The cowboy groaned in sympathy. "I'd like to git him by the neck and
ha-ammer him "--he brought his hand down on a chair with a noise like
a pistol-shot--"hammer that there Dutchman until he couldn't tell
himself from a dead coyote!"
"I'd bate 'im until he--"
"I'd show _him_ some things--"
And then together they raised a yearning, fanatic cry--"Oh-o-oh! if we
only could--"
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
"And then I'd--"
"O-o-oh!"