"No use. He would go straight to Soapy with it, and his dear friend would persuade him it was just a yarn cooked up to get him to throw down the only genuwine straight-up pal he ever had." "Cullison then?" "You're getting warm. I've had that notion myself. The point is, would he be willing to wait and let Soapy play his hand out till we called?" "You would have to guarantee his boy would be safe meanwhile." "Two of us would have to watch him day and night without Sam knowing it." "Count me in." "This is where we hit heavy traveling, Slats. For we don't know when the thing is going to be pulled off." "We'll have to be ready. That's all." "Happen to know whether Dick Maloney is here for the show?" "Saw him this mo'ning. Luck is here too, him and his girl." "Good. We've got to have a talk with them, and it has to be on the q.t. You go back to town and find Dick. Tell him to meet us at the Del Mar, where Luck always puts up. Find out the number of Cullison's room and make an appointment. I'll be on El Molino street all mo'ning off and on. When you find out pass me without stopping, but tell me when we are to meet and just where." Curly gave Slats a quarter of an hour before sauntering back to town. As he was passing the Silver Dollar saloon a voice called him. Stone and Blackwell were standing in the door. Flandrau stopped. Soapy's deep-set eyes blazed at him. "You didn't tell me it was Luck Cullison went bail for you, Curly." "You didn't ask me." "So you and him are thick, are you?" "I've met him once, if that's being thick. That time I shot him up." "Funny. And then he went bail for you." "Yes." "Now I wonder why." The eyes of the man had narrowed to red slits. His head had shot forward on his shoulders as that of a snake does. Curly would have given a good deal just then for the revolver lying on the bed of his room. For it was plain trouble was in sight. The desperado had been drinking heavily and was ready to do murder. "That's easy to explain, Soapy. I shot him because I was driven to it. He's too much of a man to bear a grudge for what I couldn't help." "That's it, is it? Does that explain why he dug up good money to turn loose a horse thief?" "If I told you why, you would not understand." "Let's hear you try." "He did it because I was young, just as Sam is; and because he figured that some day Sam might need a friend, too." "You're a liar. He did it because you promised to sneak up to my ranch and spy on us. That's why he did it." With the last word his gun jumped into sight. That he was lashing himself into a fury was plain. Presently his rage would end in a tragedy. Given a chance, Curly would have run for it. But Soapy was a dead shot. Of a sudden the anger in the boy boiled up over the fear. In two jumps he covered the ground and jammed his face close to the cold rim of the blue steel barrel. "I'm not heeled. Shoot and be damned, you coward. And with my last breath I'll tell you that you're a liar."