Gunsight Pass: How Oil Came to the Cattle Country and Brought a New WestRaine, William MacLeod
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Gunsight Pass: How Oil Came to the Cattle Country and Brought a New West
Raine, William MacLeod
Petroleum industry and trade -- Fiction; Western stories
"Oh, I dunno. They act like they're sore as a boil at each other. Honest,
I thought they was goin' to mix it yesterday. I breezed up wit' a bottle
an' they kinda cooled off."
"Doble drunk?"
"Nope. Fact is, they'd trimmed a Greeley boob and was rowin' about the
split. Miller he claimed Doble held out on him. I'll bet he did too."
Dave did not care how much they quarreled or how soon they parted after
he had got back his horse. Until that time he preferred that they would
give him only one trail to follow instead of two.
The cowpuncher made it his business to loaf on Larimer Street for the
rest of the day. His beat was between Fifteenth and Sixteenth Streets,
usually on the other side of the road from the Klondike Saloon.
About four o'clock his patience was rewarded. Miller came rolling along
in a sort of sailor fashion characteristic of him. Dave had just time to
dive into a pawnbroker's shop unnoticed.
A black-haired, black-eyed salesman came forward to wait on him. The
puncher cast an eye helplessly about him. It fell on a suitcase.
"How much?" he asked.
"Seven dollars. Dirt sheap, my frient."
"Got any telescope grips?"
The salesman produced one. Dave bought it because he did not know how to
escape without.
He carried it with him while he lounged up and down the sidewalk waiting
for Miller to come out of the Klondike. When the fat gambler reappeared,
the range-rider fell in behind him unobserved and followed uptown past
the Tabor Opera House as far as California Street. Here they swung to the
left to Fourteenth, where Miller disappeared into a rooming-house.
The amateur detective turned back toward the business section. On the way
he dropped guiltily the telescope grip into a delivery wagon standing in
front of a grocery. He had no use for it, and he had already come to feel
it a white elephant on his hands.
With the aid of a city directory Dave located the livery stables within
walking distance of the house where Miller was staying. Inspired perhaps
by the nickel detective stories he had read, the cowboy bought a pair of
blue goggles and a "store" collar. In this last, substituted for the
handkerchief he usually wore loosely round his throat, the sleuth nearly
strangled himself for lack of air. His inquiries at such stables as he
found brought no satisfaction. Neither Miller nor the pinto had been seen
at any of them.
Later in the evening he met Henry B. West at the St. James Hotel.
"How's that business of yore's gettin' along, boy?" asked the cattleman
with a smile.
"Don' know yet. Say, Mr. West, if I find a hawss that's been stole from
me, how can I get it back?"
"Some one steal a hawss from you?"
Dave told his story. West listened to a finish.
"I know a lawyer here. We'll ask him what to do," the ranchman said.
They found the lawyer at the Athletic Club. West stated the case.
"Your remedy is to replevin. If they fight, you'll have to bring
witnesses to prove ownership."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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