After having each tipped the bottle, Tusk announced: "I'm buhned out!" "You are?" Tom's voice held a note of alarm. "When?" "A week ago today." "How'd it happen?" "You know that feller over to Cunnel's?" "Reckon I do! Was it him?" Tusk nodded. Tom remained deep in thought, wondering how he might proceed without Nancy's knowledge. "He'll pay for it, all right," he said, at last. "He's been owin' me a little sum for a spell, an' we'll ask him to come across for two!" "Aw, hell," Tusk turned with an air of disgust, "that ain't him. This here'n ain't got no money what I'm talkin' 'bout. I don't mean the railroad feller!" "That's so; I did hear tell as how another feller was over there!" "Well, I'd sort of reckon," Tusk growled. "An' what's moh, he's a Dawson! There ain't no love lost 'tween me an' you an' the Dawsons, Tom!" "Shucks, Tusk, that ole thing's been fixed up way back at home," Hewlet evasively replied. "It ain't fixed up when he comes down heah an' buhns me out, I reckon!" "Naw, I reckon not," the other had to admit. "What you goin' to do?" "What you reckon I'm goin' to do?" Tusk growled. "Look-ee-heah," Tom exclaimed, having a sudden inspiration. "You help me on somethin' fu'st, an' then we'll have money to git moh guns, if yoh're a mind to start somethin'!" "How you mean?" Tusk cautiously asked. "The railroad feller owes me a hund'ed dollars--I wouldn't be s'prised if it was moh, but a hund'ed'll do to start on. Now don't ask no questions! It don't consarn nobody but him an' me. You git it for me, an' I'll help you with that Dawson bird. You know the McElroy feller, don't you?" "I've saw him hangin' 'round; but I can't go over there," Tusk grumbled. "Didn't I jest tell you Dawson buhned me out? Why don't you go?" "Tusk, a gentl'man don't like to be askin' another gentl'man to pay him back a little friendly loan. You don't know that, 'cause you ain't got real good sense, Tusk, but it's so. 'Sides that, some business dealin's has to go through a third party. That's how he done when he made Dawson buhn you out, didn't he?" "When he what?" Tusk glared. "Why, durn yoh poh haid, don't you know he wants yoh land for the railroad? Ain't he said time an' time agin he's goin' to have it; an' ain't you said you wouldn't sell? Well, then how's he goin' to git it, you tell me that?" As though a veil had been drawn from Tusk's face he saw it all in an instant, and the next few minutes he spent in a flow of lurid oaths. Tom watched him, a slow smile flickering about the corners of his mouth. Finally he said: