"Because that was the town where he throwed you down the stairs," Bull told her matter-of-factly. "It was the town where we met up with Bill Smith." "What about it?" "Nothing--only Bill Smith is here in town." "In Farewell?" "In Farewell." "Why ain't I seen him if he's in Farewell?" "Because he's shaved off all of that beard and part of his eyebrows--they used to meet plumb in the middle, remember--till a body would hardly know him. I didn't. I knowed they was somethin' familiar about him, but I couldn't tell what till you mentioned Pap and the town together. Then I knowed. Yeah, Bull, this gent's the same Bill Smith Pap picked up on the trail. He's a respectable member of society now, I guess. Calls himself Jack Harpe and spends most of his time runnin' round Lanpher." "Then he ain't too respectable, the lousy pup. Calls himself Jack Harpe, huh? Shore, he come in the Starlight with Lanpher and gimme the eye without a quiver. Didn't know me, he didn't! And I ain't done nothin' to _my_ looks to change 'em." "Huh, y' oughta seen the way he looked me up and down when he passed us on the Marysville trail. You'd 'a' thought he just seen me. Oh, he's got his nerve." "Who is _us_?" Suspiciously. "What it won't do you no good to know. I guess I can go riding with a friend if I like. You seem to keep forgettin' you ain't got any ropes on me--nary a rope. Stop botherin' yore fool head about me and my doings, and think of something worth while--for instance, Jack Harpe." "Then what?" "No wonder they call you Bull. That's all you are, beef to the heels and no more sense than a calf. Listen, Jack Harpe's respectable, ain't he? Or he aims to be, which is the same thing. Anyway, he's swelling round here like a poisoned pup and don't know us a-tall. Takin' him down a couple o' pegs wouldn't hurt him. He always was too tall. I'll bet if he was come at right he'd pay cash down on the hoof for us, me and you both, to keep our heads shut about what we know." "But we was in that, too." "But we didn't do what he done," pointed out Marie. "And you know yoreself the company don't drop the case like a ordinary sheriff does. No, I expect Jack Harpe would be worried some if he knowed we'd recognized him.... Aw, what are you scared of? Pap's dead, ain't he? How can Harpe hurt us? He never knowed how intimate we knowed Pap while he was stayin' at our house. He just thought Pap was a friend. He never knowed we got our share of the money. Nawsir, he can't hook us up with that killin' nohow, but we can hook him. Brace up to him, Bull. Maybe you can work him for a stake. They ain't no danger, I tell you." "By Gawd, I'd like to!" declared Bull and swore a string of oaths. "Then go ahead," urged Marie. "And don't forget I want in on the stake." "Ah-h, I do all the work and then have to whack up with you, huh? I will not. What I get I keep."