"Which?" The bartender followed the proprietor's gaze, which was on a man seated at a card table, his profile toward them, playing cards with several other men. The bartender's face showed perplexity. Moulin laughed. "I forgot you ain't been here that long," he said. "That was before your time. That fellow settin' sideways to us is Texas Blanca." "What's he callin' himself 'Texas' for?" queried the bartender. "He looks more like a greaser." "Breed, I reckon," offered the proprietor. "Claims to have punched cows in Texas before he come here." "What's he allowin' to be now?" "Nobody knows. Used to own the Star--Dakota's brand. Sold out to Dakota five years ago. Country got too hot for him an' he had to pull his freight." "Rustler?" "You've said something. He's been suspected of it. But nobody's talkin' very loud about it." "Not safe?" "Not safe. He's lightning with a six. Got his nerve to come back here, though." "How's that?" "Ain't you heard about it? I thought everybody'd heard about that deal. Blanca sold Dakota the Star. Then he pulled his freight immediate. A week or so later Duncan, of the Double R, rides up to Dakota's shack with a bunch of Double R boys an' accuses Dakota of rustlin' Double R cattle. Duncan had found twenty Double R calves runnin' with the Star cattle which had been marked secret. Blanca had run his iron on them an' sold them to Dakota for Star stock. Dakota showed Duncan his bill of sale, all regular, an' of course Duncan couldn't blame him. But there was some hard words passed between Duncan an' Dakota, an' Dakota ain't allowin' they're particular friends since. "Dakota had to give up the calves, sure enough, an' he did. But sore! Dakota was sure some disturbed in his mind. He didn't show it much, bein' one of them quiet kind, but he says to me one day not long after Duncan had got the calves back: 'I've been stung, Pete,' he says, soft an' even like; 'I've been stung proper, by that damned oiler. Not that I'm carin' for the money end of it; Duncan findin' them calves with my stock has damaged my reputation.' Then he laffed--one of them little short laffs which he gets off sometimes when things don't just suit him--the way he's laffed a couple of times when someone's tried to run a cold lead proposition in on him. He fair freezes my blood when he gets it off. "Well, he says to me: 'Mebbe I'll be runnin' in with Blanca one of these days.' An' that's all he ever says about it. Likely he expected Blanca to come back. An' sure enough he has. Reckon he thinks that mebbe Dakota didn't get wise to the calf deal." "In his place," said Blacky, eyeing Blanca furtively, "I'd be makin' some inquiries. Dakota ain't no man to trifle with." "Trifle!" Moulin's voice was pregnant with awed admiration. "I reckon there ain't no one who knows Dakota's goin' to trifle with him--he's discouraged that long ago. Square, too, square as they make 'em." "The Lord knows the country needs square men," observed Blacky.