Part 25 (1/2)
”But it's easy to get enrolled,” Brill said. ”Your name's liable to show up on it any time. Seen Lang in the last few days?”
”Not in the last few months,” Carson stated. ”Nor yet in the next few years. He's no friend of mine.”
”I sort of remember you used to be right comradely,” Brill remarked.
”That's before I really knowed Lang intimate,” Carson said. ”He didn't strike me as such a bad sort at first; but now he's going too strong.
Folks are getting plum down on him.”
”What you mean is that folks who used to be friendly are growing spooky about getting their own names on that list,” Brill said. ”That's what has opened their eyes.”
”Maybe so,” the thirsty man confessed. ”But anyway, I'm through.”
”They're all through!” Brill said. ”A hundred others just like you, scattered here and there. It's come to them recent just what a bad lot Lang is. It's h.e.l.l what a whisper can do.”
”It is when that whisper is backed by a thousand-dollar reward,” Carson agreed. ”If he really pays up it'll wreck Lang's little snap for sure.”
Brill dabbed his cloth at an imaginary spot on the polished slab and nodded without comment.
”I reckon he launched that scheme because Slade put a price on him first,” Carson said.
”I didn't know Slade was into this,” Brill stated softly. ”There's no proof of that. Not a shred.”
”No more than there's any proof that Harris is behind these rewards,”
Carson said. ”But you know that Slade is out to wreck the Three Bar since they've planted squatters there.”
The storekeeper failed to respond.
”There's likely a dozen men looking for Harris right now,” Carson prophesied.
”But it's hard for one of 'em to get within ten miles of the ranch,”
Brill observed. ”So while they're maybe looking for him it's right difficult to see him that far off.”
”I don't mind admitting that I'm for Harris--as against Slade,” Carson said.
”Just between us two I don't mind confessing that I'm neutral--as against everything else,” Brill returned.
”Now you know how I'm lined up. Do I get that quart?” Carson urged.
”I knew how you was lined up months back.” Brill turned on a dry smile.
”I ain't told a soul till right now,” Carson objected. ”So how could you know?”
”You didn't need to tell. As soon as that rumor leaked out it was a cinch where you'd stand. And a hundred others are crowding on to the same foothold along with you.”
”And why not?” Carson demanded. ”Who wants to get a thousand plastered on his scalp? It would tempt a man's best friends.”
”Or scare 'em off,” the storekeeper commented. ”Which is all the same in the end.”
A half dozen men clattered up in front and surged through the door.
More arrivals followed as the regular afternoon crowd gathered before the bar. There were many jobless hands drifting from one ranch to the next, ”grublining” on each brand for a week or more at a time during the slack winter months.