In common with most range riders Racey Dawson possessed an automatic eye to detail.  Quite without conscious effort his brain registered and filed away in the card-index of his subconscious mind the picture presented by the passing of Luke Tweezy, the impression made thereby, and the inference drawn therefrom.  The inference was almost trivial—­merely that Luke Tweezy had come from Marysville, the town where he lived and had his being.  But triviality is frequently paradoxical and always relative.  If Dundee had not raised an arm to urge his troopers on at Killiekrankie the world would know a different England.  A single thread it was that solved for Theseus the mystery of the Cretan labyrinth.

Racey Dawson did not like Luke Tweezy.  From the sparse and sandy strands of the Tweezy hair to the long and varied lines of the Tweezy business there was nothing about Mr. Tweezy that he did like.  For Luke Tweezy’s business was ready money and its possibilities.  He drove hard bargains with his neighbours and harder ones with strangers.  He bought county scrip at a liberal discount and lent his profits to the needy at the highest rate allowed by law.

Luke Tweezy’s knowledge of what was allowed by territorial law was not limited to money-lending.  He had been admitted to the bar, and no case was too small, too large, or too filthy for him to handle.

In his dislike of Luke Tweezy Racey Dawson was not solitary.  Luke Tweezy was as generally unpopular as Lanpher of the 88.  But there was a difference.  Where Lanpher’s list of acquaintances, nodding and otherwise, was necessarily confined to the Lazy River country, Luke Tweezy knew almost every man, woman, and child in the territory.  It was his business to know everybody, and Luke Tweezy was always attending to his business.

He had nodded and spoken to Racey Dawson as they two passed, and Racey had returned the greeting gravely.

“Slimy ol’ he-buzzard,” Racey Dawson observed to himself and reached for his tobacco.

But there was no tobacco.  The sack that he knew he had put in his vest pocket after breakfast had vanished.  Lack of tobacco is a serious matter.  Racey wheeled his mount and spurred to the Blue Pigeon Store.

Five minutes later, smoking a grateful cigarette, he again started to ride out of town.  As he curved his horse round a freight wagon in front of the Blue Pigeon he saw three men issue from the doorway of the Happy Heart Saloon.  Two of the men were Lanpher and the stranger.  The third was Luke Tweezy.  The latter stopped at the saloon hitching-rail to untie his horse.  “See yuh later, Luke,” the stranger flung over his shoulder to Luke Tweezy as he passed on.  He and Lanpher headed diagonally across the street toward the hotel.  It seemed odd to Racey Dawson that Luke Tweezy by no word or sign made acknowledgment of the stranger’s remark.