“Let go my arm!” exclaimed Judkins.  “Thet’s my bad arm.  Sure it was Oldrin’.  What the hell’s wrong with you, anyway?  Venters, I tell you somethin’s wrong.  You’re whiter ’n a sheet.  You can’t be scared of the rustler.  I don’t believe you’ve got a scare in you.  Wal, now, jest let me talk.  You know I like to talk, an’ if I’m slow I allus git there sometime.  As I said, Lassiter was talkie’ chummy with Oldrin’.  There wasn’t no hard feelin’s.  An’ the gang wasn’t payin’ no pertic’lar attention.  But like a cat watchin’ a mouse I hed my eyes on them two fellers.  It was strange to me, thet confab.  I’m gittin’ to think a lot, fer a feller who doesn’t know much.  There’s been some queer deals lately an’ this seemed to me the queerest.  These men stood to the bar alone, an’ so close their big gun-hilts butted together.  I seen Oldrin’ was some surprised at first, an’ Lassiter was cool as ice.  They talked, an’ presently at somethin’ Lassiter said the rustler bawled out a curse, an’ then he jest fell up against the bar, an’ sagged there.  The gang in the saloon looked around an’ laughed, an’ thet’s about all.  Finally Oldrin’ turned, and it was easy to see somethin’ hed shook him.  Yes, sir, thet big rustler—­you know he’s as broad as he is long, an’ the powerfulest build of a man—­yes, sir, the nerve had been taken out of him.  Then, after a little, he began to talk an’ said a lot to Lassiter, an’ by an’ by it didn’t take much of an eye to see thet Lassiter was gittin’ hit hard.  I never seen him anyway but cooler ’n ice—­till then.  He seemed to be hit harder ‘n Oldrin’, only he didn’t roar out thet way.  He jest kind of sunk in, an’ looked an’ looked, an’ he didn’t see a livin’ soul in thet saloon.  Then he sort of come to, an’ shakin’ hands—­mind you, shakin’ hands with Oldrin’—­he went out.  I couldn’t help thinkin’ how easy even a boy could hev dropped the great gun-man then!...Wal, the rustler stood at the bar fer a long time, en’ he was seein’ things far off, too; then he come to an’ roared fer whisky, an’ gulped a drink thet was big enough to drown me.”

“Is Oldring here now?” whispered Venters.  He could not speak above a whisper.  Judkins’s story had been meaningless to him.

“He’s at Snell’s yet.  Bern, I hevn’t told you yet thet the rustlers hev been raisin’ hell.  They shot up Stone Bridge an’ Glaze, an’ fer three days they’ve been here drinkin’ an’ gamblin’ an’ throwin’ of gold.  These rustlers hev a pile of gold.  If it was gold dust or nugget gold I’d hev reason to think, but it’s new coin gold, as if it had jest come from the United States treasury.  An’ the coin’s genuine.  Thet’s all been proved.  The truth is Oldrin’s on a rampage.  A while back he lost his Masked Rider, an’ they say he’s wild about thet.  I’m wonderin’ if Lassiter could hev told the rustler anythin’ about thet little masked, hard-ridin’ devil.  Ride!  He was most as good as Jerry Card.  An’, Bern, I’ve been wonderin’ if you know—­”