Saleratus Bill detailed what he knew of the whole affair.  Oldham listened to the end.  His cynical expression did not change; and the unlighted cigar that he held between his swollen lips never changed its angle.

“And so he just nat’rally disappeared,” Saleratus Bill ended his recital.  “I can’t figure it out.”

Then Oldham spat forth the cigar.  His calm utterly deserted him.  He thrust his livid countenance out at his man.

“Figure it out!” he cried.  “You pin-headed fool!  You had an unarmed man tied hand and foot, in a three-thousand-foot hole, and you couldn’t keep him!  And one of the smallest interests involved is worth more than everything your worthless hide can hold!  I picked you out for this job because I thought you reliable.  And now you come to me with ’I can’t figure it out!’ That’s all the explanation or excuse you bring!  You miserable, worthless cur!”

Saleratus Bill was looking at him steadily from his evil, red-rimmed eyes.

“Hold on,” he drawled.  “Go slow.  I don’t stand such talk.”

Oldham spurred up close to him.

“Don’t you try any of your gun-play or intimidation on me,” he fairly shouted.  “I won’t stand for it.  You’ll hear what I’ve got to say, just as long as I choose to say it.”

He eyed the gun-man truculently.  Certainly even Bob could not have accused him of physical cowardice at that moment.

Saleratus Bill stared back at him with the steady, venomous glare of a rattlesnake.  Then his lips, under his straggling, sandy moustache, parted in a slow grin.

“Say your say,” he conceded.  “I reckon you’re mad; I reckon that boy man-handled you something scand’lous.”

At the words Oldham’s face became still more congested.

“But you look a-here,” said Saleratus Bill, suddenly leaning across from his saddle and pointing a long, lean finger.  “You just remember this:  I took this yere job with too many strings tied to it.  I mustn’t hurt him; and I must see no harm comes to him; and I must be noways cruel to mama’s baby.  You had me hobbled, and then you cuss me out because I can’t get over the rocks.  If you’d turned me loose with no instructions except to disappear your man, I’d have earned my money.”

He dropped his hand to the butt of his six-shooter, and looked his principal in the eye.

“I’m just as sorry as you are that he made this get-away,” he continued slowly.  “Now I got to pull up stakes and get out.  Nat’rally he’ll make it too hot for me here.  Then I could use that extry twenty-five hundred that was coming to me on this job.  But it ain’t too late.  He’s got away once; but he ain’t in court yet.  I can easy keep him out, if the original bargain stands.  Of course, I’m sorry he punched your face.”

“Damn his soul!” burst out Oldham.

“Just let me deal with him my way, instead of yours,” repeated Saleratus Bill.

“Do so,” snarled Oldham; “the sooner the better.”