The sun was high and the room was hot when I woke to the familiar sound of someone knocking on the door. This time it was one of the volunteer guards—the long-legged boy who had carried the warning to Peery Monday night.
“Gyp wants t’ see yuh.” The boy’s face was haggard. “He wants yuh more’n I ever seen a man want anything.”
Rainey was a wreck when I got to him.
“I killed him! I killed him!” he shrieked at me. “Bardell knowed the Circle H.A.R. would hit back f’r Slim’s killin’. He made me kill Nisbet an’ stack th’ deal agin Peery so’s it’d be up t’ you t’ go up agin ’em. He’d tried it before an’ got th’ worst of it!
“Gimme a shot! That’s th’ God’s truth! I stoled th’ rope, planted it, an’ shot Nisbet wit’ Bardell’s gun when Bardell sent him back there! Th’ gun’s under th’ tin-can dump in back o’ Adderly’s. Gimme th’ shot! Gimme it!”
“Where’s Milk River?” I asked the long-legged boy.
“Sleepin’, I reckon. He left along about daylight.”
“All right, Gyp! Hold it until the doc gets here. I’ll send him right over!”
I found Dr. Haley in his house. A minute later he was carrying a charge over to the hypo.
The Border Palace didn’t open until noon. Its doors were locked. I went up the street to the Canyon House. Milk River came out just as I stepped up on the porch.