“Well?”
Reno looked with dull eyes at Thaler and asked calmly:
“What of it?”
Thaler stood up, said, “Deal me out,” and walked to the door.
Pete the Finn stood up, leaning on the table with big bony hands, speaking from deep in his chest:
“Whisper.” And when Thaler had stopped and turned to face him: “I’m telling you this. You, Whisper, and all of you. That damn gun-work is out. All of you understand it. You’ve got no brains to know what is best for yourselves. So I’ll tell you. This busting the town open is no good for business. I won’t have it any more. You be nice boys or I’ll make you.
“I got one army of young fellows that know what to do on any end of a gun. I got to have them in my racket. If I got to use them on you I’ll use them on you. You want to play with gunpowder and dynamite? I’ll show you what playing is. You like to fight? I’ll give you fighting. Mind what I tell you. That’s all.”
Pete the Finn sat down.
Thaler looked thoughtful for a moment, and went away without saying or showing what he had thought.
His going made the others impatient. None wanted to remain until anybody else had time to accumulate a few guns in the neighborhood.
In a very few minutes Elihu Willsson and I had the library to ourselves.
We sat and looked at one another.
Presently he said: