"Moments passed and still the Ranger did not come. I began to get
nervous. Had he been stopped? I scouted the idea. Who could have stopped
him, then? Probably the time seemed longer than it really was. Morton
showed the strain, also. Other men looked drawn, haggard, waiting as if
expecting a thunderbolt. Once in my roving gaze I caught Blandy's glinty
eye on me. I didn't like the gleam. I said to myself I'd watch him if I
had to do it out of the back of my head. Blandy, by the way, is--was--I
should say, the Hope So bartender." I stopped to clear my throat and get
my breath.

"Was," whispered Sally. She quivered with excitement. Miss Sampson bent
eyes upon me that would have stirred a stone man.

"Yes, he was once," I replied ambiguously, but mayhap my grimness
betrayed the truth. "Don't hurry me, Sally. I guarantee you'll be sick
enough presently.

"Well, I kept my eyes shifty. And I reckon I'll never forget that room.
Likely I saw what wasn't really there. In the excitement, the suspense,
I must have made shadows into real substance. Anyway, there was the
half-circle of bearded, swarthy men around Blome's table. There were the
four rustlers--Blome brooding, perhaps vaguely, spiritually, listening
to a knock; there was Bo Snecker, reckless youth, fondling a flower he
had, putting the stem in his glass, then to his lips, and lastly into
the buttonhole of Blome's vest; there was Hilliard, big, gloomy, maybe
with his cavernous eyes seeing the hell where I expected he'd soon be;
and last, the little dusty, scaly Pickens, who looked about to leap and
sting some one.

"In the lull of the general conversation I heard Pickens say: 'Jack,
drink up an' come out of it. Every man has an off day. You've gambled
long enough to know every feller gits called. An' as Steele has cashed,
what the hell do you care?

"Hilliard nodded his ghoul's head and blinked his dead eyes. Bo Snecker
laughed. It wasn't any different laugh from any other boy's. I
remembered then that he killed Hoden. I began to sweat fire. Would
Steele ever come?

"'Jim, the ole man hed cold feet an' he's give 'em to Jack,' said Bo.
'It ain't nothin' to lose your nerve once. Didn't I run like a scared
jack-rabbit from Steele? Watch me if he comes to life, as the ole man
hinted!'

"'About mebbe Steele wasn't in the 'dobe at all. Aw, thet's a joke! I
seen him in bed. I seen his shadder. I heard his shots comin' from the
room. Jack, you seen an' heerd same as me.'