"Thar's a pause of mebby two minutes, doorin' which Moon looks cloudy, as though he don't like the way the kyards is comin'; Curly Ben, on his part, is smilin' like what Huggins calls 'one of his songstresses' over in the Bird Cage Op'ry House.After a bit, Moon resoomes them investigations.
"'Don't I give you four stacks of reds an' a pony,' he says, 'to reepair to that murderer an' floor-manage his obsequies? An' don't Ipromise you eight stacks more when you reports with that outcast's y'ears an' ha'r, as showin' good faith?'
"'C'rrect; every word,' says Curly Ben, lightin' a seegyar an then leanin' his elbows on the bar, a heap onmoved.
"'Which I would admire to know, then,' says Moon, an' his eyes is gettin' little an' hard, 'why you-all don't made good them compacts.'
"'Well, I'll onfold the reasons an' make it as plain an' cl'ar an'
convincin' as a spade flush,' says Curly Ben.'When I gets to this yere victim of ours, I finds him to be a mighty profoose an' lavish form of sport.The moment I'm finished explainin' to him my mission, an' jest as I onlimbers my six-shooter to get him where he lives, he offers me five thousand dollars to come back yere an' kill you.
Nacherally, after that, me an' this yere subject of our plot takes a few drinks, talks it over, an' yere I be.'
"'But what be you aimin' to do?' asks Moon.
"'What be you aimin' to do?' responds Curly Ben.As I states, he's shore the most ornery coyote!
"'I don't onderstand,' says Moon.
"'Why it's as obv'ous,' retorts Curly Ben, 'as the Fence Rail brand, an' that takes up the whole side of a cow.The question now is, do you raise this yere gent? He raises you as I explains; now do you quit, or tilt him, say, a thousand better?'
"'An' suppose I don't?' says Moon, sort o' figgerin' for a moment or so.'What do you reckon now would be your next move?'
"'Thar would be but one thing to do,' says Curly Ben mighty placid;'I'd shorely take him.I would proceed with your destruction at once, an' return to this agent gent an' accept that five thousand dollar honorarium he offers.'
"Curly Ben is 'bad' plumb through, an' the sights, as they says in the picturesque language of the Southwest, has been filed from his guns for many years.Which this last is runnin' in Moon's head while he talks with his disgustin' emmissary.Moon ain't out to take chances on gettin' the worst of it.An' tharfore, Moon at once waxes cunnin' a whole lot.
"'I'm a pore man,' he says, `but if it takes them teams of mine, to the last tire an' the last hoof, I've got to have this agent's ha'r an' y'ears.You camp around the Red Light awhile, Curly, till I go over to the New York Store an' see about more money.I'll be back while you're layin' out another drink.'
"Now it's not to the credit of Curly, as a crim'nal who puts thought into his labors, that he lets Captain Moon turn his flank the easy way he does.It displays Curly as lackin' a heap in mil'tary genius.
I don't presoome to explain it; an' it's all so dead onnacheral at this juncture that the only s'lootion I'm cap'ble of givin' it is that it's preedestinated that a-way.Curly not only lets Moon walk off, which after he hangs up that bluff about takin' them terms of the agent's is mighty irreg'lar, but he's that obtoose he sits down to play kyards, while he's waitin', with his back to the door.Why!
it's like sooicide!
"Moon goes out to his wagons an' gets, an' buckles on, his guns.
Quick, crafty, brisk as a cat an' with no more noise, Moon comes walkin' into the Red Light door.He sees Curly where he sits at seven-up, with his back turned towards him.
"'One for jack!' says Curly, turnin' that fav'rite kyard.Moon sort o' drifts to his r'ar.
"'Bang!' says Moon's pistol, an' Curly falls for'ards onto the table, an' then onto the floor, the bullet plumb through his head, as I informs you.
"Curly Ben never has the shadow of a tip, he's out of the Red Light an' into the regions beyond, like snappin' your thumb an' finger.
It's as sharp as the buck of a pony, he's Moon's meat in a minute.
"No, thar's nothin' for Wolfville to do.Moon's jestified.Which his play is the one trail out, for up to that p'int where Moon onhooks his guns, Curly ain't done nothin' to put him in reach of the Stranglers.Committees of vig'lance, that a-way, like shore-enough co'ts, can't prevent crime, they only punish it, an' up to where Moon gets decisive action, thar's no openin' by which the Stranglers could cut in on the deal.Yes, Enright convenes his committee an'
goes through the motions of tryin' Moon.They does this to preserve appearances, but of course they throws Moon loose.An' as thar's reasons, as any gent can see, why no one cares to have the story as it is, be made a subject of invidious gossip in Red Dog, an' other outfits envious of Wolfville, at Enright's suggestion, the Stranglers bases the acquittal of Moon on the fact that Curly Ben deloodes Moon's sister, back in the States, an' then deserts her.
Moon cuts the trail of the base sedoocer in Wolfville, an' gathers him in accordin', an' as a brother preyed on by his sister's wrongs is shorely expected to do.""But Curly Ben never did mislead Moon's sister, did he?" I asked, for the confident fashion where-with my old friend reeled off the finding of Wolfville's vigilance committee, and the reasons, almost imposed on me.
"Which you can bet the limit," he observed fiercely, as he prepared to go into the hotel, "which you can go the limit open, son, Curly ain't none too good."
