"
"Meaning me?" Galloway shrugged. "Well, here's my song and dance: This
county isn't quite big enough; you drop your little job and clear out
and leave me alone and I'll pay you ten thousand dollars now and
another ten thousand six months from now."
"Offer number one," said Norton, manifesting neither surprise nor
interest even. "Twenty thousand dollars to pull my freight. Well, Jim
Galloway, you must have something on the line that pulls like a big
fish. Now, let's have the other barrel."
"I have suggested that you clean out; the other suggestion is that, if
you won't get out of my way, you get busy on your job. Vidal Nunez
will be at the Casa Blanca to-night. I have sent word for him to come
in and that I'd look out for him. Come, get him. Which will you take,
Rod Norton? Twenty thousand iron men or your chances at the Casa
Blanca?"
It was Norton's turn to grow thoughtful. Galloway was rolling a
cigarette. The sheriff reached for his own tobacco and papers. Only
when he had set a match to the brown cylinder and drawn the first of
the smoke did he answer.
"You've said it all now, have you?" he demanded.
"Yes," said Galloway. "It's up to you this time. What's the word?"
Norton laughed.
"When I decide what I am going to do I always do it," he said lightly.
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