PARTNERS ONCE
train for Big Springs and El Paso was to start. He saw Crowle, who stood a head and shoulders above the others, first of all. Crowle and Bailey were the two tallest men, they said, in western Texas.
"Here comes my man," said Crowle. But he said no more, for Gillett the City Marshal, a man not to be trifled with personally, was close to him. Bailey went by him and got to the side-tracked accommodation train just as the express came thundering through the depôt with its bell upon the toll. "Stop," said Crowle, "I'm coming with you!"
He went by Bailey's side to the train and climbed up after him. The rest of the men stood back. Bailey hoped that the passenger car would be full. It was empty save for an old woman, who belonged to Big Springs, and two nondescript Westerners come from Heaven knows where and going to the same place. He sat down, and Crowle sat down opposite him.
Crowle was drunk, but steady, and his eyes were full of peculiar and devilish malignity. Bailey and he had worked together for two
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