PAINTED ROCK
in their wits; and, so it was said, of bloody and remorseless courage. Though there were some who would have taken either of them at a disadvantage, they were never found "unheeled" or unwary. They were sober as sobriety goes in the West; no man ever saw either of them "full." It does not pay bad men to get full. And they had records, to which white painted boards rotting in the cemeteries of their respective towns bore bitter witness. Both had been tried for murder in their early days. Both had been acquitted. The acquitted homicides of the West are men to beware of; they hanker to use their guns.
They talked about these tyrants with bated breath in Painted Rock and Red River, for no one ever knew who would crawl to Ben or Sage and say—"Old man. Bill was shootin' off his mouth about you at the American House las' night."
And then perhaps Bill went where all men go in time. But he went ahead of time and went feet foremost.
It is true that certain quiet men, who did
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