CHAPTER XV.

THE SHERIFF’S WARNING.

Gopher Gabe, fat but rat-eyed, sat in one of the little rooms back of his saloon, a schooner of beer on the table before him. His full jaws had a sleek, round, well-fed look, which, with his eyes, gave him a fancied resemblance to the thick-cheeked, pouched gopher of the West, and had conferred on him the name by which he was best known.

In another respect the saloon keeper was like the gopher: He worked underground. Though in secret connection with most of the “bad” men of Blossom Range, he had managed to hide the fact from the general knowledge of the public. Most people were reluctant to think that a man so “whole-souled” as Gopher Gabe could be a secret partner with the thugs and road agents who had made Blossom Range notorious.

He ran a saloon, it was true, and gambling was done there. Also, he had an interest in the Casino and the unsavory wine rooms connected with it. Everybody knew that, yet few, if any, guessed the whole truth.

Into the small room where Gopher Gabe sat, White-eyed Moses suddenly projected himself at such speed that his coat tails flapped out behind him. His white eyes were staring and he was much excited, as well as breathless.

“Vhat an escabe!” he gasped, sinking into a chair.

Gopher Gabe, who had lifted the foaming glass, put it down untouched.

“What in Sam Hill----”

“You said I shouldt vatch Buffalo Bill’s rooms, if I could,” explained the fiddler. “So when, this morning, I seen Shepardt go dare, and then this voman, Miss Vera Bright, I triedt it. That is vhat I mean. They were in his room, talking, and I dropped down by the door, in the hall outsite. I vas gitting some imbortant information, I t’ought, vhen that trapper chumbed at the door, and I had to gidt.”

He breathed heavily.

Gopher Gabe looked at him steadily.

“I reckon what you heard was about that jail escape and the robberies last night? Naturally Shepard would go there to talk about it, as he thinks he is small persimmons alongside of Buffalo Bill. What was they sayin’.”

“Vell, the voman is going in with them!”

The saloon keeper stiffened back in his chair.

“So?”

“They was talking it over. She was gifing her suspicions about you.”

“So?” said Gabe, but his voice had risen, and his rat-like eyes began to glitter. “What was she sayin’?”

“She was telling them to vatch your blace.”

“So?”

“That’s vhat I made of it. She is wanting rewenge on Juniper Joe and Benson for killing Ward.”

“Git a woman worked up along the jealousy-and-revenge line,” said Gopher Gabe, “and you’ve got a devil to deal with. But _she_ don’t know anything.”

“I am hobing not.”

“I’m certain she don’t. She was with the show only a week, and all she saw was what went on in the wine rooms. What’s she goin’ to do?”

“Vell, I don’t know that. She was gifing them tips.”

“And will give ’em more if she can. But that needn’t scared you.”

“I see you ton’dt understand. I was scared because I am so near being catched. I didn’t get oudt of the hall before that trapper vas in it. I t’ought he was going to shoot.”

“Did he recognize ye? That’s important.”

“I am hobing he didn’t, but I don’t know. He didn’t see my face, I am sure. I was going down the stairvay vhen he shouted to me to stop. He clicked his rewolver, but I didn’t stop.”

“You didn’t hear anything to make you think they guess where Juniper and Benson air?”

“Only vhat she said. She told them to vatch your joint. And there was some talk about putting some one in blace of one of your vaiters, so that he could act as a sby.”

“Well, we can block that, now that we’re on. I don’t think they can find Benson and Joe.”

“Are they going out to the Utes?”

“No. They’ll be safer right where I’ve got ’em. I ain’t scared yet. Buffalo Bill has been watching this place straight along, but not saying anything about it; we know that. Let him watch. He’ll not catch me napping.”

“Shepardt has been your friendt.”

“He is yit. But of course he won’t stand for lawbreakin’ and jailbreakin’. So long’s he thinks I’m on the square, Shepard ain’t goin’ to make trouble; but----”

A man who had come into the saloon, instead of stopping before the bar, had come on back, and now approached the small room where Gopher Gabe and his fiddling lieutenant were conferring.

White-eyed Moses took a look through the crack of the door.

“Gootness! It’s him, right now.”

“Matt Shepard?”

“Sure.”

“Well, that’s all right. Jest you keep your face straight, and say that you hain’t been near the Eagle House. I’ll fix him.”

Matt Shepard, square-jawed, big-framed, honest, and gritty, but a man of the type known as a “mixer,” came up to the door of the room, then pushed it open, and walked in, looking at the proprietor and at White-eyed Moses.

“Hello, Mose!” he said, taking a seat quite as if he felt at home. “Where you been keepin’ yerself lately?”

“Oh, all roundt. In the usual blaces,” was the fiddler’s answer.

“Fiddlin’ business as good as ever, eh?”

“Purdy goodt!”

“You wasn’t over t’ the Eagle House a while ago? Think straight now!”

“I vasn’t over dare.”

“You’re goin’ to stick to that?”

“Vhy shouldt I be over dare?”

“It was said that you was spyin’ on Cody!”

White-eyed Moses threw out his hands in vehement disclaimer.

“Well, I ain’t goin’ to ask you to swear to it,” said Shepard. “If a man’s word can’t be believed, I wouldn’t believe his oath. You’ve heard, o’ course, of the escape of Juniper. Everybody has. So, what do you think of it?”

“You vas neatly done.”

“That’s right.”

He turned to Gopher Gabe.

“I’m goin’ to talk straight, Gabe,” he said to him. “I’ve always been your friend, you know.”

“Sure!” Gopher Gabe grunted.

“Well, it’s like this: You’re bein’ suspected. First, they say that you’re in with the thieves and thugs that have been workin’ overtime round this camp lately. Then they say that you know something about this plan by which I was induced to let Juniper Joe slip through my fingers.”

“All a lie,” said Gopher Gabe.

“Of course I expected you’d say that. So I’ve got only this remark to make, though really I haven’t any right, as an officer of the law, to make it. It’s jest this: If any of the things that’s bein’ said are so, I give you warning that it must be stopped. If you’re helpin’ Juniper and Benson in their present game of hide-out, stop it; and if you’re in with any of those hold-up men, stop that, too; and short off.”

Gopher Gabe’s face flushed and his ratlike eyes glittered, but he kept his temper within bounds, so that when he spoke his voice was as usual. He even laughed as he retorted:

“All lies. You know the kind of business I run here--something to drink, with gambling as a side issue, and the serving of the Casino wine rooms. Everything’s open and aboveboard. I ain’t no call to do any different.”

“You oughtn’t to have, Gabe, and that’s a fact.”

The sheriff got to his feet.

“I stand for law and order here,” he said; “that’s my business, and I’m goin’ to run it straight so long’s as the people elect me to the office. You’d do the same, in my place. But I play fair. So I jest dropped in to give you warnin’.”

He left the room, and they heard him speak to the barkeeper on his way to the street.

“Now, vhat do you think of that?” asked White-eyed Moses.

“It’s like Shepard, and it’s the thing that makes him so popular.”

“He’ll pull you, chust the same?”

“Oh, yes, if I give him the chance.”

“You noticed that he ditn’t say anything aboudt Vera Bright and the putting of some one as a sby in blace of one of your vaiters!”

“Well, I reckon he’s got sense enough to keep some things to himself.”

Gopher Gabe finished the beer on the table.

He did not seem disturbed.