Page:B M Bower - Heritage of the Sioux.djvu/183

THE WILD-GOOSE CHASE "I thought you said he stood in with the Injuns," Weary spoke up from the ambling group behind. "You're kinda talkin' in circles, ain't you, Applehead?"

"Well, I calc'late yuh jest about got to talk in circles to git anywheres near Ramon," Applehead retorted, looking back at the others. "They's so dang many things he might be aimin' to do, that I ain't been right easy in my mind the last day or two, and I'm tellin' ye so. 'S like a storm—I kin smell trouble two days off; that's mebby why I'm still alive an' able to fork a hoss. An' I'm tellin' you right now, I kin smell trouble stronger'n a polecat under the chicken-house!"

"Well, by cripes, let 'er come!" Big Medicine roared cheerfully, inspecting a battered plug of "chewin'" to see where was the most inviting corner in which to set his teeth. "Me'n' trouble has locked horns more'n once, 'n' I'd feel right lonesome if I thought our trails'd never cross agin. Why, down in Coconino County—" He went off into a long recital of certain extremely bloody chapters in the history of that famed county as chronicled by one Bud Welch, otherwise known as 171