"It is, however,
certain that I haven't got them now. They went as dollars usually do.
The fact is, I have met one or two men recently who apparently know
rather more games of chance than I do, and I passed on the fame, which
was my most valuable asset, to you."
"You passed me on the brand of a crime I never committed," said Winston
grimly. "That, however, is not the question now. Not one dollar,
except at the time agreed upon, will you get from me. Why did you come
here dressed as we usually are on the prairie?"
Courthorne glanced down at the deerskin jacket and smiled as he
straightened himself into a caricature of Winston's mounted attitude.
It was done cleverly.
"When I ride in this fashion we are really not very unlike, you see,
and I let one or two men I met get a good look at me," he said. "I
meant it as a hint that it would be wise of you to come to terms with
me."
"I have done so already. You made the bargain."
"Well," said Courthorne, smiling, "a contract may be modified at any
time when both parties are willing."
"One is not," said Winston dryly. "You heard my terms, and nothing
that you can urge will move me a hairsbreadth from them."
Courthorne looked at him steadily, and some men would have found his
glance disconcerting, for now and then all the wickedness that was in
him showed in his half-closed eyes. Still, he saw that the farmer was
unyielding.
"Then we will let it go; in the meanwhile," he said, "take me across
the bridge.
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