I know your father, Evan, a good bit
better than you do; he'd give you the earth with a fence around it if
you should ask him for it."
Evan Blount got slowly out of his chair, stood up, and put his hands
upon the smaller man's shoulders.
"Dick, do you realize what you are doing for yourself when you show me a
possible way of getting my weapon back?" he demanded.
Gantry's lips became a fine straight line and he nodded.
"That's what made me walk the floor a few minutes ago; I was trying to
find out if I were big enough. It's all right, Ebee; you go to it, and
I'll throw up my job and run a foot-race with the sheriff, if I have to.
Damn the job, anyway!" he finished petulantly. "I'm tired of being a
robber for somebody else's pocket all the time!"
Blount sat down again and put his face in his hands. After a time he
looked up to say: "I can't let you outbid me in the open market, Dick.
You can't set the friendship peg any higher than I can."
Gantry crossed the room and recovered his top-coat and hat from the
chair where he had thrown them.
"Don't you be a fool," he advised curtly. "There's a railroad down in
Peru that is going bankrupt for the lack of a wide-awake, up-to-date
traffic man. I've had the offer on my desk for a month, and I'm going
to cable to-night. That lets you out, whether you do or don't.
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