"No, he won't do no such trick. I've fixed that; and he knows it. If he
kills me, he'll lose _all_ he's got 'stead of only part."

"You're drunk or dreaming," said I. "If you bother him, he'll just plain
have you killed. That's a little way of his."

"And if he does a friend of mine will just go to a certain place and get
certain papers and give 'em to a certain lawyer--and then where's old
H.H.? And he knows it, damn well. And he's going to be good to Artie and
give him what he wants. We'll get along fine. Took him a long time to
come to it; but I didn't take no chances while he was making up his
mind; you can bet on that."

"Blackmail, eh?" I said, with just enough of a sneer to fire him.

"Blackmail nothing!" he shouted. "It ain't blackmail to take away what
don't belong to a man at all!"

"What don't belong to him?"

"Nothing. Not a damn thing except his money. This ranch. The oil wells
in California. The cattle. Not a damn thing. That was the agreement with
his pardner when they split. And I've got the agreement! Now what you
got to say?"

"Say? Why its _loco_! Why doesn't the pardner raise a row?"

"He's dead."

"His heirs then?"