"Well, seein' as yeh hain't so blood-thirsty no more, I'll tell yeh. I
swung down into the bad lands couple weeks ago huntin' a bunch of mares
that strayed off the south slope. I was follerin' down a mud-crack
that opens into Big Dry when all to onct my horse jumps sideways an'
like to got me. The reason fer which was a feller layin' on the ground
where his horse had busted him agin' a rock. His back was broke an' he
was mumblin'; which he must of laid there a day, mebbe two, cause his
tongue an' lips was dried up till I couldn't hardly make out what he
was sayin'. I catched here an' there a word about holdin' up a train
an' he was mumblin' your name now an' agin so I fetched some water from
a hole a mile away an' camped. He et a little bacon later but he was
half crazy with the pain in his back. He'd yell when I walked near him
on the ground, said it jarred him, an' when I tried to move him a
little he fainted plumb away. But he come to agin an' begged me fer to
hand him his Colt that had lit about ten feet away so he could finish
the job. I seen they wasn't no use tryin' to git him nowheres. He was
all in. But his mutterin' had interested me consid'ble. I figgers if
he's a hold-up, chances is he's got a nice fat _cache_ hid away
somewheres, an' seein' he hain't never goin' to need it I might's well
have the handlin' of it as let it rot where it's at. I tells him so
an' agrees that if he tips off his _cache_ to me I'll retaliate by
givin' him the gun. He swears he ain't got no _cache_. He's blow'd
everything he had, his nerve's gone, an' he's headin' fer Wolf River
fer to gouge yeh out of some _dinero_. He claims yeh collected reward
on them two yeh got in the Yellowstone an' what's more the dudes tuk up
a collection of a thousan' bucks an' give it to yeh besides. _You_ was
his _cache_. So he handed me the dope I just sprung on yeh, an' he
says besides that you an' him's the only ones left. The other one got
his'n down in Mexico where he'd throw'd in with some Greaser bandits."