I-XV

One of the canvas-covered mountain wagons
was unloading on the platform before
Simmons' store when Gordon entered the
center of the village. A miscellaneous pile of merchandise
was growing, presided over by a clerk with
a pencil and tally book. Valentine Simmons, without
his coat, in an immaculate, starched white waistcoat,
stood upon one side.

Gordon, without delay, approached him. "I can
give you a hundred dollars," he informed the other,
exhibiting that sum.

"Two hundred and fifty will be necessary," Simmons
informed him concisely, "today."

"Come to reason--"

Valentine Simmons turned his back squarely
upon him. A realization of the uselessness of further
words possessed Gordon; he returned the money
to his pocket. The contemptuous neglect of the
other lit the ever-trimmed lamp of his temper.
"What's this," he demanded, "I hear about driving
stage?, about Buck boasting around that he had had
me laid off?"

[[80]]

p079 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p080w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p081

v?