who Du Sang is?" asked McCloud, after Kennedy and
Whispering Smith with banter and laughing had gone over the scene.

Kennedy picked up the ruler. "The wickedest, cruelest man in the
bunch--and the best shot."

"Where is your hat, George--the one he put the bullet through?" asked
Whispering Smith, limp in the big chair. "Burn it up; he thinks he
missed you. Burn it up now. Never let him find out what a close call
you had. Du Sang! Yes, he is cold-blooded as a wild-cat and cruel as a
soft bullet. Du Sang would shoot a dying man, George, just to keep him
squirming in the dirt. Did you ever see such eyes in a human being,
set like that and blinking so in the light? It's bad enough to watch a
man when you can see his eyes. Here's hoping we're done with him!"

CHAPTER XVIII

NEW PLANS

Callahan crushed the tobacco under his thumb in the palm of his right
hand. "So I am sorry to add," he concluded, speaking to McCloud, "that
you are now out of a job." The two men were facing each other across
the table in McCloud's office. "Personally, I am not sorry to say it,
either," added Callahan, slowly filling the bowl of his pipe.

McCloud said nothing to the point, as there seemed to be nothing to
say until he had heard more. "I never knew before that you were
left-handed," he returned evasively.

"It's a lucky thing, because it won't do for a freight-traffic
man, nowadays, to let his right hand know what his left hand
does," observed Callahan, feeling for a match. "I am the only
left-handed man in the traffic department, but the man that handles
the rebates, Jimmie Black, is cross-eyed. Bucks offered to send him
to Chicago to have Bryson straighten his eyes, but Jimmie thinks
it is better to have them as they are for the present, so he can look
at a thing in two different ways--one for the Interstate Commerce
Commission and one for himself. You haven't heard, then?" continued
Callahan, returning to his riddle about McCloud's job. "Why, Lance
Dunning has gone into the United States Court and got an injunction
against us on the Crawling Stone Line--tied us up tighter than
zero. No more construction there for a year at least. Dunning comes
in for himself and for a cousin who is his ward, and three or four
little ranchers have filed bills--so it's up to the lawyers for
eighty per cent. of the gate receipts and peace. Personally, I'm
glad of it. It gives you a chance to look after this operating for a
year yourself. We a