“No, we haven’t, but—”
“I thought so. Well, you’re jest startin’on this job. What’s my word ag’in’the word o’P.J. Madden—an’no other evidence to show? You got to dig some up.”
“Well, perhaps you’re right.”
“Sure I am. I’ve done you a favor—now you do one fer me. Take this here information an’go back an’make the most o’it. Leave me out entirely if you kin. If you can’t—well, I’ll keep in touch. Be down round Needles in about a week—goin’to make a stop there with my old friend, Slim Jones. Porter J. Jones, Real Estate—you kin git me there. I’m makin’you a fair proposition—don’t you say so, miss?”
The girl smiled at him. “Seems fair to me,” she admitted.
“It’s hardly according to Hoyle,” said Eden. “But you have been mighty kind. I don’t want to see you stifle in a city—though I find it hard to believe you and I are talking about the same Eldorado. However, we’re going to part friends, Mr. Cherry. I’ll take your suggestion—I’ll go back with what you’ve told me—it’s certainly very enlightening. And I’ll keep you out of it—if I can.”
The old man got painfully to his feet. “Shake,” he said. “You’re a white man, an’no mistake. I ain’t tryin’to save Madden—I’ll go on the stand if I have to. But with what I’ve told you, maybe you can land him without me figurin’in it.”
“We’ll have to go along,” Eden told him. He laughed. “I don’t care what the book of etiquette says—Mr. Cherry, I’m very pleased to have met you.”
“Same here,” returned Cherry. “Like a talk now an’then with
