"You're going down town, Mr. Brandon," he said. "Have you got a gun?"
"I have not," said Dick.
Payne pulled out an automatic pistol. "Then you'd better take mine. I
bought her, second-hand, with my first pay, but she's pretty good. I
reckon you can shoot?"
"A little," said Dick, who had practised with the British army revolver.
"Still I don't carry a pistol."
"You ought," Payne answered meaningly, and walking to the other end of
the veranda stuck a scrap of white paper on a post. "Say, suppose you try
her? I want to see you put a pill through that."
Dick was surprised by the fellow's persistence, but there is a
fascination in shooting at a target, and when Jake urged him he took the
pistol. Steadying it with stiffened wrist and forearm, he fired but hit
the post a foot below the paper.
"You haven't allowed for the pull-off, and you're slow," Payne remarked.
"You want to sight high, with a squeeze on the trigger, and then catch
her on the drop."
He took the pistol and fixed his eyes on the paper before he moved. Then
his arm went up suddenly and the glistening barrel pointed above the
mark. There was a flash as his wrist dropped and a black spot appeared
near the middle of the paper.
"Use her like that! You'd want a mighty steady hand to hold her dead on
the mark while you pull off."
"Sit down and tell us why you think Mr. Brandon ought to have the
pistol," Jake remarked. "I go to Santa Brigida now and then, but you
haven't offered to lend it me."
Payne sat down on the steps and looked at him with a smile. "You're all
right, Mr. Fuller. They're not after you."
"Then you reckon it wasn't me they wanted the night my partner was
stabbed? I had the money."
"Nope," said Payne firmly. "I allow they'd have corralled the dollars if
they could, but it was Mr. Brandon they meant to knock out." He paused
and added in a significant tone: "They're after him yet."
"Hadn't you better tell us whom you mean by 'they'?" Dick asked.
"Oliva's gang. There are toughs in the city who'd kill you for fifty
cents."
"Does that account for your buying the pistol when you came here?"
"It does," Payne admitted dryly. "I didn't mean to take any chances when
it looked as if I was going back on my dago partner."
"He turned you down first, and I don't see how you could harm him by
working for us."
Payne did not answer, and Dick, who thought he was pondering something,
resumed: "These half-breeds are a revengeful lot, but after all, Oliva
wouldn't run a serious risk without a stronger motive than he seems to
have."