It read:
"Eastern man says you don't want what is salable here."
The lieutenant cut out every other word and garnered the wheat of
the message:
"Man you want is here."
The telegram was marked from Epitaph, and for that town the
ranger and the sheriff entrained immediately.
Bucky's eye searched in vain the platform of the Epitaph depot
for Malloy, of the Rangers, whose wire had brought him here. The
cause of the latter's absence was soon made clear to him in a
note he found waiting for him at the hotel:
"The old man has just sent me out on hurry-up orders. Don't know
when I'll get back. Suggest you take in the show at the opera
house to-night to pass the time."
It was the last sentence that caught Bucky's attention. Jim
Malloy had not written it except for a reason. Wherefore the
lieutenant purchased two tickets for the performance far back in
the house. From the local newspaper he gathered that the showman
was henceforth to be a resident of Epitaph. Mr. Jay Hardman, or
Signor Raffaello Cavellado, as he was known the world over by
countless thousands whom he had entertained, had purchased a
corral and livery stable at the corner of Main and Boothill
Streets and solicited the patronage of the citizens of Hualpai
County.
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