Black Jack, page 99 by Max Brand
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to take the tall rancher by the throat and grind his face into the sand.
"But maybe you're different," went on Denver. "Your old man used to flare up and be over it in a minute. Maybe you remember things and pack a grudge with you."
"Perhaps," said Terry, grown strangely meek. "I hardly know."
Indeed, he thought, how little he really knew of himself. Suddenly he said: "So you simply happened over this way, Shorty?"
"Sure. Why not? I got a right to trail around where I want. Besides, what would there be in it for me--following you?"
"I don't know," said Terry gravely. "But I expect to find out sooner or later. What else are you up to over here?"
"I have a little job in mind at the mine," said Denver. "Something that may give the sheriff a bit of trouble." He grinned.
"Isn't it a little--unprofessional," said Terry dryly, "for you to tell me these things?"
"Sure it is, bo--sure it is! Worst in the world. But I can always tell a gent that can keep his mouth shut. By the way, how many jobs you been fired from already?"
Terry started. "How do you know that?"
"I just guess at things."
"I started working for an infernal idiot," sighed Terry. "When he learned my name, he seemed to be afraid I'd start shooting up his place one of these days."
"Well, he was a wise gent. You ain't cut out for working, son. Not a bit. It'd be a shame to let you go to waste simply raising calluses on your hands."
"You talk well," sighed Terry, "but you can't convince me."
"Convince you? Hell, I ain't trying to convince your father's son. You're like Black Jack. You got to find out yourself. We was with a Mick, once. Red-headed devil, he was. I says to Black Jack: 'Don't crack no jokes about the Irish around this guy!'
"'Why not?' says your dad.
"'Because there'd be an explosion,' says I.
"'H'm,' says Black Jack, and lifts his eyebrows in a way he had of doing.
"And the first thing he does is to try a joke on the Irish