But when I did I experienced a shock, though not exactly the kind I had prepared myself for.
She knew something; maybe she knew actually more than Steele or I; still, if it were a crime, she had a marvelous control over her true feelings.
* * * * * Jack Blome and his men had been in Linrock for several days; old Snecker and his son Bo had reappeared, and other hard-looking customers, new to me if not to Linrock.

These helped to create a charged and waiting atmosphere.

The saloons did unusual business and were never closed.
Respectable citizens of the town were awakened in the early dawn by rowdies carousing in the streets.
Steele kept pretty closely under cover.

He did not entertain the opinion, nor did I, that the first time he walked down the street he would be a target for Blome and his gang.

Things seldom happened that way, and when they did happen so it was more accident than design.