Page:Bar-20 - Clarence Mulford.djvu/213

Rh Miss Deane regarded her companion with laughing eyes and then became suddenly sober as he came toward her.

"Go to your foreman and tell him that you will shoot to-morrow, for I will see that you do, and I will bring luck to the Bar—20. Be sure to call for me at one o'clock: I will be ready."

He hesitated, bowed, and slowly departed, making his way to Tom Lee's, where his entrance hushed the hilarity which had reigned. Striding to where Buck stood, he placed his hands on his hips and searched the foreman's eyes.

Buck smiled: "Yu ain't mad, are yu?" he asked.

Hopalong relaxed: "No, but d—n near it."

Red and the others grabbed him from the rear, and when he had been "buffaloed" into good humor he threw them from him, laughed and waved his hand toward the bar: "Come up, yu sons-of-guns. Yore a d—d nuisance sometimes, but yore a bully gang all th' same."