Page:MacLeod Raine - The Sheriff's Son.djvu/274

 "I see. It he had taken the gun, Meldrum might have thought he was afraid of him."

"Now you 're shouting. As it is the bad man is backed clear off the earth. It's like as if your partner said, 'Garnish yourself with forty-fours if you like, but don't get gay around me.'"

"So you think—"

"I think he's some bear-cat, that young fellow. When you 're looking for something easy to mix with, go pick a grizzly or a wild cat, but don't you monkey with friend Beaudry. He's liable to interfere with your interior geography. … Say, Dingwell. Do I get to cull this bunch of longhorn skeletons you 're misnaming cattle?"

"You do not."

The Denver man burlesqued a sigh. "Oh, well! I 'll go broke dealing with you unsophisticated Shylocks of the range. The sooner the quicker. Send 'em down to the siding. I 'll take the bunch."

Roy rode up on a pinto.

"Help! Help!" pleaded the Coloradoan of the young man.

"He means that I 've unloaded this corral full of Texas dinosaurs on him at nineteen a throw." explained Dave.