Page:Morley roberts--Painted Rock.djvu/53

 Yet he knew how unlikely it was that the old man should do so now. There was seldom a time that poor old Dexter wasn't "rightly full" when he came back home. And the sound came nearer, nearer yet. In another minute the horseman pulled up outside the shack.

"Ez that you, Jeff?" he asked.

"Why, certainly, Bill Davies," said Jeff, with a sinking heart. "What's brot you this way? Hev you come from the City, and hev you seen my Dad?"

Bill Davies got off his pony, and leaving it with the bridle reins on the ground came up to Jeff. He was a cowboy from Ennis Creek, and was not often that way.

"I've rode out to tell about him," said Bill quietly.

"Oh," said Jeff, "I know. He's dead, Bill?"

"He's gone, Jeff."

"And Walker shot him?"

"He's the third Windy Walker has shot and killed in two years," said Davies. "And 'twill be self-defence, Jeff. Your old man