Page:The Baron of Diamond Tail (1923).pdf/215

 share of it off to a very small corner, indeed. "Didn't they shoot nine holes through that door? Didn't they burn a load of this company's hay?"

"And a wagon, and a pair of double-trees, and a hay-rack we've got to pay for?" Fred came in with his bill.

"Didn't they try to burn this company's house, and didn't they shoot a member of this firm through the lights?" Dan demanded, glaring severely at the member in question.

"They sure did!" said Fred, a solemn and impressive chorus.

Barrett did not attempt to deny any of the particulars in this bill of indictment against Findlay and his followers. But he made no reply at once, only looked away into the dusky distances, as he had seen Alma Nearing gaze when things rose in her soul that words could not express. Then:

"We'll go to Bonita next Saturday night," he said.

They smoked in silence a little spell after that, the slow night creeping into the world around them. Dan got up after a little, beat his hat against his leg to knock the dust out of it, put it on exactly, to avoid disarranging his hair.

"The quicker the sooner," he said.

Fred started, leaped to his feet with a suddenness rather alarming.

"I clean forgot about goin' down to the ranch this evenin'," he said. "Manuel was goin' to fetch my things down from Eagle Rock camp, my wardrobe and my face powder, and curlin' irons and things."

"What did you do with that gunnysack full of