Page:The Trail Rider (1924).pdf/210

 I've been a good friend to Dee, and I've stood by him, but I ain't a goin' to set around and see him sling no gun on you."

"I don't want to have any more brawls and disturbances while I'm here, either, but I can't run away from that little man. And I ain't got any particular business right around here any more, Uncle Boley, but I couldn't look at even myself in the glass if I was to let him drive me off thataway."

"You ain't got no business around here, heh?" Uncle Boley spoke almost derisively, he put so much force into his words. He pulled at his threads as if he was out of humor with the boot, and wanted to hurt it. "Well, Sallie McCoy she's stopped in here every blessed day since she come back from Duncan's askin' me if I got any word from you. Nothing to stay around for, heh? Well, if I had half that much to stay around for anywhere, they couldn't drive me out of the country with dogs."

"I'm proud to know she took such a kindly interust in a stranger, sir. Do you suppose she'll think I'm a crook when she hears about this?"

"It takes more than rumors and suspicions to turn Sallie McCoy agin a friend."

"But I'm scarcely so near to her as a friend, sir. An acquaintance, a man passed by in the big road; that is all, sir."