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"I've already give up hope," Old Heck answered, "but what will we do with them when they get here? We can't just brand 'em and turn them loose on the range." "I make a motion we elect Skinny to ride herd on 'em!" Bert Lilly suggested. "Damned if I do!" Skinny exclaimed uneasily. "It's a good idea," Parker said.
"Why in heck don't we run this here pink-faced conjure-doctor outen the mountings?" demanded Caleb, who had drunk more than a half-pint. "He's a-castin' spells over the boy. He's a-practisin' of deviltries." "We're a-goin' ter see about thet right now," was the response. "We don't 'low to let hit run on no further."
They had then gone direct to Mike Sabota's place for the express purpose of running into Dorsey and his crowd. Old Heck knew that if any large bets were to be laid on the two-mile sweepstakes the only chance would be to place them before the Ramblin' Kid brought the Gold Dust maverick to Eagle Butte and the Vermejo bunch discovered the identity of the horse Thunderbolt was up against.
"That's all a mistake," Old Heck said hastily; "we thought is was smallpox but it wasn't " "No, everybody's got over it," Skinny added nervously; "they're all cured!" "Yes, they was just broke out with the heat and didn't have the smallpox at all " Old Heck explained. "Liars, both of them," Carolyn June said laughingly to Ophelia; "they just didn't want us to come!"
Tom Poole arrested him, but th' Ramblin' Kid got the drop on him and got away. He was justified in beating Sabota up anyhow," he added, "on account of the dirty cuss hiring a feller to 'dope' him so he couldn't ride the maverick the day of the big race " "'Dope' him?" Old Heck interrupted, puzzled. "Yes," Skinny explained, "the Greek had a feller named Gyp Streetor put some stuff in th' Ramblin?
"I think I'll hook Sabota for a few hundred on the sweepstakes, myself," Skinny replied with a good deal of feeling, "I don't like the way that dirty cuss acts any better than I like Dorsey's bragging!" Carolyn June and Ophelia were waiting when Old Heck and Skinny arrived at the Golden Rule.
Lance studied the end of his cigarette, lifting his left eyebrow just as his father had done five minutes before. "I hope to heck I haven't come home to remodel the morals of the country, or to strut around and play college-young-man like a boob; but on the square, folks, it looks to me as though the Rim needs a lesson in citizenship.
"By heck! but that's a purty saddle he carries!" "What say, Taggart?" "For God's sake, no, Bishop! No I got enough dead faces looking at me now from this place. I'm ha'nted into hell a'ready, like he said he was yisterday. By God! I sometimes a'most think I'll have my ears busted and my eyes put out to git away from the bloody things!" "Ho! Scared, are you? Well, I'll do it myself.
Eagle Butte did not know or care the Cimarron town was through with him. When Old Heck, Carolyn June and Ophelia returned to the Quarter Circle KT the evening of the day following the fight, the Gold Dust maverick whinnied lonesomely from the circular corral as the Clagstone "Six" stopped in front of the house. "What are we going to do with that filly?"
"Her and Old Heck got pretty well introduced last night, holding hands the way they did, and " "Dry up," Old Heck interposed with a foolish grin, "and come on to breakfast!" Carolyn June and Ophelia were charmingly fresh and interesting in dainty blue and lavender morning gowns. A bowl of roses, plucked by Ophelia from the crimson rambler by the south window, rested in the center of the table.
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