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Bryant said nothing in reply, but as they trudged along, for the roads were very bad, and they could not often ride in their vehicles now, his face grew dark and red by turns. Finally he broke out, "See here, Aleck," he cried, "I don't want to sneak into the Territory.
To Aleck's astonishment he had begun to whistle a dismal old air in a minor key after propping himself across the rough crack so that he could not slip. "What's to be done?" said Aleck, at last. "Done, eh?" was the reply.
In Uncle Aleck Majors' book, "Seventy Years on the Frontier," he relates how on every wagon-sheet and wagon-bed, on every tree and barn door, he used to find the name "William F. Cody" in a large, uncertain scrawl. Those were my writing lessons, and I took them daily until I had my signature plastered pretty well over the whole of Salt Creek Valley.
This was too much for Aleck, who, having by this time got his horses hitched, mounted his wagon seat and came round to the door at a gallop. "Saved you that time, my boy," said Yankee to Ranald. "You would have made a fool of yourself in about two minutes more, I guess." But Ranald was still too wrathful to be grateful for Yankee's help.
But the Sheriff was firm. "No. The Judge told me to put you in jail and I 'm goin' to do it." He took two huge iron keys from his deputy and rattled them fiercely. Turkle shrank back with horror. "You ain't goin' to put me in thar, Aleck! Not in that hole! Not just for a little drop o' whiskey. It was your whiskey, too, Aleck. I was drinkin' yo' health, Aleck. You know I was."
Chuffy sharp-spoken gent as he always was, blest if he didn't say quite soft to me, with the big tears a-standing in his eyes: `It's all over, Bodger, my man, he says, `and you may have the poor boy's boat, for I know if he could speak now he would say, "Give it to poor old Tom."" "Poor old uncle!" said Aleck, huskily. "Then you're cheated again, Tom, and have lost your boat?"
It was unreal, it was unthinkable, that Aleck Douglas, the man who met but friendly glances, ride where he might, had done this thing. And yet there was nothing else to believe. Johnny Croft had worked here on the ranch for a couple of months, off and on. He had not been steadily employed, and he had been paid by the day instead of by the month as was the custom.
Murray drew slowly near, said, in a quiet voice of easy good-humor, to Aleck, who was standing with a face like that of a detected criminal: "Well, we will see about it to-morrow night, Aleck, at the post-office," and he faced about to meet Mrs. Murray with an easy smile, while Aleck turned away. But Mrs. Murray was not deceived, and she went straight to the point.
The trip had been full of adventures, but it now looked as if all would end happily. Without loss of time Dora and Nellie were taken care of and the houseboat was put into proper order for use by the Rovers and their friends. "Dat galley am a mess to see," said Aleck Pop. "But I don't care so long as dem young ladies am saved."
The middy was energetic enough, and in those perilous moments, full of horror for his companion's sake, he hauled till he dared pull no more for fear that the rope should part, and, obeying now a sudden thought, he relaxed the strain, and the rope seemed to be snatched back towards Aleck.
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