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"That'll fetch ye if anything will he-he!" he mumbled, tittering from sheer excitement. Beyond a very natural desire to do what he could for her, he was extremely anxious to bring her to her senses, so that he could hear what had happened, and how it had happened. "Betche Man got jealous of her'n Kenneth by granny, I betche that's how it come about hey? Feelin' better, Mis' Fleetwood?"
"Aw, I betche yuh never killed a man in your life!" Happy Jack grumbled in his characteristic tone of disparagement; but such was his respect for Big Medicine's prowess that he took care not to speak loud enough to be overheard by that modest gentleman, who continued with certain fearsome details of alleged murderous exploits of his own, down in Coconino County, Arizona.
Which certainly was brilliant of Happy Jack, even if it did take him a full hour to arrive at that conclusion. He got up immediately and started for the cook-tent. "Say, Jakie," he began before he was inside, "ain't there time enough to boil a pot uh beans if I make yuh a good fire? I betche the boys would like a good feed " "A-a-hh!"
"I betche he ain't goin' to forget that, though," Happy Jack warned when he saw the caked mud on Miguel's Angora chaps and silver spurs, and the condition of his saddle. "Yuh better watch out and not turn your backs on him in the dark, none uh you guys. I betche he packs a knife. Them kind always does." "Haw-haw-haw!" bellowed Big Medicine uproariously.
"I betche Bud gets us all pinched for that," grumbled Happy Jack. "Torturing folks is purty darned serious business. You might as well shoot 'em up decent and be done with it." "Haw-haw-haw-w-w!" Big Medicine ogled the group mirthfully. "Nobody can't swear I done a thing, or said a thing. All I said definite was that I'd take off his shoes.
He'd go straight up in the air. He wouldn't wait for no breakfast." "I betche there'll be a killin' yet, before we're through with them sheep," gloomed Happy Jack. "When sheepherders starts in once to be ornery, there ain't no way uh stoppin' 'em except by killin' 'em off. And that'll mean the pen for a lot of us fellers " "Well, by golly, it won't be me," Slim declared loudly.
Andy's tone was deceitfully hearty. He did not sound in the least as if he would like to choke Happy Jack, though that was his secret longing. "Aw, gwan. I betche I could make as purty a ride as we've saw lately." Happy Jack did not quite like to make the thing too personal, for fear of what might happen after. "Yuh mean last night, don't yuh?" purred Andy.
Weary's goin' to set us herdin' sheep agin and I betche there's goin' to be something more'n herdin' on our hands before we git through." "I wouldn't be a bit surprised if there was," sang out Andy, as cheerfully as if he had been invited to dance "Ladies' choice" with the prettiest girl in the crowd. "Wonder what hole he's going to dump this bunch into," he added to the Native Son.
Somebody's got to take that bacon down to the creek and wash it off, if yuh want any meat for supper. There ain't no time to boil beef. If I'd a been boss uh this outfit, I betche no blame cook on earth would uh made rough-house like Patsy done." But no one paid the slightest attention to Happy Jack, having plenty to think of and to do before they slept.
"By golly! he must sure have had it in for that fellow," mused Slim ponderously, "to kill him the way Andy says he did. By golly, yuh can't wonder his eyes stuck out when he heard Andy telling us all about it!" "I betche he lays for Andy yet, and gits him," predicted Happy Jack felicitously. "He won't rest whilst an eye-witness is running around loose.
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