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'Anyways peaceful, or was you dodgin' the Coal-Boxes this time? 'Not a Coal-Box, or any other box, said the Bombardier, hammering a biscuit to fragments with a rifle-butt. 'An' I 'aven't 'ad a shell drop near me for a week. 'If we keeps on like this, said the Centre Driver, 'we'll get fancyin' we're back on Long Valley man-oovers. 'Wot you grousin' about anyway? remarked the Wheel Driver.
"Yes, indeed," said one of the first of them to come in, a pleasant-faced, shapely youth, with the soft down of his first beard scantily fringing his face, and to whom Nancy had sidled up in an unmistakable way. "We'uns 've bin a-layin' out in the woods for weeks, dodgin' ole Bragg's conscripters and a-waitin' for yo'uns.
How he was goin' to take it now I was the one to send for him, I didn't know; but there wa'n't any use dodgin' the issue. And you should have seen Piddie make his first official entrance! You know how stiff and wooden he is as a rule? Well, as he marches in over the rug and comes to a parade rest by the desk, he's about as limber as a length of gas pipe. And solemn?
"Ye see, ye're pop'lar with us," Connick went on. "Ye can be as friendly with us as tho we was your brothers, but ye don't want to try any shenanigan trick like dodgin' away. We've been told to take you to Number 7 camp, and to that camp ye're goin'. So understandin' that we'll move. There's a snack waitin' here for us at the carry camp, and then for the uptrail."
Do you reckon they're runnin' right on time and not jumpin' the track and dodgin' each other that slick jest because they was throwed out of a star-factory promiscus like a shovel of gravel? No, sir! Each one is doin' its stunt because the other one is same as folks.
They ain't lookin' for no trouble they just goes around blowin' off. Trouble? Why, they don't know what she is," remarked Red contemptuously. "Well, they's been dodgin' th' sheriff purty lively lately, an' if that ain't trouble I don't know what is," said Pie. "It shore is, an' hard to dodge," acquiesced Buck. "Well, I has to amble. Is Panhandle in Denver? Yes?
He was living again. "They couldn't make nothing of it, and drew back a bit. "'What! cries the Genelman, laughin. 'A round dozen of you, and wopp'd by one! I wonder what Black Diamond'd think o you? "At that Fat George truss Dingy Joe by the arms. "'Ow's this? he squeals, and runs him on the Genelman's blade, dodgin back himself into Red Beard's arms.
"Nothing barred," sez he; "we rope hoss or rider, either one." "Sure thing," sez I. I don't know to this day whether or not he really thought I was green, but anyhow, he thought he had me at this game, an' I saw in a moment 'at he had trained his pony; but he didn't have any advantage over me. I was ridin' Hawkins, an' he had been dodgin' ropes all his life an' liked the sport.
But he don't have time to glance back; for we was zigzaggin' up the Sound, dodgin' steamers and motor-boats and other yachts, and he was keepin' both eyes peeled. Every now and then too something had to be done in a hurry. "Ready about!" he'd call. "Now! Hard alee! Leggo that jib sheet you, Ferdie. Slack it off. Now trim in on the other side. Flatter. Oh, haul it home!"
The Dean chuckled. "So that's it? I thought mebby you was dodgin' the sheriff. If it's just plain broke that's the matter, why you'll go to town with me in the mornin', an' we'll get what you need. I'll hold it out of your wages until it's paid." As though the matter were settled, he turned back toward the house, adding, "Phil will show you where you're to sleep."
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