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"In an hour," Carolyn June said, smiling sweetly at the cowboys, as they left the kitchen, "everybody be back at the house. We'll fix the room and have it ready don't any one bother to 'dress up," she added as an afterthought. "Old Heck's niece acts kind of stampedish, don't she?" Bert remarked as Parker and the cowboys filed out of the back-yard gate toward the bunk-house.
The next morning, Saturday, Old Heck came to the breakfast table again in a pensive mood. "I was thinking about that man Dorsey," Skinny remarked, observing Old Heck's mental depression and attributing it to the meeting the day before in the pool-room at Eagle Butte. "Do you reckon the filly can really beat that Thunderbolt horse?" "Of course she can," Old Heck answered. "Th' Ramblin' Kid knows.
Dorsey snapped, jerking a wad of money from his own pocket and counting out the amount which he handed to the clerk as stake-holder. "And here's another hundred or a thousand if you want it!" "That two hundred is about all I can handle this morning," Chuck laughed. "But I understand Old Heck's aiming to bet a little," he drawled suggestively; "probably you'd like to see him?"
"Dorsey was there," Chuck said with another grin, "he'd just finished entering Thunderbolt for the big race when th' Ramblin' Kid and me got to the registering office. I bet him two hundred dollars. He was bragging a good deal " Old Heck's eyes flashed and the mirth left them.
A little smile stole over Manilla's rosy lips. "I know what it is," she said gently, unreproachfully; "it's that girl, Carolyn June. Yes, it is," as Skinny started to interrupt. "Oh, I don't blame you for falling for her!" she went on. "She is nice but, well, Skinny-boy," her voice was a caress, "Old Heck's niece is not the sort for you.
At daylight on the following morning, I sent Lieutenant Hoppner, with the Heck's fore-royal-mast rigged as a flagstaff, which he erected on a conspicuous hill four or five miles inland, hoisting upon it a large ensign, which might be seen at a considerable distance in every direction.
"Dear niece Carolyn June Dixon and Chaperon: Sorry, but there's an epidemic of smallpox at the Quarter Circle KT and you can't come. Chuck is dying with it. Old Heck's plumb prostrated, Bert is already broke out, Pedro is starting to and Skinny Rawlins and the Ramblin' Kid are just barely able to be up. I love you too much to want you to catch it.
The thought gave him a sickening feeling at the pit of his stomach and actually made his head ache. Old Heck's first impulse, when Parker made the startling announcement, was to assert his authority as boss of the outfit and annul the every-other-day arrangement whereby he and his foreman were to share and share alike in the widow's society. He would let Parker do it all have her all of the time!
"Find out which train they're on and let the Ramblin' Kid and me cut across to the Purgatory River bridge and wreck it," Skinny Rawlins, always tragic, darkly advised. "I ain't particular about killin' females," the Ramblin' Kid objected, "besides, we ain't got no dynamite." "Send them a telegram and say Old Heck's dead and not to come," Bert Lilly volunteered.
"Well, don't go and get excited at the supper table and eat your pie with a spoon!" Chuck laughed. "Aw, hell," Charley retorted, "I guess I know how to act " "Old Heck's going to buy some finger-bowls for you to wash your hands in," Bert said scornfully, "him and Parker " "Shut up, I told you, you darned idiots," Parker snapped. "They're out on the front porch and can hear you!"
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