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Updated: May 7, 2025
Shoop grinned. "You win the pot!" he exclaimed. "That's just what I been thinkin' right along. I kind of wanted somebody who wasn't interested in this deal to say it. Well, I reckon I bothered you long enough. You got your alfalfa to I you got your writin' to do. But they's one thing.
Shoop glanced at his watch, tilting it toward the light of the flames. "It's just one. Hello! There comes the agent. Reckon he thought the station was afire." "Guess not. He's lighting up. Must be a special going to stop." "He's sure set the red. Say, I'm goin' over to see. Wait a minute." Shoop followed the agent into the station. Presently the foreman reappeared and beckoned to Corliss.
" After that cat," continued Shoop, "but the cat never treed, I reckon, for pretty soon back comes Bondsman, lookin' as disgusted as a hen in a rainstorm. 'We're gettin' too old, I tells Bondsman " "Ain't you goin' to let him in?" queried Lorry. " We're gettin' too old to chase bobcats just for fun," concluded Shoop. "What was you sayin'?" "Your dog wants to come in." "That's right.
They tramped down the stairs and ran across to the blazing building. A group of half-dressed citizens were passing buckets and dashing their final and ineffectual contents against the spouting flames. "He's sure done on both sides if he's in there," remarked Shoop. He ran around to the back of the jail and called loudly on Sundown.
Why, I shot droves of 'em right from the bunk-house door. I never miss a chance. Cut loose every time I see one standin' with his front paws on the trough. Get 'em every time." "Wisht I'd knowed that." "So?" "Uhuh. I'd 'a' borrowed a gun off you and set up and watched for 'em myself." Bud Shoop made a pretense of tightening a cinch on Sundown's pony, that he might "blush unseen," as it were.
"I'll lay it even," he said, his eyes twinkling, "that Bud Shoop can outshoot any man in the crowd." "I'll take ten of that," said the Starr man. "And I'll take ten," said another cowboy. "John," said Shoop, turning to the sheepman, "you're a perpendicular dam' fool."
"The best in the country," cheerfully assented Sundown. "How you making it, Sun?" "Me? Oh, I'm wigglin' along. Come home last night and found Jimmy with his leg bruk. Everything else was all right." "Jimmy?" "Uhuh. Me rooster." "Coyote grab him?" "Uhuh. And Chance fixed Mr. Coyote. I was to Loring's yesterday on business." Shoop glanced at Corliss who had thus far remained silent.
The old sheep-man glanced at the group in front of the saloon and blinked hard. Of the West, he read at a glance the situation. Sundown, Corliss, and Shoop raised their hats as Eleanor Loring bowed. "Beat him by a neck!" said Shoop. "Guess we better fan it, eh, Jack?" "There's no hurry," said Corliss easily.
"Looks like he was crazy," suggested Shoop. "I don' know about that. I got to him before he cashed in. He pawed around like he couldn't see. I asked what I could do. He kind of braced up then. 'That you, kid? he says. 'They didn't get you? I told him no. 'Then I reckon we're square, he says. I thought he was gone, but he reached out his hand. Seems he couldn't see.
He must have been asleep. But Bondsman had not been asleep. He rose and padded to Shoop's horse, where he stood, a statue of rugged patience, waiting for Shoop to start back toward home. "Now, look at that!" exclaimed Bud. "He's tellin' me if I want to get back to Jason in time to catch the stage to-morrow mornin' I got to hustle. That there dog bosses me around somethin' scandalous."
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