the matter had been fully explained."

"What I want to know, Pringle, is, how the deuce you got up here so
slick?" said Nueces.

"Oh, that's easy! I can run a mile in nothing flat."

"Oh--that's it? You hid in the water pen?"

"Under the troughs. Bright idea of yours, them fires! I knew just
where not to go. After you left I hooked a horse. If you'd had sense
enough to go with the sheriff and eat your supper like a human being
I'd 'a' hooked two horses, and Chris and me would now be getting
farther and farther. I don't want you ever to do that again. Suppose
Chris had killed me when I tried to knock him out? Fine large name I
would 'a' left for myself, wouldn't I?"

"If you had fought it out with us," said Breslin musingly, "you would
have been killed--both of you; and you would have killed others. Mr.
Pringle, you have done a fine thing. I apologize to you."

"Why, that all goes without saying, my boy. As for my part--why, I
don't bother much about a blue tin heaven or a comic-supplement hell,
but I'm right smart interested in right here and now. It's a right
nice little old world, take it by and large, and I like to help out at
whatever comes my way, if it takes fourteen innings. But, so long as
you feel that way about it, maybe you'll believe me now, when I say
that Christopher Foy was with me all last night and he didn't shoot
Dick Marr."