him that she had got a nice long letter from her hubby. Then Mr. Lanky
hit th' trail for Santa Fe so hard that there wasn't hardly none of it
left. I didn't see him for a whole month," supplied Red innocently.

"Yore shore funny, ain't yu?" sarcastically grunted Lanky. "Why, I
can tell things on yu that'd make yu stand treat for a year."

"I wouldn't sneak off to Santa Fe an' cheat yu out of them. Yu ought
to be ashamed of yoreself."

"Yah!" snorted the aggrieved little man. "I had business over to
Santa Fe!"

"Shore," endorsed Hopalong. "We've all had business over to Santa
Fe. Why, about eight years ago I had business-"

"Choke up," interposed Red. "About eight years ago yu was washin'
pans for cookie, an' askin' me for cartridges. Buck used to larrup yu
about four times a day eight years ago."

To their roars of laughter Hopalong dropped to the rear, where, red-
faced and quiet, he bent his thoughts on how to get square.

"We'll have a pleasant time corralling that gang," began Billy for
the third time.

"For heaven's sake get off that trail!" replied Lanky. "We aint
goin' to hold `em up. De-plomacy's th' game."

Billy looked dubious and said nothing. If he hadn't proven that he