--but
he knew public sentiment was wholly against him. There was nothing to do
but to swallow his words.

That he did this in the most ungracious way possible was like him. "Since
you're runnin' a Sunday School outfit I'll pack my roll an' move on
to-morrow to where there's some he-men," he sneered. "I never met this
girl, so I don't know a thing about her. All I did was to make a general
remark about women. Which same I know to be true. But since you're a
bunch of sky pilots at the Slash Lazy D, I'll withdraw anything that
hurts yore tender feelin's."

"Are you takin' back what you said--about--about her?" Bob demanded
harshly.

Bandy's smouldering, sullen eyes slid round. "I'm takin' it back. Didn't
you hear me say I don' know a thing about her? I know Houck, though. So I
judged--" He spat a loose tooth out on the floor venomously. It would
perhaps not be wise to put into words what he had deduced from his
knowledge of Jake Houck.

"The incident is now clo-o-sed if Miss Roberta is satisfied," Dud
announced to the public at large.

His riding mate looked at Hollister. "Don't call me that," he said.

For a moment Dud was puzzled. "Don't call you what?"

"What you just called me."

Dud broke into a grin of delight. He wondered if it would not be a good
idea to make Bob give him a licking, too. But he decided to let good
enough alone. He judged that Blister would be satisfied without any more
gore. Anyhow, Bob might weaken and spoil it.

"Boy, I'll never call you Miss--what I called you--long as I live
exceptin' when I'm meanin' to compliment you special." Dud slapped him
hard between the shoulder blades. "You're a young cyclone, but you can't
get a chance to muss Dud Hollister up to-night. You work too rapid.
Doggone my hide, if I ever did see a faster or a better piece o' work.
How about it, Tom?"

Reeves, too, pounded Dillon in token of friendship. If Bob had not wiped
the slate clean he had made a start in that direction.

"You're some scrapper when you get started. Bandy looks like he's been
through a railroad wreck," he said.

Bandy was by this time at the wash-basin repairing damages. "Tell you he
jumped me when I wasn't lookin'," he growled sulkily. "Fine business.
You-all stood by an' watched him do it."

"After you'd deviled him for a week," amended Big Bill. "Mebbe in that
outfit of he-men you're expectin' to hit the trail for to-morrow they'll
wrop you up in cotton an' not let a hundred-an'-th