was an instant's dead silence. Then Jack Bates laughed uneasily.

"Happy, how many horses did yuh ride out to camp?"

Happy Jack had, upon one occasion, looked too long upon the wine--or
whisky, to be more explicit. Afterward, he had insisted that he was
riding two horses home, instead of one. He was not permitted to forget
that defection. The Happy Family had an unpleasant habit of recalling
the incident whenever Happy Jack made a statement which they felt
disinclined to credit--as this last statement was.

Happy Jack whirled on the speaker. "Aw, shut up! I never kidnaped no
girl off'n no train, and--"

Jack Bates colored and got belligerently to his feet. That hit him in
an exceedingly tender place.

"Happy, look here," Chip cut in authoritatively. "What's wrong with
Weary? If he took a shot at you, it's a cinch he had some reason for
it."

Weary was even dearer to the heart of Chip than to Pink.

"Ah--he never! He's takin' shots permisc'us, lemme tell yuh. And he
ain't troublin' about no _reason_ fer what he's doin'. He's plumb
oary-eyed--that's what. He's on a limb that beats any I ever seen.
He's drunk--drunk as a boiled owl, and he don't give a damn. He's lost
his hat, and he's swapped cayuses with somebody--a measly old
bench--and he's shootin' up the town t' beat hell!"

The Happy Family looked at one another dazedly. Weary drunk? _Weary_?
It was unbelieveable. Such a thing had never been heard of before in
the history of the Happy Family. Even Chip, who had known Weary before
either had known the Flying U, could not remember anything of the sort.
The Happy Family were often hilarious; they had even, on certain
occasions, shot up the town; but they had done it as a family and they
had done it sober. It was an unwritten law among the Flying U boys,
that all riotous conduct should occur when they were together and when
the Family could, as a unit, assume the consequences--if consequences
there were to be.

"I guess Happy must a rode the whole blame saddle-bunch home, this
time," Cal remarked, with stinging sarcasm.

"Ah, yuh can go and see fer yourselves; yuh don't need t' take _my_
word fer nothing" cried Happy Jack, much grieved that they should doubt
him. "I hain't had but one drink t'day--and that wasn't nothin' but
beer. It's straight goods: Weary's as full as he can git and top a
horse. He's sure enjoyin' himself, too. Dry Lake is all hisn--and the
way he's misusin' the rig