"
"Well," said Curly sarcastically, "what _had_ happened?"
"I don't know-nothin'--mebby."
"If Patches was what some o' you boys seem to think, do you reckon he'd
be a-ridin' for the Cross-Triangle?" demanded Curly.
"He might, an' he mightn't," retorted two or three at once.
"Nobody can't say nothin' in a case like that until the show-down,"
added one. "I don't reckon the Dean knows any more than the rest of us."
"Unless Patches is what some of the other boys are guessin'," said
another.
"Which means," finished Curly, in a tone of disgust, "that we've got to
millin' 'round the same old ring again. Come on, Bob; let's see what
they've got for supper. That engine'll happen along directly, an' we'll
be startin' hungry."
Phil Acton was not ignorant of the different opinions that were held by
the cattlemen regarding Honorable Patches. Nor, as the responsible
foreman of the Cross-Triangle, could he remain indifferent to them.
During those first months of Patches' life on the ranch, when the
cowboy's heart had so often been moved to pity for the stranger who had
come to them apparently from some painful crisis in his life, he had
laughed at the suspicions of his old friends and associates.
Pages:
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261