He ascribed to them such deeds of skill and valor that they were compelled to call him the best romancer they had met in a long time.
"I suppose that if Mr.Warner were here," said the sergeant, "he would reduce these statements to mathematics, ten per cent fact an' ninety per cent fancy." "Just about that," said Dick.
Red Blaze came to them presently, bristling with news.
"A farmer from a hollow further to the west," he said, "has just come in, an' he says that a band of guerillas is ridin' through the hills.
'Bout twenty of them, he said, led by a big dark fellow, his face covered with black beard.

They've been liftin' hosses an' takin' other things, but they're strangers in these parts.

Tom Sykes, who was held up by them an' robbed of his hoss, says that the rest of 'em called their leader Skelly.

Tom seemed to think that mebbe they came from somewhere in the Kentucky mountains.

They called themselves a scoutin' party of the Southern army." Dick started violently.
"Why, I know this man Skelly," he said.