I reckon he'll have to take his chances--and us, too." He raised the reins and clucked to the gray mare; "Well, she'll be mad I ain't there long ago.

Ride in with me ?" "No, I thank you.

I'll walk in for the sake of my appetite." "Wouldn't encourage it _too_ much--livin' at the Palace Hotel,'" observed Bowlder.

"Sorry ye won't ride." He gathered the loose ends of the reins in his hands, leaned far over the dashboard and struck the mare a hearty thwack; the tattered banner of tail jerked indignantly, but she consented to move down the road.

Bowlder thrust his big head through the sun-curtain behind him and continued the conversation: "See the White-Caps ain't got ye yet." "No, not yet." Harkless laughed.
"Reckon the boys 'druther ye stayed in town after dark," the other called back; then, as the mare stumbled into a trot, "Well, come out and see us--if ye kin spare time from the jedge's." The latter clause seemed to be an afterthought intended with humor, for Bowlder accompanied it with the loud laughter of sylvan timidity, risking a joke.