His left hand rose, following the old instinct, and touched beneath his throat where the cold cross lay.
He was saying easily: "This is your dance, isn't it ?" "Right, Bud," answered the big man in a mellow voice as great as his size.

"Sorry I can't swap partners with you, but I hunt alone." An overwhelming desire to get a distance between himself and this huge unknown came to Pierre.
He said: "There goes the music.

You're off." And the other, moving toward Jack, leaned down a little and murmured at the ear of the outlaw: "Thanks, Pierre." Then he was gone, and Jacqueline was laughing over his shoulder back to Pierre.
Through his daze and through the rising clamor of the music, a voice said beside him: "You look sort of sick, dude.

Who's your friend ?" "Don't you know him ?" asked Pierre.
"No more than I do you; but I've ridden the range for ten years around here, and I know that he's new to these parts.

If I'd ever glimpsed him before, I'd remember him.