I stopped a minute, an' then sort o' eased along in the dark, an' run right onto 'em where they was a-settin' in the door o' the saddle room, cozy as you please.

Yavapai sneaked away while I was gettin' the lantern an' lightin' it, but Patches, he jest stayed an' held the light for me while I fixed ol' Pedro, jest as if nothin' had happened." "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.