"The wife's strong on the temperance dope," he said hesitatingly.

"I reckon you'll want to bunk down with the boys till you grow some hide on your face--there's lady company up at the house, and--" "The bunk-house for mine, then," Ford cut in hastily.

"No lady can get within gunshot of me; not if I see her coming in time!" Though he smiled when he said it, there was meaning behind the mirth.
Mason pulled a splinter from a corral rail and began to snap off little bits with his fingers.

"Kate will go straight up in the air with me if she knows you're here and won't come to the house, though," he considered uneasily.

"She's kept a big package of gratitude tucked away with your name on it, ever since that Alaska deal.