The tingling voices of the other children on their way home, floated in to Tommy, and the corners of his mouth drooped.
To regain his poise, Vic tugged at his belt and felt the weight of the holster slipping into a more convenient place, then he sauntered up the aisle, sweeping off his sombrero.

Every feeling in his body, every nerve, disappeared in a crystalline hardness, for it seemed to him that the air was surcharged by a secret something between Betty and young Hansen.

Betty was out from behind her desk and she ran to meet him and took his hand in both of hers.

The rush of her coming took his breath, and at her touch something melted in her.
"Oh, Vic, are you all through ?" Gregg stiffened for the benefit of Hansen and Tommy Aiken.
"Pretty near through," he said carelessly.

"Thought I'd drop down to Alder for a day or two and get the kinks out.