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Page 42
Slim jerked open the top of the bag while Sage-brush stood by
helplessly. "Well, the darned idiot!" he muttered, as he peered
into it. "If he ain't gone and got it on the ear," he continued,
as he pulled a big ear out.
"All the better," chuckled Sage-brush. "We'll chuck 'em joy in
bunches."
"Don't you know that if you hit the bride with a club like this--
you'll put her plumb out?" cried Slim.
Sage-brush was not cast down, however. Always resourceful, he
suggested: "We'll shell some for the bride, but we'll hand Jack
his in bunches."
The idea appealing to the punchers, each grabbed an ear of corn.
Some brandished the ears like clubs; others aimed them like
revolvers.
"I'll keep this one," said Slim, picking out an unusually large
ear. "It's a .44. I'll get one of the Greasers to shell some
for the bride."
The bride was arrayed in her wedding-gown. Mrs. Allen was ready
for a fresh burst of weeping. The girls had assembled in the
large room in which the ceremony was to be performed. Polly
acted as her herald for the cowboys. Appearing in the doorway,
she commanded: "Say, you folks come on and get seated."
Slim stood beside Polly as the boys marched past him. His
general admonition was: "The first one you shorthorns that makes
a break, I'm goin' to bend a gun over your head."
The guests grinned cheerfully as they marched past the couple.
"There's a heap of wickedness in that bunch," remarked Slim
piously to the girl. Tossing a flower to him as she darted away,
she cried: "You ain't none too good yourself, Slim."
"Ain't she a likely filly," mused the love-sick Sheriff. "If
there's anybody that could make me good, it's her. I'm all in.
If ever I get the nerve all at once--darn me if I don't ask her
right out."
But Slim's courage oozed as quickly as it had arisen, and with a
sigh he followed his companions to the wedding.
CHAPTER IX
What God Hath Joined Together
Dick Lane, on leaving the hospital at Chihuahua, went straight to
the fortified ledge where he had made his heroic defense. As he
conjectured, the renegade, McKee, had got there first, and found
and made off with the buried treasure. So Dick manfully set to
work to replace his lost fortune. It seemed too slow work to go
to his mine and dig the gold he immediately required out of the
ground, so he struck out for civilization to sell some of his
smaller claims. In the course of a month, at the end of which
his wanderings brought him to Tucson, he had sold enough of his
holdings to give him three thousand dollars in ready cash. As he
was near the Sweetwater, he resolved not to express the money to
Payson, but to take it himself.
He entered the courtyard of Allen Hacienda while the wedding was
taking place within. None of his friends would have recognized
him. His frame was emaciated from sickness; his head was drawn
back by the torture which he had suffered; he limped upon feet
that had been distorted by the firebrands in McKee's hands; and
his face was overgrown by an unkempt beard.
Sounds of laughter fell upon his ears as he mounted the steps. He
heard Fresno shout to Slim to hurry up, as he was telling the
story about a fellow that was so tanked up he could not say
"sasaparilla."
Dick halted. "There must be some sort of a party going on here,"
he thought to himself. "It won't do to take Echo too much by
surprise. If Jack got my letter and told her, it's all right,
but if it miscarried--the shock might kill her. I'll see Jack
first."
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