"You bate!" chuckled the Vermonter. "Take us together, Barney and we make a hull team, with a little dog under the wagon."
"As a business partner," said the Irishman, "Oi'll take a down-east Yankee ivery toime. Begobs, Ephie, ye know how to do business all roight, all roight!"
"And as a railroad construction boss," grinned Gallup, "yeou're right up to date, Barney. Yeou handled your end of the business slick as a whistle while I was lookin' arter my end. I wonder what they're stoppin' here for?"
The train was pulling up at a junction. On questioning the porter, they learned that there would be a stop of nearly twenty minutes while other cars were taken on from another route.
Gallup proposed that they should step out on the platform and get some air. Neither Teresa nor Juanita seemed anxious to do this, so Ephraim and Barney left them in the car.
The junction was a bustling little town, and there was a great deal going on in the vicinity of the station.
Mulloy and Gallup lighted cigars and promenaded the platform.
At the far end they observed a group of men and boys surrounding a person who stood on a small square box, making a speech. This person was bareheaded, and his hair was unusually long and disheveled. He was dressed in a loose suit of light-colored clothes, wore a negligee shirt, with a soft turndown collar, and had no vest. His back was toward Barney and Ephraim as they approached.
"Begorra! it's natural he looks," muttered the Irishman.
"Gol-dinged if that ain't right!" agreed Gallup. "Somehow his voice sounds kinder nateral, too."