"You keep mum about what you saw, d'y' hear?"
"Shore; but it'll be on my mind all th' time, an' I talk in my sleep when anything's on my mind."
"Then that's why I never heard you talk in yore sleep."
"Aw, g'wan! But they'll see th' flower, won't they?"
"Shore they will; but as long as they don't know how it got there they can't say much."
"They can't, hey!" Johnny exclaimed. "That's a new one on me. It's usually what they don't know about that they talks of most. What they don't know they can guess in this case, all right. Most of 'em are good on readin' signs, an' that's plain as th' devil."
"But don't you tell 'em!" Hopalong warned.
"No. I won't tell 'em, honest," Johnny replied. He could convey the information in a negative way and he grinned hopefully at the fun there would be.
"I mean it, Kid," Hopalong responded, reading the grin. "I don't care about myself; they can joke all they wants with me. But it ain't nowise right to drag her into it, savvy? She don't want to be talked about like that."
"Yo're right; they won't find out nothin' from me," and Johnny saw his fun slip from him. "I'm goin' east; comin' along?"