"Is th' Doc a friend of you fellers?" asked Johnny.
"We ain't weepin' none over his kidnappin', if that's what you mean," chuckled Matt. "He mebby will be kidnapped ag'in, sometime—an' hoof it back home. Why?"
"Well, I didn't want to hurt you fellers' feelin's," replied Johnny.
"What you mean?" asked Cimarron. "You'll have to be plumb rough to hurt any feelin's out here."
"Matt was sayin' he believes in bein' neighborly," explained Johnny, "an' I happened to think of somethin' about th' Doc, what stirred me a-plenty. That's why I asked."
"What was that?" asked Slim.
"Why, that Arnold girl was took sick about a year ago, an' they sent for th' Doc. He said he would doctor cows an' hosses, but he wouldn't sling a laig across a saddle if th' whole SV was dyin', an' be refused to go. That kid had to ride to Highbank for that drunken doctor down there."
"Th' h—l you say!" snapped Thompson. "Is that right?"
"It is," answered Johnny. "An' it made me wonder what kind of country I'd got into. I maintains that no doctor like that measures up to th' standards of cow-country men; an' when th' old man busted his laig I says it was plumb proper that th' coyote was kidnapped an' made to do his plain duty."
"I'm admirin' that kidnappin' more every day," exclaimed Slim. "Th' dog wouldn't have to be kidnapped if he was needed on th' Bar H."