While Johnny had been talking to Margaret there was being enacted a far different scene down on the Bar H. The foreman's anger at the condition of his three men when they had ridden in the day before was newly aroused by Smitty the following morning, when he arrived and shamefacedly slunk into the bunkhouse. Big Tom stormed about the room, demanding to know why he had to have such sheep in his outfit. He wanted to know what they had done, and they could not tell him; he asked where they had gone, and they replied to the SV. What had they done there? They could not recall. Dahlgren spoke vaguely of "going after th' feller," but had no idea who he was, or anything about it; but they all remembered that Nelson had been with them, in the same condition as themselves, and that he had terrorized the SV household. Smitty corroborated the last and rejoiced at the agility which had twice saved him. There were some things to which his memory clung.
Little Tom Carney and Wolf Forbes enjoyed their friends' discomfiture, at the same time sharing in some of Big Tom's disgust.
Wolf looked at them pityingly. "You make me sick!" he sneered. "Fine bunch of sage hens—all you think about is liquor. How many times have I told you to let th' stuff alone, as long as you couldn't drink like humans?"
"Parson Forbes has th' floor," growled Carson. "Bein' human, he——"
"That'll do!" snapped Wolf. "You know how much parson there is to me. Who shot you out of a lynchin' bee back in Texas?" he demanded.
"Who got me into it?" demanded Carson. "They was watchin' that bank, an' I told you so!"
"You said so because you got scared at th' last minute!" retorted Wolf. "If I didn't have to waste half an hour arguin' with you—oh, what of it! That ain't excusin' you from bein' a fool day before yesterday, is it?"
"Mebby you could 'a' done better?" ironically queried Dahlgren.
"If he couldn't, I'd fire him!" snapped Big Tom.
"You wouldn't have to fire me; I'd quit!" replied Wolf.