"Wearin' my good clothes," added Billy, sorrowfully.
"An' my boots," sighed Hopalong.
"I ain't got no field glasses no more," grumbled Lanky.
"But he only got one laig of my new pants," chuckled Skinny. "I was too strong for him."
"He yanked my blanket off'n me, which makes me steal Red's," grinned Pete.
"Which you didn't keep very long!" retorted Red, with derision.
"Which makes us all peevish," plaintively muttered Buck.
"Now ain't it a h—l of a note?" laughed Cookie, loudly, forthwith getting scarce. He had nothing good enough to be taken.
"An' whichever was it run ag'in' yore face, Sheriff?" sympathetically inquired Hopalong. "Mighty good thing it stopped," he added thoughtfully.
"Never mind my face!" snorted the peace officer hotly as his deputies smoothed out their grins. "I want to know where Nelson is, an' d—d quick! We 'll search the house first."