“Where’d you come from?” he asked the officer.
“Oh, I took a little run up here in one of them new-fangled gasolene gigs,” replied the sheriff, with a grin. “I heard you were up here an’ I felt I couldn’t get along without havin’ a little conversation with you.”
“Um!” grunted Stoneham.
Dalsett disappeared into the bushes at the instant the sheriff had jumped on the gambler’s back, and was soon lost to sight.
“Never mind him,” said the officer, when he saw that capture was not possible. “I didn’t want him, anyhow. It was Pud I was after, an’ I got him.”
“What’ll we do with this lad?” asked one of the deputies who had grabbed Pender.
“Pl-pl-please don’t ki-kill me!” cried the boy, a coward, now that his side had lost.
“Kill you!” exclaimed the sheriff. “The worst that’ll happen to you will be a good spankin’. That’s what we do to babies out here!”
Pender showed no inclination to escape, nor did Bill Berry, who stood sullenly to one side.