“Spike,” says Freckles, when they were walking back to town together, chewing licorice and pretending it was tobacco, “do you really have some brass knucks?”
“No,” says Spike. “Do you, Freckles?”
“No,” says Freckles.
And they went back to the tent together and asked the gang if they wanted any of their game, and nobody did, and the disgrace lifted.
And I felt so good about that and the end of the love-affair and everything, that right then and there I hunted up that Burning Deck dog and give him the licking of his life, which I had never been able to do before.