"Makin' me admit that before I would have let you go on I'd have shot you!"
"Colonel!" He loosed his hold of Nig.
"I rather reckon I owe you my life—and something else besides"—the Colonel laid one hand on the thin shoulder where the pack-strap pressed, and closed the other hand tight over his pardner's right—"and I hadn't meant even to thank you neither."
"Don't, for the Lord's sake, don't!" said the younger, and neither dared look at the other.
A scratching on the canvas, the Northern knock at the door.
"You fellers sound awake?"
A woman's voice. Under his breath, "Who the devil's that?" inquired the Colonel, brushing his hand over his eyes. Before he got across the tent Maudie had pushed the flap aside and put in her head.
"Hello!"
"Hell-o! How d'e do?"
He shook hands, and the younger man nodded, "Hello."