There was a rustle and an exchange of satisfied glances and a chorus of approval like an indrawing of breath.
"First, I will see the Doge," Jack added; "and then I shall go to the house."
Galway, Dr. Patterson, Worther, and three or four others went on with him toward the Ewold bungalow. They were halted on the way by Pete Leddy, Ropey Smith, and a dozen followers, who appeared from a side street and stopped across Jack's path, every one of them with a certain slouching aggressiveness and staring hard at him. Pete and Ropey still kept faith with their pledge to Jack in the arroyo. They were without guns, but their companions were armed in defiance of the local ordinance which had been established for Jack's protection.
"Howdy do, Leddy?" said Jack, as amiably as if there had never been anything but the pleasantest of relations between them.
"Getting polite, eh! Where's your pretty whistle?" Leddy answered.
"I put it in storage in New York," Jack said laughing; then, with a sudden change to seriousness: "Leddy, is it true that you and John Prather have got the water rights to this town?"
"None of your d——d business!" Leddy rapped out. "The only business I've got with you has been waiting for some time, and you can have it your way out in the arroyo where we had it before, right now!"
"As I said, Pete, I put the whistle in storage and I have already apologized for the way I used it," returned Jack. "I can't accommodate you in the arroyo again. I have other things to attend to."
"Then the first time you get outside the limits of this town you will have to play my way—a man's way!"
"I hope not, Pete!"