“Yes, sir.”
“Well, boys out here have to act like men, and I like your manly way about this business. You came back, found out the trouble, and rode over directly to set it right?”
“Yes, sir—exactly.”
“That’s all very right and just; only as a man of long experience, young Braydon, you see, I know better how to manage these troubles than you possibly can—a lad fresh over from school.”
“Yes, sir, I suppose so,” said Nic, “in most cases; but I do know our man better than you.”
“You think so, my lad; but you are wrong. He was my servant first.”
“Still, you will let our man come back with me, sir?”
“In your father’s absence, my boy, I have too much respect for him, too much interest in the safety of your mother and sisters, to send back unpunished a desperate man.”
“Don’t say that, sir. You don’t know Leather indeed.”
“‘Nothing like Leather,’” said Mr Dillon, smiling. “Yes, I should think he was a great favourite of yours. But, come now, my boy; you have done your part well. Here, come in and have a good meal. Your man has done what many more of these fellows do—broken out in a bit of savagery. He is shut up safely in yonder, too much done up for me to say anything to him to-night; but tomorrow morning he will be tamed down a bit, and kept for three or four days to return to his senses, and then he will come back and go on with his work like a lamb.”