"Was a little over sixteen when I made my first trip."
"I'll venture you are a gritty one. Ever have any trouble?"
"None that I could not look after."
"Don't be offended at my questions. I should judge there might be some tough characters in this vicinity, and, naturally, one in your position would be likely to run across them. If I am not mistaken, the Raggles settled in this locality."
"I never knew but one family by that name, and they have come recently."
"I may have been mistaken. They were a bad gang, anyway."
Little Snap making no reply to this, Mr. Goings dropped the conversation, so that very little was said until reaching Hollow Tree.
Dan Shag showed his surprise at seeing a companion with the postboy.
"Reckon it's a purty good thing to hev a guard," he said, in a low tone. "Had the colonel got home this mornin'?"
"No, sir. Everything all right this morning?"