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CHAPTER XVI

After they had gone below Dennison dropped into Jane’s chair. Immediately Dodge began to talk: “So you nearly throttled that ornery coyote, huh? Whata you know about this round-up? The three o’ ’em came in, and I never smelt nothin’ until they were on top o’ me. How should I smell anythin’? Hobnobbing together for days, how was I to know they were a bunch of pirates? Is your old man sore?”

“Naturally.”

“I mean appertainin’ to me?”

“I don’t see how he could be. Who took care of you—bound you up?”

“That nice-lookin’ greaser with the slue foot. Soft speakin’ like a woman and an eye like a timber wolf. Some hombre! Where we bound for?”

“God knows!”—dejectedly.

“Bad as that, huh? Your girl?”