"But," protested John, "that's no punishment, and it don't say a thing about Judith!"
Douglas shifted his feet impatiently. "I'm not going to punish any guy for running after Jude. That's a fair fight. What I'm sore about is his lying about me and shooting at me when I wasn't armed."
"I'd planned," said Scott gruffly, "to try to buy back our old place from the Browns. They've got more than they can carry and I'm sure getting nowhere renting that piece from Charleton."
"And," suggested Charleton with a grin, "if you encourage those broncos of yours, they each might have three or four slicks every spring, and if you keep up practice with the blacksnake on the old milch cow—"
"Dry up, Charleton!" exclaimed Peter. "What do you think of the idea,
Frank?"
"It ain't bad," answered the sheriff slowly, "though I ain't afraid of the Mormons coming in."
"That's where you are wrong," said Charleton. "They are going to get Lost Chief Valley by any straight or crooked method they can think up. With an ornery devil like Scott to climb over, they won't try to come in that entrance, that's sure."
"How about it, Scott?" asked the sheriff.
"I'd just as soon, and I'd just as soon say that I sure went crazy when
Doug gave me those two good ones and I did what I wouldn't have done if
I'd taken time to think."
"Well," grinned Douglas, "nobody is going to kick if you don't take time to think over in the Mormon valley."