There was another chuckle, during which the preacher looked from one keen face to another, but he did not speak.
"What has the scrapping been about, Peter?" asked Inez.
Douglas turned quietly to look at her. It suddenly occurred to him that Inez used Peter's name with a cadence that was new to him. He saw that she was watching Peter's thin sallow face with a shadow of strain about her eyes.
"O it's about a bull again," laughed Peter. "It seems that Scott has an old red bull that Nelson says is one of his, rebranded."
"But I thought," began Judith; then she caught Charleton's sardonic eye and subsided.
"What did you think, Judith?" asked Peter.
"Nothing. Go on with your story."
"There is no story to it. Scott's been keeping a six-shooter guard on the upper springs of Lost Chief, so's old Nelson hasn't had but half his usual allowance of water for his ditches. He is sorer about that than he is over the bull, though he certainly is determined to get the critter back. But he got small comfort out of me. I told him to keep his plural fingers off of Lost Chief Creek, or he would lose more than an old red bull."
"Right-o!" grunted Charleton.
"Are you going to ask Scott to let Nelson use his trail, Peter?" asked
Inez.