"Come, mebbee, to see you rope steers," suggested Dan.
"I shall aim not to disappoint him," replied Jimmie. "All the same, I ask you fellers straight: Has he come here to--work?"
"Meanin'?"
"If this yere deadly disease is on the rampage I, for one, 'd like to know it."
"Me too," drawled Dan.
A silence followed as Jimmie coiled up his rope. Pete began to remove his boots. Dan, very furtively, placed a finger upon his pulse. Then he said with constraint--
"Boys, I don't want any joshin'. I've not felt extry spry lately."
"Same here," said Jimmie quickly.
Pete smiled sarcastically.
"A little bird tole me," he remarked slowly, looking at Dan, "as how Miss Mary Willing was seen a-buggy-ridin' las' Sunday with Jack Rice."