“Well; here I am, safe and sound as a dollar. Hello, Shoshone! Howdy, Dan! Hello, Mike! My! that was a long trip in a short time.”
“Here, here! No fair, Angel, no fair!” cried Snakes Duffy, who had returned just then.
“Why, what’s wrong, Snakes?” asked Helen.
“You never said ‘Hello’ to me.”
“Oh, excuse me. How are you, Mr. Snakes Duffy?” said Helen, with an elaborate bow, while all the rest laughed.
“I’m tip-top, Angel. How’s Silver Bill’s folks?”
“All right. Getting along fine,” replied she, waiting a little maliciously for one of them to ask the question she knew they were aching to have answered.
“Boys,” said Shoshone, gathering the three all in one group, and whispering something to them, whereat Dan shook his head, while Snakes and Mike turned their backs, and Mike said:
“It’s up to you, Shoshone.”
This gentleman then put his sombrero on his head, simply to call attention by a wide flourish of his arm to the fact that he took it off to the Angel, and then opened his mouth, to find that words would not come. Helen smiled at his embarrassment and asked, innocently: