He was faintly roused by the churchbells, and lay still, lingering with his sleep, his eyes closed and his thoughts unshaped. As he became slowly aware of the morning, the ringing and the light reached him, and he waked wholly, and, still lying quiet, considered the strange room filled with the bells and the sun of the winter’s day. “Where have I struck now?” he inquired; and as last night returned abruptly upon his mind, he raised himself on his arm.
There sat Responsibility in a chair, washed clean and dressed, watching him.
“You’re awful late,” said Responsibility. “But I weren’t a-going without telling you good-bye.”
“Go?” exclaimed Lin. “Go where? Yu’ surely ain’t leavin’ me to eat breakfast alone?” The cow-puncher made his voice very plaintive. Set Responsibility free after all his trouble to catch him? This was more than he could do!
“I’ve got to go. If I’d thought you’d want for me to stay—why, you said you was a-going by the early train.”
“But the durned thing’s got away on me,” said Lin, smiling sweetly from the bed.
“If I hadn’t a-promised them—”
“Who?”
“Sidney Ellis and Pete Goode. Why, you know them; you grubbed with them.”