“Don't seem to make anything of it,” whispered Taylor to Tommy, “but the ladies have got their minds on this Indian truck.”
“Why, I'll just explain—” began Tommy.
“Don't,” whispered Lin, joining us. “Yu' know how women are. Once they take a notion, why, the more yu' deny the surer they get. Now, yu' see, him and me” (he jerked his elbow towards the Virginian) “must go back to camp, for we're on second relief.”
“And the ladies would sleep better knowing there was another man in the house,” said Taylor.
“In that case,” said Tommy, “I—”
“Yu' see,” said Lin, “they've been told about Ten Sleep being burned two nights ago.”
“It ain't!” cried Tommy.
“Why, of course it ain't,” drawled the ingenious Lin. “But that's what I say. You and I know Ten Sleep's all right, but we can't report from our own knowledge seeing it all right, and there it is. They get these nervous notions.”
“Just don't appear to make anything special of not going back to Riverside,” repeated Taylor, “but—”
“But just kind of stay here,” said Lin.