“Then that’s all right. That’s what I aimed to do. I just set out to nip you, and scare you back where you came from.”
“But why?” insisted the perplexed Stranleigh.
“You came along with a posse behind you, and I thought you were the sheriff, but I wouldn’t kill even a sheriff unless I had to. I’m the peaceablest man on earth, as Miss Armstrong there will tell you.”
“If that’s your idea of peace,” said Stranleigh, puzzled, “I hope next time I’ll fall among warlike people.”
Jim grinned. It was Miss Armstrong who spoke, and, it seemed to Stranleigh, with unexpected mildness, considering she knew so much of the Eastern States and Europe.
“I understand,” she said, “but next time, Jim, it will be as well merely to fire the gun, without hitting anybody.”
“Oh,” explained Jim, in an off-hand manner, “our folk don’t pay any attention to the like of that. You’ve got to show them you mean business. If this gentleman had come on, the next shot would have hit him where it would hurt, but seeing he was peaceable minded, he was safe as in a church.”
“Is the baggage where he left it?”
“Certainly, Ma’am; do you wish it brought here?”
“Yes; I do.”