After a moment's glaring silence: "You look clean. I guess you be, too. I wanta tell you I'll cut the guts outa any guy that lays the heft of a single finger onto Eve."
"I'd do so, too, if I were you," said Stormont.
"Would ye? Well, I guess you're a real man, too, even if you're a State Trooper," growled Clinch. "G'wan up. She's a-nappin'. If she wakes up you kinda talk pleasant to her. You act pleasant and cozy. She ain't had no ma. You tell her to set snug and ca'm. Then you cook her an egg if she wants it. There's pie, too. I cal'late to be back by sundown."
"Nearer morning," remarked Smith.
Stormont shrugged. "I'll stay until you show up, Clinch."
The latter took another rifle from the corner and handed it to Smith with a loop of ammunition.
"Come on," he grunted.
On the veranda he strode up to the group of sullen, armed men who regarded his advent in expressionless silence.
Sid Hone was there, and Harvey Chase, and the Hastings boys, and
Cornelius Blommers.
"You fellas comin'?" inquired Clinch.