“Ain't that a frame-up for you, pardner?” Bunny appealed to Johnny. “And yet nothing could be easier according to what Bob's told me than to fetch the kid out here. His nurse trundles him to the Pay Streak every morning in his little buggy when his imitation daddy goes up there,—see? And she trundles him back alone,—it's a good mile.—Say, Bob, I wished I could help you!”
“I only wants to kiss him just once or mebby twict,” said Bob mournfully.
A brief pause ensued. Johnny moved uneasily in his seat. He felt curiously committed to Mr. Bunny and his afflicted friend. For some reason, which he obscurely sensed, it was apparently up to him to produce the child for that farewell kiss on which Mr. Graham's happiness seemed so largely to depend.
“I hate to see a western man downed!” resumed Bunny. “Say, Mr. Severance, when I met Bob last night I told him about you—I'm a liar if I didn't!—I says to Bob, I says, 'Say, Bob, we don't want no yearlin's in this.' I says, 'There's a fellow back yonder I'd give a heap to have with us.' I wouldn't insult you by offerin' money for the job!” concluded Bunny with generous enthusiasm.
“No,” said Johnny hastily. “I ain't lookin' to earn no money that way.” He appeared entirely credulous, since he felt it to be his best protection, but he was deeply regretting the alacrity with which he had followed Mr. Bunny.
“There weren't many husbands like Bob here,—that gentle and considerate and always aimin' to please. Say, pardner, you take it straight from me,—it ain't the man any more, it's the bank roll the dolls are after! That Boston man was a ingrate,—I told you so, Bob,—you remember?—I says, 'Bob, he acts white on the surface, but he's a ingrate all the same!—and I hate a ingrate!' Say, I suppose it's because I'm a conservative.”
After tying himself up in this verbal knot, Bunny heaved a sigh.
Johnny glanced about him. He was meditating flight. The ideal parent had sniffed audibly at Bunny's moving peroration.
“Sh—” said Bunny softly. “Ain't it rank, the affection a man feels for his own child?—how it kin make him suffer and suffer?”
Certain sounds issued from Bob's vexed interior which were supposed to be indicative of the anguish of soul that shook him.