“I’d tell a man!”
Hashknife chuckled softly. Sleepy felt the same about every girl he met, and still he had never had a girl he could call his own.
“What are you grinnin’ about?” asked Sleepy.
“Nothin’. Only I’ve heard that same thing before, Sleepy.”
“Well, why not? I’m old enough to know what I—aw, quit it! Just because yo’re girl-proof, yuh don’t need to think I am.”
“I never thought yuh was, pardner. Go ahead. This would be a great country to settle down in—and sprout.”
“A feller could move, couldn’t he? Say, who ever started this argument? My gosh, can’t I even look at a girl?”
Hashknife chuckled loudly as he removed his spurs and shook himself loose from his batwing chaps.
“You’ve got my permission, pardner,” he said.
“Thank yuh kindly, sir.”