“I wonder,” he said, “if it ain’t stopped rainin’ enough for us to go on to town? We don’t want to miss that train, Hashknife.”
“Joe Rich was the sheriff,” said Honey, as an afterthought. “But he resigned the mornin’ after he got drunk. They made a sheriff out of his deputy. Jim Wheeler knocked Joe down that mornin’, but Joe didn’t do anythin’, they say.”
“And it hadn’t ought to take long to fix that bridge,” said Sleepy. “This rain would put the fire out.”
“What kind of a jigger was this Joe Rich?” asked Hashknife curiously.
“Jist salt of the earth, Hartley.”
“Uh-huh,” thoughtfully. “And got so drunk he forgot to get married, eh?”
“Yeah, that’s true,” sighed Honey. “I dunno why he did; and he never said.”
“Didn’t have no quarrel with the girl?”
“⸺, no! Aw, it was to be a big marriage. I was to be best man. My ⸺, I almost crippled myself for life, tryin’ to wear number six shoes.”
“You come eat now?” asked Wong Lee.