“You—you can huh-have it!” pants Hassayampa.
“How did it get loose?”
“Go and ask it. I—I was talkin to Chuck Warner at the front door of the stable when all to once I hears somebody yell, and here comes Cleopatra.”
“Somebody yell?” snorts Buck. “By golly, I’ll bet some of that Paradise gang turned her loose while you was at the front door. Git down there, everybody, before they turn ’em all loose.”
They all went down there, except me and Dirty and Buck. They could turn ’em loose as far as me and Dirty are concerned. A few minutes after they’re gone Old Testament and Muley Bowles comes in. Testament ain’t got no hat and his coat is split up the back. Muley don’t track very well and he’s got a swellin’ over one eye.
“‘In the midst of life we are in death,’” says Testament, indicatin’ that he don’t want his lemonade straight.
Buck looks ’em over.
“You two been fightin’ each other?” he asks.
“It—it was a mistake,” says Muley, drinkin’ the water and pourin’ his liquor in the cuspidor. “I thought Testament was a—a—”
“He thought I was a door,” finished Testament, “and tried to go through me. Perhaps we had better go home, Muley.”