"Heavens!" exclaimed Dick in an aside to the major. "Is it credible that that man ate two days ago!"
"Gad!" exclaimed the major, "the man's stomach is nothing but a pocket."
"A pocket! I should call it an unexplored cavern!" retorted Dick.
"The direction and reason of your long trail would be interesting," I resumed. "And, if not impertinent, friend, may I ask you whence you have come?"
"I have journeyed from Texas," replied the man, and his voice nearly broke as he said it.
"Oh!" exclaimed the ladies, and they sympathetically grouped themselves, anticipating, with true feminine sensitiveness, some terrible dénouement.
"Texas!" I ejaculated.
"Gad!" said the major.
"The Devil!" said Dick.
"Yes, Texas!" repeated the man, and he groaned.