“Course I'm jealous. Whyfor not? What license have these Panhandle guys to come in and tote off our girls? But don't mind me. I'll pay strict attention to my ham and eggs and not see a thing that's going on.”
“Lieutenant!” Miss Margaret was both embarrassed and shocked.
“Want me to shut my eyes, Tennessee?”
“Next time we get engaged you'll not be let in on the ground floor,” Neill predicted.
“Four days! My, my! If that ain't rapid transit for fair!”
“You're a man of one idea, Steve. Cayn't you see that the fact's the main thing, not the time it took to make it one?”
“And counting out Sunday and Monday, it only leaves two days.”
“Don't let that interfere with your breakfast. You haven't been elected timekeeper for this outfit, you know!”
Fraser recovered from his daze and duly offered congratulations to the one and hopes for unalloyed joy to the other party to the engagement.
“But four days!” he added in his pleasant drawl. “That's sure some precipitous. Just to look at him, ma'am”—this innocently to Peggy—“a man wouldn't think he had it in him to locate, stake out, and do the necessary assessment work on such a rich claim as the Margaret Kinney all in four days. Mostly a fellow don't strike such high-grade ore without a lot of—”