A closer examination showed that this must be what had taken place. There was no wound on Bob’s body. He had been stunned by the shock and his active imagination had at once accepted the assumption that he had been wounded.
Bob rose with a shamefaced laugh. The incident seemed to him very characteristic. He was always making a fool of himself by getting frightened when there was no need of it. One could not imagine Dud Hollister lying down and talking faintly about an internal bleeding when there was not a scratch on his body, nor fancying that he could feel blood soaking through his shirt because somebody had shot at him.
As the three men walked back toward the hotel, they met June and Dud. The girl cried out at sight of Bob.
“I’m a false alarm,” he told her bitterly. “He didn’t hit me a-tall.”
“Hit his b-belt buckle. If this here T-Texas man lives to be a hundred he’ll never have a closer call. Think of a fellow whangin’ away with a forty-five right close to him, hitting him where he was aimin’ for, and not even scratching Bob. O’ course the shock of it knocked him cold. Naturally it would. But I’ll go on record that our friend here was born lucky. I’d ought by rights to be holdin’ an inquest on the remains,” Blister burbled cheerfully.
June said nothing. She drew a long sigh of relief and looked at Bob to make sure that they were concealing nothing from her.
He met her look in a kind of dogged despair. On this one subject he was so sensitive that he found criticisms where none were intended. Blister was making excuses for him, he felt, was preparing a way of escape from his chicken-hearted weakness. And he did not want the failure palliated.
“What’s the use of all that explainin’, Blister?” he said bluntly. “Fact is, I got scared an’ quit cold. Thought I was shot up when I wasn’t even powder-burnt.”
He turned on his heel and walked away.
Dud’s white teeth showed in his friendly, affectionate grin. “Never did see such a fellow for backin’ hisself into a corner an’ allowin’ that he’s a plumb quitter. I’ll bet, if the facts were known, he come through all right.”