hts uh ownership is plumb scand'l'us. He
makes me think of a cow on the fight in a forty-foot corral; nobody
dast show their noses outside; Dry Lake's holed up in their sullers,
till he quits camp.

"I seen him cut down on the hotel China-cook jest for tryin' t' make a
sneak out t' the ice-house after some meat fer dinner. He like t' got
him, too. Chink dodged behind the board-pile in the back yard, an'
laid down. He was still there when I left town, and the chances is
somebody else 'll have t' cook dinner t'day. Weary was so busy
close-herdin' the Chinaman that I got a chanst t' sneak out the back
door uh Rusty's place, climb on m' horse and take a shoot up around by
the stockyards and pull fer camp. I couldn't git t' the store, so I
didn't bring out no mail."

The Happy Family drew a long breath. This was getting beyond a joke.

"Looks t 'me like you fellows 'd come alive and do something about it,"
hinted Happy, with his mouth full. "Weary'll shoot somebody, er git
shot, if he ain't took care of mighty quick."

"Happy," said Chip bluntly, "I don't grab that yarn. Weary may be in
town, and he _may_ be having a little fun with Dry Lake, but he isn't
drunk. When you try to run a whizzer like that, you can put me down as
being from Missouri."

"Same here," put in Pink, ominously soft as to voice. "Anybody that
tries to make me believe Weary's performing that way has sure got his
work cut out for him. If it was Happy, now--"

"Gee!" cried Jack Bates, laughing as a possible solution came to him.
"I'm willing to bet money he was just stringing Happy. I'll bet he
done it deliberate and with malice aforethought, just to _make_ Happy
sneak out uh town and burn the earth getting here so he could tell it
scarey to the rest of us."

"Yeah, that's about the size of it," assented Cal.

The Family felt that they had a new one on Happy Jack, and showed it in
the smiles they sent toward him.

"By golly, yes!" broke out Slim. "Weary's been layin' for Happy for a
long while to pay off making the tent leak on him, that night; he's
sure played a good one, this time!"

Happy carefully balanced his plate on the wagon-tongue near the
doubletrees, and stood glaring down upon his tormentors.

"Aw, look here!" he began, with his voice very near to tears. Then he
gulped and took a more warlike tone. "I don't set m'self up t' be a
know-it-all--but I guess I can tell when a man's full uh booze. And I
ain't claimin' t