"Why, of course not," parried Buck. "What gave you that notion?"
"I dunno exactly. I s'pose mebbe it's the way you're plannin' to give yore time to it without pay or nothin'. There won't be a darn cent in it for yuh, even if yuh do land Tex in the pen."
"I know that," and Buck smiled; "but I'm a stubborn cuss when I get started on anything. Besides, I love Tex Lynch well enough to want to see him get every mite that's comin' to him. I've got a little money saved up, and I'll get more fun spending it this way than any other I can think of."
"There's somethin' in that," agreed Jessup. "Golly, Buck! I wisht I could go along with yuh. I never was much on savin', but I could manage a couple of weeks without a job."
Stratton hesitated. "I'd sure like it, kid," he answered. "It would be a whole lot pleasanter for me, but I'm wondering if you wouldn't do more good there on the Shoe-Bar. With nobody at all to cross him, there's no tellin' what Lynch might try and pull off. Besides, it seems to me somebody ought to be there to sort of look after Miss--" He broke off, struck by a sudden possibility. "You don't suppose he'll get really nasty about what you--"
"Hell!" broke in Bud sharply. "I wasn't thinking about that. He'll be nasty, of course, but he can't go more than so far. I reckon you're right, Buck. Miss Mary oughtn't to be left there by herself."
Bud disposed of the aristocratic Alfred with a forceable epithet which ought to have made his ears burn. "Besides, that bird ain't goin' to stay forever, I hope," he added.
This settled, they passed on to other details, and by the time they reached Paloma, everything had been threshed out and decided, including a possible means of communication in case of emergency.
Ravenously hungry, they sought the ramshackle hotel at once, and though it was long after the regular supper hour, they succeeded in getting a fair meal cooked and served. Concluding that it would be pleasanter all around to give Lynch as much time as possible to recover from his spleen, Bud decided to defer his return to the ranch until early morning. So when they had finished eating, they walked down to the store to arrange for hiring one of Daggett's horses again. Here they were forced to spend half an hour listening to old Pop's garrulous comments and the repeated "I told you so," which greeted the news of Stratton's move before they could tear themselves away and turn in.