Mr. Wright returned from the Long Branch, bringing Mr. Short. Higginson Peabody mentioned the adventures of his hat.
"It's my fault," said Mr. Wright; "I'd ought to have told you. That breed of war-bonnet is ag'inst the rules of our set."
"That's right," coincided Mr. Short; "only sooicides wear 'em in Dodge."
"We'll fix it," observed Mr. Wright, who noticed that Higginson Peabody looked cast down. "What's the size of your head?"
"Seven and an eighth," returned Higginson Peabody, doubtfully.
"Seven and an eighth!" repeated Mr. Wright: "It'll grow in Dodge. See if it ain't two sizes larger in a month."
Mr. Wright sent over to that mart whereof he was proprietor, and presently a pearl-gray sombrero appeared.
"There you are!" exclaimed Mr. Wright. "As good a Stetson as ever rode in a round-up! Price? Not a word! I'll take it out in advertising."
Mr. Wright became as an elder brother to Higginson Peabody. On the morning following the latter's advent the two sat convenient to the hotel bar and talked of Indians. That is, Mr. Wright talked of Indians, and Higginson Peabody gulped and listened, pale of cheek.
Mr. Wright said a Cheyenne was as full of the unexpected as a career in Wall Street. He hoped the Cheyennes wouldn't kill and scalp anybody about Dodge between then and Christmas. Mr. Wright set his limit at Christmas because that was three months away, and three months was as long as even an optimist was licensed to hope anything of a Cheyenne.
No, Mr. Wright did not think the Cheyennes would immediately bother Dodge. They were busy with the buffaloes at that season. Moreover, there were a number of buffalo hunters along the Medicine Lodge and the Cimarron whom they, the Cheyennes, might capture and burn at the stake. This would, so Mr. Wright argued, slake the Cheyenne thirst for immediate amusement. Later, when they had burned up that year's stock of buffalo hunters and were suffering from ennui, the Cheyennes would doubtless visit Dodge.
"But," declared Mr. Wright, triumphantly, "we generally beat 'em off. They never capture or kill more'n fifty of us before we have 'em routed. Sure; we down three times as many of them as they do of us. Which reminds me: come down to Kelly's Alhambra and let me show you the head-dresses and bead jackets we shucked from the last outfit we wiped out."