The time has gone by when we could ride over there and haze his bunch clear out uh the country on a high lope, with our six guns backing our argument.

I kinda wish," he added pensively, "we _hadn't_ got so damn' decent and law-abiding.

We could get action a heap more speedy and thorough with a dozen or fifteen buckaroos that liked to fight and had lots uh shells and good hosses.

Why, I could have the old man's bunch shoveling dirt into that ditch to beat four aces, in about fifteen minutes, if--" "But, as you say," Dill cut in anxiously, "we are decent and law-abiding, and such a procedure is quite out of the question." "Aw, I ain't meditating no moonlight attack, Dilly--but the boys would sure love to do it if I told 'em to get busy, and I reckon we could make a better job of it than forty-nine injunctions and all kinds uh law sharps." "Careful, William.

I used to be a 'law sharp' myself," protested Dill, pulling his face into a smile.