And I hunted around for that bum chain, and then we made out we couldn't find the padlock for the door; so we decided, right out loud, that he'd be dead safe for an hour or two, till the bunch of us got back.

Not knowing a darn thing about him, except what you boys have told us, we sure would have been in bad if he hadn't taken a sneak.
Fact is, we were kinda worried for fear he wouldn't have nerve enough to try it.

We waited, up on the hill, till we saw him sneak down to the corral and jump on his horse and take off down the coulee like a scared coyote.

It was," quoth the young man, unmistakably pleased with himself, "pretty smooth work, if you ask me." "I'd hate to ride as fast and far to-night as that hombre will," supplemented Miguel with his brief smile, that was just a flash of white, even teeth and a momentary lightening of his languorous eyes.
Slim stood for five minutes, a stolid, stocky figure in the midst of a storm of congratulatory comment.

They forgot all about Happy Jack, asleep inside the house, and so their voices were not hushed.