And," he added, reaching for his hat, "once I got the papers for it, there wasn't anything to hang around for, was there?
Especially," he said with his old, sunny smile, "when we weren't urged a whole lot to stay." Remained therefore little, save the actual arrival of the Old Man--a pitifully weak Old Man, bandaged and odorous with antiseptics, and quite pathetically glad to be back home--and his recovery, which was rather slow, and the recovery of Happy Jack, which was rapid.
For a brief space the Flying U outfit owned the Dots; very brief it was; not a day longer than it took Chip to find a buyer--at a figure considerably above that named in the option, by the way.
So, after a season of worry and trouble and impending tragedy such as no man may face unflinchingly, life dropped back to its usual level, and the trail of the Flying U outfit once more led through pleasant places..