"We all heard the bell--" "Yes--and damn it,_I_ heard the bell from then on till daylight!" Pink's lips quivered perceptibly with the mortification that burned within him.
"If I'd been on guard--" "Well, I calc'late you'd a been laid out now with a knife-cut in yuh som'ers," Applehead stopped twisting his sunburnt mustache to say bluntly.

"'S a dang lucky thing fer you, young man, 't you WASN'T on guard, 'n' the only thing't looks queer to me is that you wasn't potted las' night when yuh got out away from here.

Musta been only one of 'em stayed behind, an' he had t' keep out in front uh yuh t' tinkle that dang bell.

Figgered on wearin' out yer hoss, I reckon, 'n' didn't skurcely dare t' take the risk uh killin' you off 'nless they was a bunch around t' handle us." His bright blue eyes with their range squint went from one to another with a certain speculative pride in the glance.
"'N' they shore want t' bring a crowd along when they tie into this yere outfit, now I'm tellin' yuh!" Lite Avery, who had gone prowling down the draw by himself, came back to camp, tilting stiff-leggedly along in his high-heeled boots and betraying, in every step he took, just how handicapped a cowpuncher is when set afoot upon the range and forced to walk where he has always been accustomed to ride.

He stopped to give Pink's exhausted horse a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, and came on, grinning a little with the comers of his mouth tipped down.
"Here's what's left of the hobbles the buckskin wore," he said, holding up the cut loops of a figure-eight rope hobble.