The Happy Family did not look at one another--they looked chiefly at the wall of the house.
The Old Man reckoned the wages due each one, and wrote a check for the exact amount.

And he spoke no word that did not intimately concern the matter in hand.

He still had that gray, hard look in his face that froze whatever explanation they would otherwise have volunteered.

And when he handed the last man--who was Patsy--his check, he got up stiffly and turned his back on them, and went inside and closed the door while yet they lingered, waiting to explain.
At the bunk-house, whence they walked silently, Slim turned suddenly upon their leader.

His red face had gone a sallow white, and the whites of his eyes were veined with red.
"If that there land business falls down anywhere because you lied to us, Andy Green' I'll kill you fer this" he stated flatly.
"If it Does, Slim, I'll stand and let yuh shoot me as full of lead as you like," Andy promised, in much the same tone.