My dislike of the man had grown to such an extent that I could barely be civil to him.

It was only because it was policy on my part not to make him an active enemy that I tolerated his presence at all.
I presented Terry; though Mattison took his calling more calmly than the others, still I caught several sidewise glances in his direction, and I think he was impressed.
"Happy to know you, Mr.Patten," he remarked as he helped himself to a chair and settled it at the general angle.

"This is a pretty mysterious case in some respects.

I rode over myself this morning to look into a few points and I shall be glad to have some help--though I'm afraid we'll not find anything that'll please you." "Anything pleases me, so long as it's the truth," Terry threw off, as he studied the sheriff, with a gleam of amusement in his eyes; he was thinking, I knew, of Polly Mathers.

"I hope," he added, assuming a severely professional tone, "that you haven't let a lot of people crowd into the cave and tramp up all the marks." The landlord, who was standing in the doorway, chuckled at this.
"There ain't many people that you could drive into that there cave at the point of the pistol," he assured us.