Dad, doubled up in a corner. "Gimme a ho-ho-ho!" he roared in a fresh paroxysm of mirth. "Lefty an' George settin' up nights watchin' th' shadders! Ho-ho-ho!"
"An' Carter boardin' us free!" yelled Baldy; Martin. "Oh, my G—d! He 'll never get over it!"
"Yessir!" squeaked Dad. "Free; an' scared we 'd let 'em burn his store. 'Better stand 'em off in my place,' he says. 'It 's full of grub,' he says. He-he-he!"
"An' did you see Hank squattin' on th' roof like a horned toad waitin' for his dinner?" shouted Dickinson. "I 'm goin' to die! I 'm goin' to die!" he sobbed.
"No sich luck!" snorted Hank belligerently. "I 'll skin him alive! Yessir; alive!"
Carter paused in his calculations of his loss in food and tobacco. "Better let him alone, Hank," he warned earnestly. "Anyhow, we pestered him nigh to death las' time, an' he 's shore come back at us. Better let him alone!"
