I'll let your range alone."
"But y'u mean to cross it down below where the Bar Double-E cows
run?"
Bannister's gay smile touched the sardonic face. "Do you invite
the public to examine your hand when you sit into a game of
poker, Mr. McWilliams?"
"You're dead right. It's none of my business what y'u do so long
as y'u keep off our range," admitted the foreman. "And next time
the conversation happens on Mr. Bannister, I'll put in my little
say-so that he ain't all black."
"That's very good of you, sir," was the other's ironical retort.
The girl's gauntleted hand offered itself impulsively. "We can't
be friends under existing circumstances, Mr. Bannister. But that
does not alter the fact that I owe you an apology. You came as a
peace envoy, and one of my men shot at you. Of course, he did not
understand the reason why you came, but that does not matter. I
did not know your reason myself, and I know I have been very
inhospitable."
"Are you shaking hands with Ned Bannister the sheepman or Ned
Bannister the outlaw?" asked the owner of that name, with a queer
little smile that seemed to mock himself.
"With Ned Bannister the gentleman. If there is another side to
him I don't know it personally.
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