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PAINTED ROCK

Oh, I'm sad to say I surprised 'em. She ran, and he looked at me very fightable and mad, but I kept ca'm so's not to let him know what I seen, and I out-faced him."

"What did you see?" whispered Bill.

"Her and him kissin', and him huggin' her, and—but I'll say no more. You and me will hunt him up and make him merry her right off!"

Bill didn't "apoplex," but he looked alarmingly near it.

"What was he like?"

"Large and powerful, weighin' some two hundred pounds or thereabouts," said George, "and he'd an ivory butt to his gun and mesquite leggin's and a red shirt, and his eyes was blue, and he warn't bad-lookin', and he rode a big sorrel pony branded Circle X on the near shoulder."

"That's Billy Prentiss," said Bill Higginson; "sure as death that's Billy Prentiss, who is thess minute—lookin' forward a little—as dead as ever any man was."

But George grabbed his arm.

"No, Bill, make him merry her. If you

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