" Two revolvers, neither of which had
been discharged for ten years, reposed in a box fastened to the
dashboard. Anderson solemnly but positively refused to allow any one to
accompany him, nor would he permit any one to question him. Farmers
coming to town spoke of seeing him in the lanes and in the woods, but he
had winked genially when they had asked what he was trailing.
"He's after the train robbers," explained all Tinkletown soberly.
Whereupon the farmers and their wives did not begrudge Anderson Crow the
chicken dinners he had eaten with them, nor did they blame him for
bothering the men in the fields. It was sufficient that he found excuse
to sleep in the shade of their trees during his still hunt.
"Got any track of 'em?" asked George Ray one evening, stopping at
Anderson's back gate to watch the marshal unhitch his thankful nag.
Patience had ceased to be a virtue with George.
"Any track of who?" asked Mr. Crow with a fine show of innocence.
"The robbers."
"I ain't been trackin' robbers, George."
"What in thunder have you been trackin' all over the country every day,
then?"
"I'm breakin' this colt," calmly replied the marshal, with a mighty wink
at old Betty, whom he had driven to the same buckboard for twenty years.
As George departed with an insulted snort, Andrew Gregory came from the
barn, where he had been awaiting the return of Mr.
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