Soon the riders came up, and when they saw Hopalong shove a peach
into his powder-grimed mouth they yelled their delight.
"Yu old maverick! Eatin' peaches like yu was afraid we'd git some!"
shouted Red indignantly, leaping down and running up to his pal as
though to thrash him.
Hopalong grinned pleasantly and fired a peach against Red's eye. "I
was savin' that one for yu, Reddie," he remarked, as he avoided Buck's
playful kick. "Yu fellers git to work an' dig up some wealth-I'm
hungry." Then he turned to Buck: "Yore th' marshal of this town, an'
any son-of-a-gun what don't like it had better write. Oh, yes, here
comes Tom Halloway-'member him?"
Buck turned and faced the miner and his hand went out with a jerk.
"Well, I'll be locoed if I didn't punch with yu on th' Tin-Cup!" he
said.
"Yu shore did an' yu was purty devilish, but that there Cassidy of
yourn beats anything I ever seen."
"He's a good kid," replied Buck, glancing to where Red and Hopalong
were quarreling as to who had eaten the most pie in a contest held
some years before.
Johnny, nosing around, came upon the perforated and partially
scattered piles of earth and twigs, and vented his disgust of them by
kicking them to pieces. "Hey! Hoppy! Oh, Hoppy!" he called, "what are
these things?"
Hopalong jammed Red's hat over that person's eyes and replied: "Oh,
them's some loaded dice I fixed for them.
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