Baumberger it was, and he stopped
midway to light his pipe, and so, puffing luxuriously, went on
into the blackness of the grove.
They heard him step softly upon the porch, heard also the bovine
sigh with which he settled himself in the armchair there. They
caught the aromatic odor of tobacco smoke ascending, and knew
that his presence there had all at once become the most innocent,
the most natural thing in the world; for any man, waking on such
a night, needs no justification for smoking a nocturnal pipe upon
the porch while he gazes dreamily out upon the moon-bathed world
around him.
Peppajee touched Grant's arm, and turned back, skirting the
poplars again until they were well away from the house, and there
was no possibility of being heard. He stopped there, and
confronted the other.
"What for you no stoppum stable?" he questioned bluntly. "What
for you no stoppum ranch, for sleepum?"
"I go for stoppum Hicks' ranch," said Good Indian, without any
attempt at equivocation.
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