He might have gone straight down the bluff afoot, through a rift
in the rim-rock where it was possible to climb down into the
fissure and squeeze out through a narrow opening to the
bowlder-piled bluff. But that took almost as much time as he
would consume in riding around, and so he galloped back to the
grade and went down at a pace to break his neck and that of Keno
as well if his horse stumbled.
He reached home in time to see Donny run across the road with the
shotgun, and the orchard in time to prevent a general rush upon
Stanley and his fellows--which was fortunate. He got them all
out of the garden and into the house by sheer determination and
biting sarcasm, and bore with surprising patience their angry
upbraidings. He sat stoically silent while they called him a
coward and various other things which were unpleasant in the
extreme, and he even smiled when they finally desisted and
trailed off sullenly to bed.
But when they were gone he sat alone upon the porch, brooding
over the day and all it had held of trouble and perplexity.
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