For just a minute he wished that they had quarreled again. He
went down to the stable, started to saddle Keno, and then decided
that he would not. After all, Hagar's gossip could do no real
harm, he thought, and it could not make much difference if Miss
Georgie did not hear of it immediately.
CHAPTER XXIV
PEACEFUL RETURNS
That afternoon when the four-thirty-five rushed in from the
parched desert and slid to a panting halt beside the station
platform, Peaceful Hart emerged from the smoker, descended
quietly to the blistering planks, and nodded through the open
window to Miss Georgie at her instrument taking train orders.
Behind him perspired Baumberger, purple from the heat and the
beer with which he had sought to allay the discomfort of that
searing sunlight.
"Howdy, Miss Georgie?" he wheezed, as he passed the window.
"Ever see such hot weather in your life? _I_ never did."
Miss Georgie glanced at him while her fingers rattled her key,
and it struck her that Baumberger had lost a good deal of his
oily amiability since she saw him last.
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