Everywhere he went, Jones was hailed by friends, for everybody
seemed to know him and to want to shake his hand.
"SOME town and SOME body of men, eh?" he inquired, finally, and
Dave agreed:
"Yes. She's got a grand framework, Blaze. She'll be most as big as
Fort Worth when you fatten her up."
Jones waved his buggy-whip in a wide circle that took in the miles
of level prairie on all sides. "We've got the whole blamed state
to grow in. And, Dave, I haven't got an enemy in the place! It
wasn't many years ago that certain people allowed I'd never live
to raise this town. Why, it used to be that nobody dared to ride
with me--except Paloma, and she used to sleep with a shot-gun at
her bedside."
"You sure have been a responsibility to her."
"But I'm as safe now as if I was in church."
Law ventured to remark that none of Blaze's enemies had grown fat
in prosecuting their feuds, but this was subject which the elder
man invariably found embarrassing, and now he said:
"Pshaw! I never was the blood-letter people think. I'm as gentle
as a sheep." Then to escape further curiosity on that point he
suggested that they round out their riotous evening with a game of
pool.
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