But the proprietor, when I paid
my bill, happened to notice Parnassus in the yard.
"That's the bus that pedlar sold you, ain't it?" he asked with
a leer.
"Yes," I said, shortly.
"Goin' back to prosecute him, I guess?" he suggested. "Say, that
feller's a devil, believe _me_. When the sheriff tried to put the
cuffs on him he gave him a black eye and pretty near broke his
jaw. Some scrapper fer a midget!"
My own brave little fighter, I thought, and flushed with pride.
The road back to Port Vigor seemed endless. I was a little nervous,
remembering the tramps in Pratt's quarry, but with Bock sitting
beside me on the seat I thought it craven to be alarmed. We rumbled
gently through the darkness, between aisles of inky pines where the
strip of starlight ran like a ribbon overhead, then on the rolling
dunes that overlook the water. There was a moon, too, but I was
mortally tired and lonely and longed only to see my little Redbeard.
Peg was weary, too, and plodded slowly. It must have been midnight
before we saw the red and green lights of the railway signals and I
knew that Port Vigor was at hand.
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