But Boston, it seems, could hear Carlota sobbin' and cryin' and prayin'. And it got in to his collar. So darned if he didn't run right 'round to that winda and smash it in! Pedro shot at him, missed; shot again, still yellin' bloody murder. Boston wasn't doin' no yellin'. He was actin' like a blamed jack-in-the-box. Stand up, fire through the winda, duck--stand up, duck---- He got it. Stayed up a second too long oncet--then tumbled back'ards, kinda half runnin' as he goes down, and laid quiet. Pedro didn't lean out t' finish him; didn't even take a shot at us as we pulled up byside him and got off. But the gal was callin' to us. I picked up Boston's gun and looked in. Pedro was on the dirt floor, holdin' his right hand with his left. (No more shovelin' fer _him_.) Wal, we opened the door, led Carlota's hoss out, set the little gal loose, and lifted her down. At first, she didn't say nothin'--just looked to where Boston was. Then she found her feet and went towards him, totterin' unsteady. "Querido!" she calls; "querido!" Boston heerd her, and begun crawlin' t' meet her. "All right, sweetheart," he says, "--all right. I ain't hurt much." Then they kissed--and we got _another_ surprise party! * * * * * That night, as I was a-settin' on a truck at the deepot, thinkin' to myself, and watchin' acrosst the tracks to the mesquite, here come Boston 'round the corner, and he set down byside me. "Wal, Cupid?" he says, takin' holt of my arm. "Boston," I begun. "I--I reckon _you_ don't need me no more." "No," says Boston, "I don't. And I want t' square with y'. Now, the boys say you're plannin' t' go to Noo York later on--t' take the town t' pieces and see what's the matter with it, eh?" And he dug me in the ribs. "Wal," I answers, "I've _talked_ about it--some." "It's a good idear," he goes on. "But about my bill--I hope you'll think a hunderd and fifty is fair, fer these three weeks." "Boston!" I got kinda weak all to oncet. "I cain't take it. It wasn't worth that." "I got a plot," he says, "and colour, and a bad man, and"--smilin' awful happy--"a gal. So you get you' trip right away. And don't you come back _alone._" CHAPTER NINE A ROUND-UP IN CENTRAL PARK The boys was a-settin' 'long the edge of the freight platform, Bergin at the one end of the line, Hairoil at the other, and all of 'em either a-chawin' 'r a-smokin'. I was down in front, doin' a promynade back'ards and for'ards, (I was itchin' so to git started) and keepin' one eye peeled through the dark towards the southwest--fer the haidlight of ole 202. "And, Cupid," Sam Barnes was sayin', "you'll find a quart of tanglefoot in that satchel of yourn. Now, you might go eat somethin' that wouldn't agree with you in one of them Eye-talian rest'rants. Wal, a swaller of that firewater 'll straighten you out pronto."