"By th' Lord!" he cried, softly. "Yo're a thoroughbred, a fighter from start to finish. But you shouldn't come up here to-day; there's no telling, sometimes, where bullets go after they start." Turning, he said, "Pete, you chump, stay on this side of th' hill an' watch th' house. Billy, lay so you can watch th' door. Red, come with me. An' if anybody gets a shot at them range stealers, shoot to kill. Understand? Shoot to kill--it's time." "Dynamite?" queried Pete, hopefully. "I'll use it. Cowan--" Hopalong stared. "Dynamite! Dynamite! We ain't fighting 'em that way, even if they are coyotes. You go an' do what I told you." "Yes, but--" "Shut up!" snapped Hopalong. "I know how you feel _now_, but you'll think different to-morrow." "Let's swap th' girl for th' house," suggested Skinny, grinning. "It's a shore cinch," he added, winking at Billy, who laughed. Hopalong wheeled to retort, caught Skinny's eye closing, and laughed instead. "I reckon that would work all right, Skinny. It'd be a good joke on 'em to take th' house back with th' same card they got it by. But this ain't no time for joking. Pete, you better stay here an' watch th' window on this side; Billy, take th' window on th' south side. Skinny can go around west an' Red'll take th' door. They won't be so joyous after they get what's coming their way. This ain't no picnic; shoot to kill. We've been peaceful too blamed long!" "That's th' way to talk!" cried Pete. "If we'd acted that way from th' very first day they crossed our line we wouldn't be fighting to capture our own line house! You know how to handle 'em all right!" "Pete, how much water is in there?" Hopalong asked. "'Bout a hatful--nobody brought me any this morning, th' lazy cusses." "All right; they won't hold it for long, then. Take yore places as I said, fellers, an' get busy," he replied, and then turned to Mary. "Where's yore father? Is _he_ in that house?" "I don't know--an' I wouldn't tell if I did!" "Say, yo're a regular hummer! Th' more you talk th' better I like you," he laughed, admiringly. "You've shore stampeded me worse than ever--I'm so loco I can't wait much longer--when are you going to marry me? Of course you know that you've got to someday." "Indeed I have _not_!" she retorted, her face crimson. "If you wait for me to marry you you will die of old age! An' I'm shore somebody's listening." "Then _I'll_ marry _you_--of course, that's what I meant." "Indeed you _won't!_" "Then th' minister will. After this line fighting is over I won't wait. I'll just rope you an' drive you down to Perry's Bend to th' hobbling man, if you won't go any other way. We'll come back a team. Oh, I mean just what I say," and she knew that he did, and she was glad at heart that he thought none the less of her for the trick she had played on Pete. He seemed to take everything as a matter of course, and as a matter of course was going to re-take the house. "You just _dare_ try it! Just _dare!_" she cried, hotly.