noon
`` Anybody that can beat me at anything is good enough to be my friend fer life , an ' I 'm here to state that yuh could count my friends of that type , before you came , on the hairs of a hairless dog ! '' Bud laughed , they shook hands again , and peace was finally made between them ; but not until Beef Bissell had signed away half of the interest in the Bar T to Julie as her dower . That was a happy and hilarious dinner at the ranch . Some of the cowboys coming in at noon from near-by ranges heard of the marriage and cheered the bride lustily when she appeared on the veranda . Bud made himself solid with the disgruntled punchers by walking out to them and talking over the battle of Welsh 's Butte , while he rolled cigarettes and smoked them one after another . Shortly afterward , Bud and Lester found themselves in a room with Smithy Caldwell . The blackmailer , when he saw Lester , fell down in a faint , so great was the shock to his already wrecked nervous system .