mild interest, as he would inform you that his surcingle had
broken or that he had witnessed a lynching.

"What made them jump your claim?"

"I don't know. I don't know nothin' about it, because, as I
remarked previous, I 'ain't follered the totterin' footsteps of
the law none too close. Nor do I intend to. I simply draws out of
the game fer a spell, and lets the youngster have his fling; then
if he can't make good, I'll take the cards and finish it for him.

"It's like the time I was ranchin' with an Englishman up in
Montana. This here party claimed the misfortune of bein' a younger
son, whatever that is, and is grubstaked to a ranch by his people
back home. Havin' acquired an intimate knowledge of the West by
readin' Bret Harte, and havin' assim'lated the secrets of ranchin'
by correspondence school, he is fitted, ample, to teach us natives
a thing or two--and he does it. I am workin' his outfit as
foreman, and it don't take long to show me that he's a good-
hearted feller, in spite of his ridin'-bloomers an' pinochle eye-
glass. He ain't never had no actual experience, but he's got a
Henry Thompson Seton book that tells him all about everything from
field-mice to gorrillys.

"We're troubled a heap with coyotes them days, and finally this
party sends home for some Rooshian wolf-hounds. I'm fer pizenin' a
sheep carcass, but he says:

"'No, no, me deah man; that's not sportsman-like; we'll hunt 'em.
Ay, hunt 'em! Only fawncy the sport we'll have, ridin' to hounds!'