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Then he glanced over, and his mild eyes focused themselves on the bottle protruding from Jim's pocket. For some moments he contemplated it, and then he looked up into his friend's face. "How's the 'AZ's'?" he inquired casually. "Oh, all right." "In for a vacation?" Jim stirred uneasily. There was a directness about the other's manner that was disconcerting.
Then he addressed himself to Silas behind the bar. "You'll help the boys to drinks," he said. Then, pointedly, "All of 'em." After that, he turned to Jim. "Jest in from the 'AZ's'?" he inquired casually. "McLagan's quit me on account of those cattle," Jim admitted, frankly. "Those wi' your brand on?" "Sure." Doc smiled. He could not well have failed to become the leader of this village.
"Guess we'll all drink, Silas," he said cheerily, and laid a five-dollar bill on the counter. But, for once in his life, the saloon-keeper felt it would be necessary to ask his customers what they would drink. This he did, while Jim turned to Jake and the butcher, who happened to be standing nearest to him. "I've quit the 'AZ's," he said, with a light laugh.
Ther's Will Henderson," he turned over the pages of his book. "Um, healthy, drinks a bit. Hasty temper, but good for fifty year 'less he gits into a shootin' racket. 'Tain't him now?" he inquired looking up. "No, 'tain't him. I see him this mornin'. He was soused some. Kind o' had a heavy night. Wot about McLagan of the 'AZ's'?" Again the butcher turned over the pages of his note-book.
The greater the joy, the harder But what matters the other side of the picture! "Eve," he exclaimed, "I was hoping to find you not busy. I've ridden right in to yarn with you 'bout things. Say, maybe you've got five minutes?" "I've always got five minutes for you, Jim," the girl responded warmly. "Sit right down here on this seat, and get going. How's things with the 'AZ's'?" "Bully!
He had seen nothing of Jim Thorpe during the last two months, except on the rare occasions when the foreman of the "AZ's" had visited the saloon. And at these times neither had mentioned Eve's wedding. Now he was anxious to find out if Jim had been amongst the spectators at the wedding, a matter which to his mind was of some importance.
Then he looked again at the owner of the "AZ's," and gave him a smiling nod. "Sure, boss. I intended to go into the engineers." "Ah wheels." "You see, we've all been soldiers, since way back when my folks came over with the first lot from England. Guess I'm the first backslider." "Nope. You ain't a backslider, Jim Thorpe. I sure wouldn't say that. Not on my life.
Wal, seein' that kind was your specialty, he just guessed he'd ride round 'em an' git a peek at the brands. Say, as he said, the game was clear out at once. He got to work an' cut out an' roped one o' them half-breeds, an' hevin' threw him, got down an looked close. That's just all, boss. We got out an' brought the bunch in that is, them we knew belonged to the 'AZ's."
But then, in almost every characteristic the Irishman differed from his employee. While Jim's word was never questioned even by the veriest sceptic of the plains, McLagan was notoriously the greatest, most optimistic liar in the state of Montana. A reputation that required some niceness of proficiency to retain. McLagan's ranch was known as the "AZ's."
"Well, you see I waited until I was sure of that lease. I've come so many falls I didn't guess I wanted to try another by anticipating too much. So I just waited. It's straight going now," he went on, with a return to his enthusiasm, "and I'm going to start building." "Yes, yes. You'll get everything ready for leaving the 'AZ's' in " "Two years, yes.
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