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No hoss, no nothin’. Some of th’ boys got to talkin’ ’bout trailin’ back to Texas, tryin’ out some ranchin’ in the bush country. A lotta wild stuff down there—nobody’s been runnin’ brands on anythin’ much since ’61. We planned to get a herd of mavericks, drive up into Kansas or Missouri, an’ sell. A couple of th’ boys had run stuff in that way for th’ army, even swum ’em across the Mississippi.
"Then you're the chap that's doin' that fancy ranchin' over at Eagle's," continued the man lazily. "Whatever I'm doing at Eagle's Court, I'm not ashamed of it," said Hale tartly; "and that's more than I can say of what I've done or HAVEN'T done to-night. I've been one of six men over-awed and robbed by THREE." "As to the over-awin', ez you call it mebbee you know more about it than us.
I reckon I got to get one of them leetle potato-bug mandolins and learn to tickle its neck. There's nothin' like music exceptin'" and he glanced at the blushing Anita "exceptin' ranchin'."
And, in his unimaginative way, he thought he had spoken too gently. "An' I say again I want that gal fer my wife. Time was when you would have been glad to be quit of her, 'bout the time she fell overboard. Being ready to part then, why not now? I'm goin' to get her, an' what do I pay in return? You know. You'll go on ranchin' in peace. I'll even stay your foreman if you so want.
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.
"Well, did Thorne explain why he let it go so long before making his claim?" "Oh, shore! He was right there when it come to explainin'. Seems he had some important war business on his hands an' wanted to get shed uh that before he took up ranchin'. Knowed it was in good hands, 'count uh Bloss bein' on the job, an' Stratton havin' promised to write frequent an' keep Joe toein' the mark.
I'm goin' back to ranchin' on the old homestead. I've got it fixed up." He seemed to look through Jasper into an enormous distance. Morena was almost uncannily aware of the long, long journey by which this man's spirit had trodden, of the desert he faced ahead of him if the search must fail. Was it wrong to warn Jane? Ought this man to be given his chance? Surely here stood before him Jane's mate.
He's a pretty keen boy an' his father has big ranchin' interests. I've saved a little money an' I'm no spring chicken any more. Wils has begun to buy an' sell stock, so I reckon I'll go in with him." "Ahuh!" Belllounds gave a grunt of comprehension. He frowned, and his big eyes set seriously upon the blazing fire. He grasped complications in this information.
That "Yes, ma'am," especially disturbed her. Then she remembered a novel she had read and her mind jumped to a conclusion. She leaned forward. "Say, aren't you from the West?" "Yes, ma'am." "You weren't ever a cowboy, were you?" Pierre smiled. "Yes, ma'am. I was raised in a cow-camp. I was a cowboy till about seven years ago when I took to ranchin'." "Where was that?" "Out in Wyoming."
Dear, dear, it do seem strange to me that any man should choose to starve in the cities when there's the free wilderness to roam about in. I mind havin' a palaver once wi' a stove-up man when I was ranchin' down in Kansas on the Indian Territory Line. Screw was his name, an' a real kind-hearted fellow he was too only he couldn't keep his hand off that curse o' mankind, the bottle.
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