dered how he ever got on a horse, and then Whitey reflected
that it sure would take a mighty strong horse to buck with Dan on it.

When Whitey arrived, Dan was in what he called his office, a small room
all fitted up with saddles and bridles, and boots and spurs, and belts
and guns, and--oh, yes; there was a little desk almost hidden in the
litter, and Dan Brayton was seated at it, his face all wrinkled in the
effort to solve some figures written on a piece of paper.

Dan received Whitey cordially, but seemed surprised to hear that he was
the bearer of an important letter from Bill Jordan. He held the letter
in his hand and looked at it critically, as people do who are not in the
habit of receiving many letters, and he asked:

"How is Silent?"

"Silent?" inquired the puzzled Whitey.

"Sure, Silent," replied Dan. "That's what we allus called Bill Jordan
back in Wyomin'."

"Why, he talks all the time," said Whitey.

"That's th' reason we called him Silent," Dan answered, chuckling.

Whitey did not know that Bill Jordan hated this nickname, and had done
his best to leave it behind when he moved from Wyoming, and that when he
came to Montana he only got rid of it by licking several cowpunchers who
tried to tack it onto him there. But he answered that Bill was very
well. When Dan had looked the letter up and down, and behind and
before, and over and back, he finally opened it and read it.

But before he had finished it, he was attacked by a violent fit of
coughing and choking, and became almost purple in the face. Whitey
feared that he might be about to have a fit of apoplexy, which he had
heard that stout people are subject to, but Dan gasped out something
about going to get a drink, and hurried from the room, and was gone a
long time.

Even then Whitey did not suspect anything. He was so pleased with the
journey--barring the twenty-five-mile walk--and with the strange
experiences he was having, that his mind had no room in which to harbor
suspicious thoughts of Bill Jordan. When Dan returned, he seemed better,
though his face was a trifle red. He apologized to Whitey, saying that
he was subject to such "spells." Then he inquired how Whitey got along
on his trip to the T Up and Down.

Whitey described his journey, and Dan seemed much concerned about
Whitey's having had to walk the twenty-five miles, and couldn't
understand how Bill Jordan had made the mistake of supposing that Cal
Smith's ranch was on the stage