ned Dug. Then he indicated his companion. "This
is Mr. Jeffrey Masters, President of the Western Union. If you'll come
right along in we ken get things fixed up. Meanwhiles I'll jest have a
'hand' round-up your plug an' feed him hay."

* * * * * *

Another chair was brought from the house and Elias Peters was ensconced
therein. He was a gray little man. Gray from head to foot, it seemed.
His hair, his eyes, his skin, his whiskers, his shirt, his loose jacket
over it, his trousers. Even the top-boots he wore, which, had
doubtless once been black. Everything about him was gray.

Dug pressed whisky on him.

"Take your time," he had said, in his easy, cordial fashion. "Ther'
ain't no sort o' hurry. It's li'ble to shake a boy o' your years
foolin' around in the dust when you'd oughter be in the saddle."

"That's just it, Mr. McFarlane," came the prompt, distressed complaint.
"What in the nature o' blamed things made me act that way?"

"Jest the--nature o' things, I guess."

The little man's eyes twinkled.

"Guess you mean ther's folks who ain't in their right element in the
saddle, an'--I'm one of 'em." Then he turned on Jeff, whose whole
interest had been quite absorbed in a personality which Dug had
described as being reminiscent of a "buck louse." "Say, Mr. Masters,
guess you ain't never tried any stunt like raisin' kebbiges on a hog
ranch? No, sure you ain't. Ther's jest one feller runnin' loose on
this planet 'ud act that way, an' that's me. Guess I bin doin' it all
my life," he added, thoughtfully chewing a forefinger. "I was built
for, an' raised in a fifth rate city, an' I got the ideas an' ambitions
of the President of a Republic. Ther' ain't a blamed thing I can't do
but I want to do. An' the worst of it is ther's a sort o' restless
spirit in me jest sets me so crazy to do it I can't resist makin' the
jump. That's how I come to buy up a bum homestead up toward the hills
here, an' got the notion I could make a pile runnin' a mixed farm that
way. That's how I come to get outside a hoss when I'd be safer inside.
That's how I come to--'break' a deal more prairie land than I could
ever sow or harvest. That's how I bought machinery for a thousand acre
farm when I'd only got a half a mile. That's how I come to run a bunch
of cows without settin' up fencin' around my crops. That's how I bo't
the whole blamed lay-out without verifyin' the darned law feller's
sta