that it's demoralizin' to get
interested in things like that and spend your life diggin' up the dead.
It's too tame for a feller of any spirit."

"It's nowise dang'rous," Tubbs admitted.

"If I thought you was my kind, Tubbs, I'd give you a chance. I'd let you
in on a deal that'd be the makin' of you."

"All I needs is a chanct," Tubbs declared eagerly.

"I believe you," Smith replied, with flattering emphasis.

A disturbing thought made Tubbs inquire anxiously:

"This here chanct your speakin' of--it ain't work, is it?--real right-down
work?"

"Not degradin' work, like pitchin' hay or plowin'."

"I hates low-down work, where you gits out and sweats."

"I see where you're right. There's no call for a man of your sand and
_sabe_ to do day's work. Let them as hasn't neither and is afraid to take
chances pitch hay and do plowin' for wages."

Tubbs looked a little startled.

"What kind of chances?"

Smith looked at Tubbs before he lowered his voice and asked:

"Wasn't you ever on the rustle none?"

Tubbs reflected.

"Onct back east, in I-o-wa, I rustled me a set of underwear off'n a
clothes-line."

Smith eyed Tubbs in genuine disgust. He had all the contempt for a
petty-larceny thief that the skilled safe-breaker has for the common
purse-snatcher. The line between pilfering and legitimate stealing was
very clear in his mind. He said merely,

"Tubbs, I believe you're a bad _hombre_."

"They _is_ worse, I s'pose," said Tubbs modestly, "but I've been pretty
rank in my time."

"Can you ride? Can you rope? Can you cut out a steer and burn a brand?
Would you get buck-ague in a pinch and quit me if it came to a show-down?
Are you a stayer?"

"Try me," said Tubbs, swelling.

"Shake," said Smith. "I wisht we'd got acquainted sooner."

"And mebby I kin tell you somethin' about brands," Tubbs went on
boastfully.

"More'n likely."

"I kin take a wet blanket and a piece of copper wire and put an addition
to an old brand so it'll last till you kin git the stock off'n your hands.
I've never done it, but I've see it done."

"I've heard tell of somethin' like that," Smith replied dryly.

"Er you kin draw out a brand so you never would know nothin' was there.
You take a chunk of green cottonwood, and saw it off square; then you bile
it and bile it, and when it's hot through, you slaps it on the brand, and
when you lifts it up after while the brand is drawed out."

"Did you dream that, Tubbs?"

"I b'leeve