loungin' up likewise, "asks whoever does these yere
dastard deeds! Does you-all recall the fate, Shoestring, of the last
misguided shorthorn who gives way to sech a query? My mem'ry is never
ackerate as to trifles, an' I'm confoosed about whether he's shot or
hung or simply burned alive."

"'"That prairie dog is hanged a lot," says Shoestring. "Which the boys
was goin' to burn him, but on its appearin' that he puts the question
more in ignorance than malice, they softens on second thought to that
degree they merely gets a rope, adds him to the windmill with the
others, an' lets the matter drop."

"'Easy Aaron don't crowd his explorations further. He can see thar's
what you-all might call a substratum of seriousness to the observations
of Waco an' Shoestring, an' his efforts to solve the mystery that
disposes of every law case he has, an' leaves him to begin life anew,
comes to a halt!

"'But it lets pore Easy Aaron out. He borrys a hoss from the corral,
packs the Texas Statootes an' his extra shirt in the war-bags, an' with
that the only real law wolf who ever makes his lair in Yellow City,
p'ints sadly no'thward an' is seen no more. As he's about to ride
away, Easy Aaron turns to me. He's sort o' got the notion I ain't so
bad as Waco, Shoestring, an' the rest. "I shall never return," says
Easy Aaron, an' he shakes his head plenty disconsolate. "Genius has no
show in Yellow City. This outfit hangs a gent's clients as fast as
ever he's retained an' offers no indoocements--opens no opportoonities,
to a ambitious barrister."'"

CHAPTER XVIII

Colonel Sterett Relates Marvels.

"As I asserts frequent," observed the Old Cattleman, the while
delicately pruning a bit of wood he'd picked up on his walk, "the funds
of information, gen'ral an' speshul, which Colonel William Greene
Sterett packs about would freight a eight-mule team. It's even money
which of 'em saveys the most, him or Doc Peets. For myself, after
careful study, I inclines to the theery that Colonel Sterett's
knowledge is the widest, while Peets's is the most exact. Both is
college gents; an' yet they differs as to the valyoo of sech
sem'naries. The Colonel coppers colleges, while Peets plays 'em to win.

"'Them temples of learnin',' says the Colonel, 'is a heap ornate; but
they don't make good.' This is doubted by Peets.

"One evenin' Dan Boggs, who's allers tantalisin' 'round askin'
questions--it looks like a sleepless cur'osity is