y could n't say it was Brown for certain; he did n't get a right
good view of his face. He said it looked like him. But he could see
the woman plain."

"Why, sure that was Brown," said the owner of the horse. "I saw Pete
Harding when I was up at the county-seat; and he came along with me to
see them auction off the bunch of strays. This horse was one of them;
that's why he's so thin. I asked Harding who had his job now, and he
told me nobody had it because Brown was running the sheep himself."

"How did the woman come to be out there?"

"There was n't any woman out there when Pete left. I know Pete. Brown
came out there to see how things were doing, and while he was there
Pete remarked that sheep-life was getting pretty monotonous. So Brown
told him to go away a while and give his mind a change. Pete did n't
say anything about a woman."

"I guess Mr. Reedy did n't see very plain," remarked the drug clerk.

"See plain!" said Todd in disgust. "You don't listen plain."

"Then Harding did n't quit on his own hook?" queried Whallen.

"He did n't quit at all. He's going back in a few days if he gets
through being drunk. He told me he had to get through before the lambs
was born. He did n't know about any woman."

"Humph! Brown went off by himself and did herding like that before.
He acts queer lately. He don't say much."

"That's what Pete said. Me and him trailed round Belleview all
morning, and I got him to go along and bid in this horse for me. I saw
he was a good horse, but I did n't know he was rope-wise. Look at his
backbone. Look at how he's coupled up."

The drug clerk, having affected horse wisdom and miscarried, now
stepped forward and began feeling the distance between the horse's rump
and floating ribs, a move evidently intended to show his knowledge of
this last technical term.

"What's all that for!" inquired Todd, with a touch of surprise. "Ain't
them bones plain enough to see? I guess you think he is one of them
nice fat horses that you have got to feel."

"That's right, Al," remarked Whallen. "Buy a horse like that and you
see what you 're getting. What's the use feeling when the package is
open?"

The drug clerk, thus suddenly put out of countenance by the very bones
he had been flouting, stepped back and held his peace; and presently,
under cover of Whallen's going, he took his own departure.

Al, now that he had vanquished his opponent and made him seek the
intrenchm