e any fight?" I asked.

"Naw!" says the man, disgusted. "I was wanting to put my hands on him,
but he comes in like a sick cow--seemed foolish."

"How foolish?"

"Oh, just stared at us. We called to him to halt, and he stopped, kind
of grinned at us and says: 'Hello!' I'd a 'hello'd' him if the boys
hadn't stopped me."

[Illustration: We called to him to halt, and he stopped, kind of
grinned at us and says: "Hello!"]

"Prisoner," I says, "this looks bad. I don't know where you come from,
but you must have intelligence enough to see that this man's wife's
life might have depended on that horse. You know we're straggled so
out here that a horse means something more than so much a head. Why
did you do this? Your actions don't seem to hang together."

The poor cuss changed face for the first time. He swallered hard and
turned to his accuser. "Hope your lady didn't come to no harm?" says
he.

"Why, no thankee; she didn't," says the other lad. "'Bliged to you for
inquirin'."

There was a stir in the rest of the crowd. The prisoner had done good
work for himself without knowing it. That question of his proved what
I thought--he was no bad man. Something peculiar in the case.
Swinging an eye on the crowd, I saw I could act. I went forward and
laid my hand on his shoulder, speaking kind and easy.

"Here," says I, "you've done a fool trick, and riled the boys
considerable. You'd been mad, too, if somebody'd made you ride all
day. But now you tell us just what happened. If it was intended to be
comical, we'll kick your pants into one long ache, and let it go at
that; if it was anything else, spit it out."

He stood there, fumblin' with his hands, runnin' the back of one over
his forehead once in a while, tryin' to talk, but unable. You could
see it stick in his throat.

"Take time," says I; "there's lots of it both sides of us."

Then he braced.

"Boys," says he, "I got a wife an' two little roosters too. I feel
sorry for the trouble I made that gentleman. I got split like this.
Come to this town with seven hundred dollars, to make a start. Five
hundred of that's my money, and two hundred m' wife saved up--and she
was that proud and trustin' in me!" He stopped for a full minute,
workin' his teeth together. "Well, I ain't much. I took to boozin'
and tryin' to put the faro games out of business. Well, I went
shy--quick. The five hundred was all right," he says, kind of defiant.
"Man's got