, come and set down, Dilly," he urged wearily. "I want to tell yuh
something."

"If it's about the cook being out of evaporated cream, William, I have
already been informed twice. Ah-h! I almost had one then!"

"Aw, thunder! yuh think I'm worrying over canned cream? What I want
to say may not be more important, but when yuh get fishing enough I'll
say it anyhow." He watched Dill moodily, and then lifted his eyes to
stare at the gorgeous sky--as though there would be no more sunsets
when the range-life was gone, and he must needs fill well his memory
for the barren years ahead.

When Dill flopped a six-inch trout against his ear, so steeped was he
in bitterness that he merely said, "Aw, hell!" wearily and hunched
farther along on the hummock.

"I really beg your pardon, William. From the vicious strike he made, I
was convinced that he weighed at least half a pound, and exerted more
muscular force than was quite necessary. When one hasn't a reel it is
impossible to play them properly, and it is the first quick pull that
one must depend upon. I'm very sorry--"

"Sure. Don't mention it, Dilly. Say, how many cattle have yuh got
receipts for, to date--if it ain't too much trouble?"

"No trouble at all, William. I have an excellent memory for figures.
Four thousand, three hundred and fifteen. Ah-h! See how instinct
inspires him to flop always toward the water! Did you ever--"

"Well, yes, I've saw a fish flop toward the water once or twicet
before now. It sure is a great sight, Dilly!" He did not understand
Dill these days, and wondered a good deal at his manifest indifference
to business cares. It never occurred to him that Dill, knowing quite
well how hard the trouble pressed upon his foreman, was only trying
in his awkward way to lighten it by not seeming to think it worth
worrying over.

"I hate to mention trifles at such a time, Dilly, but I thought maybe
yuh ought to know that we won't be able to scare up more than a couple
uh hundred more cattle, best we can do. We're bound to fall a lot
short uh what I estimated--and I ain't saying nothing about the
fine job uh guessing I done! If we bring the total up to forty-five
hundred, we'll do well."

Dill took plenty of time to wind the line around his willow pole. "To
use your own expressive phraseology, William," he said, when he had
quite finished and had laid the pole down on the bank, "that will
leave me in one hell-of-a-hole!"

"That's what I thought," Billy