napped his
jaws shut viciously.

Weary turned haggard eyes toward him.

"How?" he asked simply. And Pink had no answer for him.

CHAPTER XII. Two of a Kind

Patsy, staunch old partisan that he was, placed before them much food
which he had tried his best to keep hot without burning everything to
a crisp, and while they ate with ravenous haste he told, with German
epithets and a trembling lower jaw, of his troubles that day.

"Dem sheeps, dey coom by der leetle pasture," he lamented while he
poured coffee muddy from long boiling. "Looks like dey know so soon you
ride away, und dey cooms cheeky as you pleece, und eats der grass und
crawls under der fence and leafs der vool sthicking by der vires. I goes
out mit a club, py cosh, und der sheeps chust looks und valks by some
better place alreatty, und I throw rocks and yells till mine neck iss
sore.

"Und' dose herders, dey sets dem by der rock and laugh till I felt like
I could kill der whole punch, by cosh! Und von yells, 'Hey, dutchy,
pring me some pie, alreatty!' Und he laughs some more pecause der sheeps
dey don't go avay; dey chust run around und eat more grass and baa-aa!"
He turned and went heavily back to the greasy range with the depleted
coffee pot, lifted the lid of a kettle and looked in upon the contents
with a purely mechanical glance; gave a perfunctory prod or two with a
long-handled fork, and came back to stand uneasily behind Weary.

"If you poys are goin' to shtand fer dot," he began querulously, "Py
cosh I von't! Py myself I vill go and tell dot Dunk W'ittaker vot
lowdown skunk I t'ink he iss. Sheep's vool shtickin' by der fences
efferwhere on der ranch, py cosh! Dot vould sure kill der Old Man quick
if he see it. Shtinkin' off sheeps py our noses all der time, till I
can't eat no more mit der shmell of dem. Neffer pefore did I see vool on
der Flying U fences, py cosh, und sheeps baa-aain' in der coulee!"

Never had they seen Patsy take so to heart a matter of mere business
importance. They did not say much to him; there was not much that they
could say. They ate their fill and went out disconsolately to discuss
the thing among themselves, away from Patsy's throaty complainings. They
hated it as badly as did he; with Weary's urgent plea for no violence
holding them in leash, they hated it more, if that were possible.

The Native Son tilted his head unobtrusively stableward when he caught
Andy's eye, and as unobtrusively wandered away from t