all
Street to each other, and Saratoga; I even heard the name Bryn Mawr,
which is near Philadelphia. But these fragments of home dropped in the
wilderness here in Montana beside a freight caboose were of no interest
to me now.

"Looks like frogs down there, too," said Scipio. "See them marshy slogs
full of weeds?" We took a little turn and had a sight of the Virginian
quite active among the ponds. "Hush! I'm getting some thoughts,"
continued Scipio. "He wasn't sorry enough. Don't interrupt me."

"I'm not," said I.

"No. But I'd 'most caught a-hold." And Scipio muttered to himself again,
"He wasn't sorry enough." Presently he swore loud and brilliantly.
"Tell yu'!" he cried. "What did he say to Trampas after that play they
exchanged over railroad improvements and Trampas put the josh on him?
Didn't he say, 'Trampas, I thought you'd be afraid to do it?' Well, sir,
Trampas had better have been afraid. And that's what he meant. There's
where he was bringin' it to. Trampas made an awful bad play then. You
wait. Glory, but he's a knowin' man! Course he wasn't sorry. I guess he
had the hardest kind of work to look as sorry as he did. You wait."

"Wait? What for? Go on, man! What for?"

"I don't know! I don't know! Whatever hand he's been holdin' up, this is
the show-down. He's played for a show-down here before the caboose gets
off the bridge. Come back to the fire, or Shorty'll be leavin' it
go out. Grow happy some, Shorty!" he cried on arriving, and his hand
cracked on Shorty's shoulder. "Supper's in sight, Shorty. Food for
reflection."

"None for the stomach?" asked the passenger who had spoken once before.

"We're figuring on that too," said Scipio. His crossness had melted
entirely away.

"Why, they're cow-boys!" exclaimed another passenger; and he moved
nearer.

From the station Trampas now came back, his herd following him less
compactly. They had found famine, and no hope of supplies until the
next train from the East. This was no fault of Trampas's; but they were
following him less compactly. They carried one piece of cheese, the
size of a fist, the weight of a brick, the hue of a corpse. And the
passengers, seeing it, exclaimed, "There's Old Faithful again!" and took
off their hats.

"You gentlemen met that cheese before, then?" said Scipio, delighted.

"It's been offered me three times a day for four days," said the
passenger. "Did he want a dollar or a dollar and a half?"

"Two dollars!" blurted out