g 'd be lovely. But us! We don't know any
more about this than a pair of candy frogs."

"The fewer there is in on a woman deal the better," said Tom Osby, "and
yet it looks like we needed help right now!"

The two sat gazing gloomily down the long street of Heart's Desire, and
so intent were they that they did not see the shambling figure of
Willie the sheepherder coming up the street. Then Tom Osby's gaze
focussed him.

"Now there's that damned sheepherder that broke us up in business,"
said he. "It was him that got us into this fix. If he hadn't lied
like a infernal pirate, and got Dan Anderson to thinkin' that the girl
and this lawyer feller Barkley was engaged to each other on the side,
why Dan wouldn't have flared up and busted the railroad deal, and let
the girl get away, and gone and got hisself shot."

"S'posin' I shoot Willie up just for luck," suggested Curly. "He's got
it comin' to him, from the way that Gee-Whiz friend of his throwed lead
into our fellers, time we was arguin' with them over them sheep. This
country ain't got no use for sheep, nor sheepherders either, specially
the kind that makes trouble with railroads, and girls."

"No, hold on a minute," interrupted Tom Osby. "You wait--I've got a
idea."

"Well, what is it?"

"Wait a minute. How saith the psalmist? All men is liars; and
sheepherders special, natural, eighteen-karat, hand-curled liars--which
is just the sort we need right now in our business."

Curly slapped his thigh in sudden understanding. The two sat, still
watching Willie as he came rambling aimlessly up the street, staring
from side to side in his vacant fashion.

"A sheepherder, as you know, Curly," went on Tom, "has three stages in
his game. For a while he's human. In a few years, settin' round on
the hills in the sun, a-watchin' them damned woolly baa-baa's of his,
he gets right nutty. He sees things. Him a-gettin' so lonesome, and
a-readin' high-class New York literature all the time, he gets to
thinkin' of the Lady Eyemogene. You might think he's seein' cactus and
sheep, but what is really floatin' before him is proud knights, and
haughty barons, and royal monarchs, and Lady Eyemogenes.

"It ain't sinful for Willie to lie, like it is for us, because life is
one continuous lie to him. He's seen a swimmin' picture of
hand-painted palaces, and noble jukes, and stately dames out on the
Nogal flats every day for eight years. That ain't lyin'--that's
imag