easy. That place is north-east of
the Little Brothers."

"By Jove! how did you get such eyes?"

"Used 'em."

"The reason I'd like to find the house is because--"

"Reasons ain't none too popular with me."

"Well, you're pretty sure that your suggestion will take me to the
spot?"

"I'm sure of nothing except my gun when the weather's hot."

"Reasonably sure, however? The pine trees and the house--if I don't find
one I'll find the other."

"The house'll be in ruins, probably."

"Why?"

"That picture was taken a long time ago."

"Do you read the mind of a picture, Mr. Wilkes?"

"No."

"The tree, however, will be there."

"No, that's chopped down."

"That's going a bit too far. Do you mean to say you know that this
particular tree is down?"

"That's first growth. All that country's been cut over. D'you think
they'd pass up a tree the size of that?"

"It's going to be hard," said Anthony with a frown, "for me to get used
to the West."

"Maybe not."

"I can ride and shoot pretty well, but I don't know the people, I
haven't worn their clothes, and I can't talk their lingo."

"The country's mostly rocks when it ain't ground; the people is pretty
generally men and women; the clothes they wear is cotton and wool, the
lingo they talk is English."

It was like a paragraph out of some book of ultimate knowledge. He was
not entirely contented with his statement, however, for now he qualified
it as follows: "Maybe some of 'em don't talk good book English. Quite a
pile ain't had much eddication; in fact there ain't awful many like me.
But they can tell you how much you owe 'em an' they'll understand you
when you say you're hungry. What's your business? Excuse me; I don't
generally ask questions."

"That's all right. You've probably caught the habit from me. I'm simply
going out to look about for excitement."

"A feller gener'ly finds what he's lookin' for. Maybe you won't be
disappointed. I've knowed places on the range where excitement growed
like fruit on a tree. It was like that there manna in the Bible. You
didn't have to work none for it. You jest laid still an' it sort of
dropped in your mouth."

He added with a sigh: "But them times ain't no more."

"That's hard on me, eh?"

"Don't start complainin' till you miss your feed. Things are gettin'
pretty crowded, but there's ways of gettin' elbow room--even at a bar."

"And you really think there's nothing which distinguishes the Westerner
from