at's the way you'll be talking," said Sandy, "with regret eating into
your vitals like some horrible acid that is fatal to man and beast."

Safety says he thinks they're all plumb crazy, and a fool and his money
is soon parted--this being a saying he must have learned at the age of
three and has never forgotten a word of--and he comes up to the house to
see me. Mebbe he wanted to find out if I had really lost my mind, but he
said nothing about whales. Just set round and talked the usual hard luck.
Been in the stock business thirty years and never had a good year yet.
Nothing left of his cattle but the running gear; and his land so poor you
couldn't even raise a row on it unless you went there mad; and why he
keeps on struggling in the bitter clutch of misfortune he don't know. But
I always know why he keeps on struggling. Money! Nothing but money. So
when he got through mourning over his ruined fortunes, and feebly said
something about taking some mules off my hands at a fair price, I shut
him off firmly. Whenever that old crook talks about taking anything off
your hands he's plotting as near highway robbery as they'll let him stay
out of jail for. He was sad when I refused two hundred and fifty dollars
a span for my best mules.

He went off shaking his head like he hadn't expected such inhumanity from
an old friend and neighbour to one who through hard luck was now down and
out.

Well, I hear no more about whales; but a circus is coming to Red Gap and
old Pete, the Indian, says he must go down to it, his mind being inflamed
by some incredible posters pasted over the blacksmith shop at Kulanche.
He says he's a very old man and can't be with us long, and when he does
take the one-way trail he wants to be able to tell his friends on the
other side all about the strange animals that they never had a chance to
see. The old pagan was so excited about it I let him go. And he was still
more excited when he got back two days later. Yes, sir; he'd found a way
to fortune.

He said I'd sure think he was a liar with a crooked tongue and a false
heart, but they had an animal at that circus as big as our biggest
covered mess wagon and it would weigh as much as the six biggest steers I
ever shipped. It has a nose about five feet long--he was sure I wouldn't
believe this part--that it fed itself with, and it carried so much meat
that just one ham would keep a family like Pete's going all winter. He
said of course I would think he wa