rs had
left the patient in desperate condition. Every moment must be employed
if disaster to that valuable herd was to be averted.

Vesta would hear of nothing but that they come first to the house for
dinner. So the guests did the best they could at improving their
appearance at the bunkhouse after turning their horses over to the
obsequious Ananias, who appeared with a large bandage, and a strong
smell of turpentine, on his bruised head.

Beyond brushing off the dust of the morning's ride there was little to
be done. Taterleg brought out his brightest necktie from the portable
possessions rolled up in his slicker; the Duke produced his calfskin
vest. There was not a coat between them to save the dignity of their
profession at the boss lady's board. Taterleg's green-velvet waistcoat
had suffered damage during the winter when a spark from his pipe burned
a hole in it as big as a dollar. He held it up and looked at it,
concluding in the end that it would not serve.

With his hairy chaps off, Taterleg did not appear so bow-legged, but he
waddled like a crab as they went toward the house to join the companion
of their ride. The Duke stopped on the high ground near the house,
turned, looked off over the great pasture that had been Philbrook's
battle ground for so many years.

"One farmer from Iowa out there to watch four thousand cattle, and
thieves all around him! Eatin' looks like burnin' daylight to me."

"She'd 'a' felt hurt if we'd 'a' shied off from her dinner, Duke. You
know a man's got to eat when he ain't hungry and drink when he ain't dry
sometimes in this world to keep up appearances."

"Appearances!" The Duke looked him over with humorous eye, from his
somewhat clean sombrero to his capacious corduroy trousers gathered into
his boot tops. "Oh, well, I guess it's all right."

Vesta was in excellent spirits, due to the broadening of her prospects,
which had appeared so narrow and unpromising but a few hours before.
One of this pair, she believed, was worth three ordinary men. She asked
them about their adventures, and the Duke solemnly assured her that they
never had experienced any.

Taterleg, loquacious as he might be on occasion, knew when to hold his
tongue. Lambert led her away from that ground into a discussion of her
own affairs, and conditions as they stood between her neighbors and
herself.

"Nick Hargus is one of the most persistent offenders, and we might as
well dispose of him first, since y