llows."

Jim permitted himself a quiet smile. "I don't think I'm playing the hog,
exactly," he rejoined, evenly. "I guess maybe I'm thinking of the horse
as much as anything. And not so much of him, either, maybe, as of you,
the way you handle horses if they don't dance a two-step when you want a
two-step. In about a week, Johnson," he continued, mildly, "you'd have
that horse jabbed full of holes with them Mexican rowels of yours! He
wouldn't stand for that kind of affection, or I'm no judge of
horseflesh. He ain't used to it; he ain't that kind of a horse--your
kind! You ought to see that yourself. You don't want no spirited horse
like him, because either you'd kill him or he'd kill you. _I_ can
see it, if you can't!"

"We'll now cut for deal," interposed Johnson, grimly.

"Take myself," went on the other, half smiling "why I like the idea of
keeping him. I used to kill cats and rob nests and stone dogs when I was
a kid; but later I learned different. I didn't kill cats and rob nests
after that; dogs I got to petting whenever I'd meet one. I got
acquainted with animals that way. Made the acquaintance from both
angles--seeing how they acted under torture, then learning how they
acted under kindness. I know animals, Johnson," he added, quietly. "And
an animal to me is an animal and something more. A horse, for instance.
I see more in a horse than just an easy way of getting around. But that
ain't you. You're like a man I once knowed that kept a dog just because
the dog was a good hunter. If I couldn't see more in a dog than just
what he's fit for, I'd quit the sport."

"Now we'll cut for deal."

Jim had been rocking back and forth easily on two legs of his stool. He
now dropped forward squarely on the floor and nodded assent.

"Cut for deal," he said, quietly. "You!"

The game began. Glover, who evidently found interest in discussions, but
none whatever in a game of cards, tilted back against the wall and began
to talk, now that the argument was over.

"Zeke tells me," he began in a nasal voice, tamping the tobacco into the
bowl of his pipe reflectively, "as how they's a bunch o' Injun renegades
movin' south'ards off the reservation on a hell-toot. I meant to speak
of it afore, but forgot, as usual. Jim's talk here o' animals lovin'
each other that away reminds me." He lifted gray eyes to Johnson.
"Didn't Zeke say nothin' to you about that, neither?" he asked,
evidently mindful of some other grave oversight on