ap off your ears an' that's all
there is to it."

After much effort Endicott succeeded in smearing his face with a thin,
stringy lather, and gingerly picked up the razor. The Texan looked on
in owlish solemnity as the man sat holding the blade helplessly.

"What you doin', Win, sayin' the blessin'? Just whet her on your boot
an' sail in."

"But where do I begin?"

The Texan snorted disgustedly. "Your face ain't so damn big but what
an hour or two reminiscence ought to take you back to where it starts.
Begin at your hat an' work down over your jaw 'til you come to your
shirt, an' the same on the other side, takin' in your lip an' chin in
transit, as the feller says. An' hold it like a razor, an' not like a
pitchfork. Now you got to lather all over again, 'cause it's dry."

Once more Endicott laboriously coaxed a thin lather out of the brown
hand-soap, and again he grasped the razor, this time with a do-or-die
determination.

"Oughtn't I have a mirror?" he asked doubtfully.

"A mirror! Don't you know where your own face is at? You don't need
no mirror to eat with, do you? Well, it's the same way with shavin'.
But if you got to have ocular evidence, just hang out over the creek
there where it's still."

The operation was slow and painful. It seemed to Endicott as though
each separate hair were being dragged out by its roots, and more than
once the razor edge drew blood. At last the job was finished, he
bathed his smarting face in the cold water, and turned to the Texan for
approval.

"You look like the second best bet in a two-handed cat fight," he
opined, and producing his book of cigarette papers, proceeded to stick
patches of tissue over various cuts and gashes. "Takin' it by an'
large, though, it ain't so bad. There's about as many places where you
didn't go close enough as there is where you went too close, so's it'll
average somewhere around the skin level. Anyway it shows you tried to
look respectable--an' you do, from your neck down--an' your hat, too."

"I am certainly obliged to you," laughed Endicott, "for going to all
that trouble to provide me with clothing. And by the way, did you
learn anything--in regard to posses, I mean?"

The Texan nodded sombrely: "Yep. I did. This here friend of mine was
on his way back from Wolf River when I met up with him. 'Tex,' he
says, 'where's the pilgrim?' I remains noncommital, an' he continues,
'I layed over yesterday to enjoy Purdy's funeral,