y.
"But wouldn't you be afraid he'd get lonesome out there with nobody
passin'?"

"I've thought over this consider'ble," Teeters lowered his voice, "and I
figger that the secret of handlin' dudes is to keep 'em busy. I've been
around 'em a whole lot, off an' on, over on the Yellastone, and I've
noticed that the best way to get anythin' done is to tell 'em not to
touch it and then go off and leave 'em. Of course an out-an'-out dude is
a turrible nuisance, and dang'rous, but you got to charge enough to
cover the damage he does tryin' to be wild and woolly."

He went on confidentially: "Between you and me, I've worked out a scale
of prices for allowin' 'em to help me--so much for diggin' post holes
and stretchin' wire, so much for shinglin' a roof or grubbin' sagebrush.
Only the very wealthy can afford to drive a wagon and spread fertilizer,
or clean out the corral and cowshed, and it'll take a bank account to
pitch alfalfa in hayin'. If they thought I wanted 'em to help, or needed
'em, they'd laugh at me."

"Dudes is peculiar," the Major admitted. "I never had much truck with
'em, but I knowed a feller in the Jackson Hole County that made quite a
stake out of dudin'. They took him to Warm Springs afterward--he'd
weakened his mind answerin' questions--but he left his family well
pervided for. Teeters," earnestly, "why don't you put your money in
somethin' substantial--stock in the Ditch Company, or Prouty real
estate?"

Teeters shook his head.

"Without aimin' to toot my horn none, I got a notion I can wrangle dudes
to a fare-ye-well. I'll give it a try-out, anyway. By the way, Major,
have you seen Lingle? How's the case comin'?"

The Major's face changed instantly and he said with quite obvious
sarcasm:

"He's busier than a man killin' rattlesnakes, and he's makin' himself
unpopular, I can tell you, tryin' to stir up somethin'."

Teeters looked at him wonderingly but said nothing; instead, he went out
in search of the deputy.

Lingle was sitting dejectedly on the edge of the sidewalk when Teeters
found him, and the deputy returned his spicy greeting dispiritedly.

"You look bilious as a cat," said Teeters, eying him. "Why don't you
take somethin'?"

"You bet I'm bilious--the world looks plumb ja'ndiced!" the deputy
answered, with feeling.

"What's the matter?" Teeters sobered in sudden anxiety. "Ain't the
case--"

A frown grew between the deputy's eyebrows.

"The case is gettin' nowhere. Things don't l