ands, feet, nails,
teeth or other weapons was fair as long as no outsider took a hand in
it. It had been the rule of the keelboatmen and they had carried it up
and down the waterways, from New Orleans to the upper Mississippi and
from Pittsburg to the Rockies.

Tom nodded. "All right. You can tell him that he won't get in close,
next time," he said, glancing at the stirring loser. "Come on, Uncle
Joe; your dinner's plumb cold an' ruined."

"I'm hot enough to warm it as I chaw!" snapped his friend. "I was scared
for a moment, though; fighting out in this country don't get you nothin'
but a tombstone, generally, an' you'll be cussed lucky if you get that.
But you did what you started out to do; I couldn't see no tobacco juice
on his chin th' last time I looked." He followed his companion down the
bank and as they crossed the gangplank he chuckled. "I won't eat no
liver for a long time, I reckon: his face near made me sick!"

"I shouldn't 'a' cut him up so," admitted Tom; "but I was forking off a
grudge. Next time, I'll kill him." Then he thought of Patience and
glowed all over. "There ain't another like her, nowhere!" he muttered.

Uncle Joe glanced sideways at the slightly marked face of his companion,
shrewdly noting the expression of reverent awe and adoration.

"Young man," he said, "you're a little mite hasty, but I like 'em that
way. I reckon if you took my waggins inter Santa Fe you'd get patience."

At this second play on her name within the last half hour Tom whirled in
his tracks and held out his hand. "Uncle Joe, if you think I'm able to
handle 'em, I'll take 'em through h--l if I have to, without a
blister--" then he faltered and his face grew hard as he shook his head
in regret. "I can't do it," he growled. "It wouldn't be fair to bring
down Armijo's wrath on your niece and brother. He'd hound them like the
savage brute he is. No; you'll have to keep to whatever arrangements you
had in mind."

Uncle Joe shook his head. "That's too bad, Tom. I was counting on you
keeping an eye on Patience and seeing her through. It's too cussed bad."

Tom's laugh rang out across the water. "Oh I'm going to do that! I'm
bound for Santa Fe, either as a free lance or with trade goods of my
own; but I am not going with your wagons. I got it pretty well figured
out."

"I'm allus gettin' into places where I've got to back out," grumbled
Uncle Joe. "Now I reckon I'll have to tell Patience you're too young an'
giddy to hand