, Happy. Don't keep the
audience waiting. Aren't yuh going to earn that hundred dollars?"

Happy Jack turned half a shade redder than was natural. "Aw, gwan. I
never said I was going to do no broncho-busting ack. But I betche yuh
never seen that roan before he was unloaded in Dry Lake."

"What'll yuh bet I don't know that hoss from a yearling colt?" Andy
challenged, and Happy Jack walked away without replying, and cast his
loop sullenly over the first horse he came to--which was _not_ the
roan.

Chip, coming up to hear the last of it, turned and looked long at the
horse in question; a mild-mannered horse, standing by a crooked corral
post and flicking his ears at the flies. "Do you know that roan?" he
asked Andy, in the tone which brings truthful answer. Andy had one
good point: he never lied except in an irresponsible mood of pure
deviltry. For instance, he never had lied seriously, to an employer.

"Sure, I know that hoss," he answered truthfully.

"Did you ever ride him?"

"No," Andy admitted, still truthfully. "I never rode him but once
myself, but I worked right with a Lazy 6 rep that had him in his
string, down at the U up-and-down, two years ago. I know the hoss, all
right; but I did lie when I told Happy I knowed him from a colt. I
spread it on a little bit thick, there." He smiled engagingly down at
Chip.

"And he's a bad one, is he?" Chip queried Over his shoulder, just as
he was about to walk away.

"Well," Andy prevaricated--still clinging to the letter, if not to the
spirit of truth. "He ain't a hoss I'd like to see Happy Jack go up
against. I ain't saying, though, that he can't be _rode_. I don't say
that about _any_ hoss."

"Is he any worse than Glory, when Glory is feeling peevish?" Weary
asked, when Chip was gone and while the men still lingered. Andy,
glancing to make sure that Chip was out of hearing, threw away his
cigarette and yielded to temptation. "Glory?" he snorted with a fine
contempt. "Why, Glory's--a--_lamb_ beside that blue roan! Why, that
hoss throwed Buckskin Jimmy clean out of a corral--Did yuh ever see
Buckskin Jimmy ride? Well, say, yuh missed a pretty sight, then;
Jimmy's a sure-enough rider. About the only animal he ever failed to
connect with for keeps, is that same cow-backed hoss yuh see over
there. Happy says he's got a kind eye in his head--" Andy stopped and
laughed till they all laughed with him. "By gracious, Happy ought to
step up _on_ him, once, and see how _kin