e boat,
he must know something of its occupants. He could not know of the
reward, however, and acting on the theory that half a loaf is better
than none, Long Bill reached for his oars and pulled ashore.

"That's what I'm a-huntin'," he answered, "saw any thin' of her?"

Purdy nodded: "She's layin' up agin' the mouth of a coulee, 'bout two
mile or so this side of Red Sand."

Long Bill removed his hat, scratched his head, and stared out over the
river. Finally he spoke: "See her clost up?"

"Yup. Went right down to her."

Another pause, and with a vast show of indifference Long Bill asked:
"Anyone in her?"

"No."

"Any tracks around--like anyone had be'n there?"

"Not none except what I made myself. Look a-here, Bill; what you so
damned anxious to find that ferry fer? It would cost you more to haul it
back upstream than what it would to build you a new one."

"Sure they wasn't no one there? No one could of got off her an' struck
back in?"

"Not onless they could of flew," opined Purdy, "how'd she come to bust
loose?"

Long Bill burst into a tirade of profanity that left him breathless.
"I'll tell you how come she bust loose," he roared, when he had
sufficiently recovered to proceed, "that damned son of a--of a Texian
stoled her--him an' the pilgrim's woman!"

"Texan!" cried Purdy, "d'ye mean Tex--Tex Benton?"

"Who the hell d'ye s'pose I mean? Who else 'ud have the guts to steal
the Red Front saloon, an' another man's woman, an' my ferry all the same
day--an' git away with it? Who would?" The infuriated man fairly
screamed the words, "Me--or you--not by a damn sight! You claim to be a
horse-thief--my Gawd, if that bird ever turned horse-thief, in a year's
time horses would be extincter than what buffaloes is! They wouldn't be
_none_ left fer _nobudy--nowheres_!"

It was some moments before Purdy succeeded in calming the man down to
where he could give a fairly lucid account of the happenings in Timber
City. He listened intently to Long Bill's narrative, and at the
conclusion the ferryman produced his dodgers: "An' here's the rewards--a
hundred fer Tex, an' a thousan' fer information about the woman."

Purdy read the hand-bill through twice. Then for several minutes he was
silent. Finally, he turned to Long Bill. "Looks like me an' you had a
purty good thing--if it's worked right," he said with a wink.

"Wha' d'ye mean?" asked the other with sudden interest.

"I mean," answered Purdy, "that I've got