"Well, yes; he won't get 'round any quicker than that."

"I don't know as it makes much difference if he can't walk a great
deal, 'cause after the horses have had plenty of grass for a couple of
weeks we'll pull across this place; an' once on the other side I
sha'n't worry but what I can take 'em through all right."

"Look here, my son," Robinson said, as he laid his hand on the lad's
shoulder. "You've got plenty of sand, that's a fact. I allow there
ain't a kid within a thousand miles of here that would tackle the
contract you've taken this mornin'. If we wasn't bound to the
Winnemucca Range, an it wasn't quite so late in the season, we'd help
you out by goin' down to camp an' straightenin' things a bit; but it
can't be done now. We'll buy your rifle though, an' that's what we've
agreed on. Ten dollars ain't sich a big pile for the gun; but yet it's
plenty enough--leastways, it's all we can afford to put out just now."

"I'll be mighty glad to sell it for that if you need a rifle; an'
it'll be better to make the trade now than wait till I get into
Antelope Spring, 'cause there's no dead certainty I'll find anybody
there who'll buy it."

Parsons took from a buckskin bag a small roll of bills, and when he
had counted out ten dollars there was but little of the original
amount remaining.

He handed the money to Dick; and the latter, after the briefest
hesitation, held the rifle toward him.

"Sorry to give it up, eh?" Robinson asked.

"Well, I ain't when it comes to gettin' the money for daddy; if it
wasn't for that I'd be. You see, it's the first one I ever owned, an'
the way things look now, it'll be a good while before I get another."

"I'll tell you how we'll fix it, son. My partner an' I ain't needin'
an extra rifle just now; an' more than as likely as not--in fact, I
may say it's certain--we'll be up 'round your way before the winter
fairly sets in. Now, if you could keep it for us till then, it would
be the biggest kind of a favor, 'cause you see we're prospecting an'
have got about all the load the burros can tackle."

"You're--you're--sure you want to buy this gun, eh?"

"Well, if we wasn't, there wouldn't have been much sense in makin' the
talk."

"But if you're prospectors, there isn't any show of your gettin'
'round to Willow Point."

"Oh, we drift up an' down, here an' there, just as the case may be.
There ain't any question about our trailin' all over the State in
time, and you shall keep the r