aven't heard a whistle for two
years! How far is it to the nearest station, Bud?"

"Plattsburg--fifty mile--due south."

"Christmas! Little far to walk."

"Say, you take this horse, Jim,--go ahead! I can walk just as well as
not, I'm getting too fat, anyhow. Go on, you take the horse and have a
ride to Plattsburg!"

"Yes, take the shirt off your back, and never mind if a bit of the skin
goes with it. I'll see you far away first. Tell you what you could do for
me, Buddy; the herd of burros is around now, if you'd round up one of
them for me?"

"Sure thing! You sit on the mail sack till I come back. There's a heap of
registered stuff in it this trip. Oh say! What do you think? I was held
up t'other side of the Bulldog. Bang! Zipp! says a little popper from the
bushes. I climbed for them bushes, and out goes a beggar like a rabbit. I
was after him like a coyote, bet cher life. Who do you suppose it was,
Jim?"

"Hang it, how should I know?"

"That little down-east cuss with the crook in his back. He begged hard.
Poor devil, he was up against the sandpaper side, all right. He heard
from the postmaster that there was a lot of valuable mail going out, so
he thought he'd make a try for it. Then what do you think he had the
cold, cold nerve to do?"

"Pass it up--'most anything, I reckon."

"Worse'n that. Struck me for fifty!"

"And got it."

"Got it? No, not much he didn't, sonny! He drew just ten, and he was
lucky to get that. I've done a favor or two for that feller, first and
last, and to have him shoot at me made me sore--although he missed me by
several locations, I'll say that for him--so I gave him the ten and told
him I'd kick the hump on his back so high up on his shoulders he could
wear it for a hat, if he ever shoved into my daylight again. And you
never in your life saw a humpback make better time than he did.

"Well here's for your jack-ass--which way's the herd?"

"Right up over the hill."

Jim sat patiently on the sack until Bud returned with the burro.

"Here's your thoroughbred!" holloed Bud. "Get ap, there, Mary. Look at
the knowing ears of him, will you? You bet cher life, you've got an
animile there that'll go when he gets ready, and as fast as he pretty
well damn pleases--nail him!"

Jim tied a gunny sack on his noble mount, and the two rode on together to
the fork in the trail. Jim tried to thank his friend, who knocked his hat
over his eyes, and said, "Aw, write it down when you've got