the regular run of men--an' I've seen a considerable
pile of men, honey. There's other funny things about Dan maybe you
ain't noticed. Take the way he has with hosses an' other animals. The
wildest man-killin', spur-hatin' bronchos don't put up no fight when
them long legs of Dan settle round 'em."

"Because they know fighting won't help them!"

"Maybe so, maybe so," he said quietly, "but it's kind of queer, Kate,
that after most a hundred men on the best hosses in these parts had
ridden in relays after Satan an' couldn't lay a rope on him, Dan could
jest go out on foot with a halter an' come back in ten days leadin'
the wildest devil of a mustang that ever hated men."

"It was a glorious thing to do!" she said.

Old Cumberland sighed and then shook his head.

"It shows more'n that, honey. There ain't any man but Dan that can sit
the saddle on Satan. If Dan should die, Satan wouldn't be no more use
to other men than a piece of haltered lightnin'. An' then tell me how
Dan got hold of that wolf, Black Bart, as he calls him."

"It isn't a wolf, Dad," said Kate, "it's a dog. Dan says so himself."

"Sure he says so," answered her father, "but there was a lone wolf
prowlin' round these parts for a considerable time an' raisin' Cain
with the calves an' the colts. An' Black Bart comes pretty close to a
description of the lone wolf. Maybe you remember Dan found his 'dog'
lyin' in a gully with a bullet through his shoulder. If he was a dog
how'd he come to be shot--"

"Some brute of a sheep herder may have done it. What could it prove?"

"It only proves that Dan is queer--powerful queer! Satan an' Black
Bart are still as wild as they ever was, except that they got one
master. An' they ain't got a thing to do with other people. Black
Bart'd tear the heart out of a man that so much as patted his head."

"Why," she cried, "he'll let me do anything with him!"

"Humph!" said Cumberland, a little baffled; "maybe that's because Dan
is kind of fond of you, gal, an' he has sort of introduced you to
his pets, damn 'em! That's just the pint! How is he able to make his
man-killers act sweet with you an' play the devil with everybody
else."

"It wasn't Dan at all!" she said stoutly, "and he _isn't_ queer. Satan
and Black Bart let me do what I want with them because they know I
love them for their beauty and their strength."

"Let it go at that," growled her father. "Kate, you're jest like your
mother when it comes to arguin'. I