explained as they sat about the fire after the
tea-dishes had been most carefully washed and set away, Ike smoking and
Shock musing.

"That old skunk rather turned you down, I guess," remarked Ike, after a
long silence; "that old Macfarren, I mean," in answer to Shock's look
of enquiry.

"I was surprised, I confess," replied Shock. "You see, I was led to
believe that he was waiting for me, and I was depending upon him. Now,
I really do not know what to think."

"Movin' out, perhaps?" said Ike, casting a sharp look at him from out
of his half-closed eyes.

"What? Leave this post, do you mean?" said Shock, his indignant
surprise showing in his tone. "No, sir. At least, not till my chief
says so."

A gleam shot out from under Ike's lowered eyelids.

"The old fellow'll make it hot for you, if you don't move. Guess he
expects you to move," said Ike quietly.

"Move!" cried Shock again, stirred at the remembrance of Macfarren's
treatment that afternoon. "Would you?"

"See him blanked first," said Ike quietly.

"So will I," said Shock emphatically. "I mean," correcting himself
hastily, "see him saved first."

"Eh? Oh--well, guess he needs some. He needs manners, anyhow. He'll
worry you, I guess. You see, he surmises he's the entire bunch, but a
man's opinion of himself don't really affect the size of his hat band."

Shock felt the opportunity to be golden for the gathering of
information about men and things in the country where his work was to
be done. He felt that to see life through the eyes of a man like Ike,
who represented a large and potent element in the community, would be
valuable indeed.

It was difficult to make Ike talk, but by careful suggestions, rather
than by questioning, Ike was finally led to talk, and Shock began to
catch glimpses of a world quite new to him, and altogether wonderful.
He made the astounding discovery that things that had all his life
formed the basis of his thinking were to Ike and his fellows not so
much unimportant as irrelevant; and as for the great spiritual verities
which lay at the root of all Shock's mental and, indeed, physical
activities, furnishing motive and determining direction, these to Ike
were quite remote from all practical living. What had God to do with
rounding up cattle, or broncho-busting, or horse-trading? True, the
elemental virtues of justice, truth, charity, and loyalty were as
potent over Ike as over Shock, but their moral standards were so widely