"Which?" said Banjo.

"Banjo," she corrected.

"Now, that sounds more comfortabler," he told her. "I didn't know for
a minute who you meant, that name's gittin' to be a stranger to me."

"Well, we don't want a stranger along tonight," said she, seriously.

"You're right, we don't. That there horse you're ridin' he's a good
one, as good as any in the cavalry, even if he ain't as tall. He was
an outlaw till Missus Mathews tamed him down."

"How did she do it--not break him like a bronco-buster?"

"No, she done it like she tames Injuns and other folks, by gentle
words and gentler hands. Some they'll tell you she's sunk down to the
ways of Injuns, clean out of a white man's sight in the dirt and
doin's of them dead-horse eatin' 'Rapahoes. But I know she ain't. She
lets herself down on a level to reach 'em, and git her hands under 'em
so she can lift 'em up, the same as she puts herself on my level when
she wants to reach me, or your level, or anybody's level, mom."

"Her eyes and her soft ways tell you that, Banjo, as plain as any
words."

"She's done ten times as much as that big-backed buffalo of a preacher
she's married to ever done for his own people, or ever will. He's clim
above 'em with his educated ways; the Injun's ironed out of that man.
You can't reach down and help anybody up, mom, if you go along through
this here world on stilts."

"Not very well, Banjo."

"You need both of your hands to hold your stilts, mom; you ain't got
even a finger to spare for a low-down feller like me."

"You're not a low-down fellow, Banjo. Don't be calling yourself
names."

"I was low-down enough to believe what they told me about Macdonald
shootin' up Chance Dalton. I believed it till Missus Mathews give me
the straight of it. One of them Injun police fellers told her how that
job was put up, and how it failed to work."

"A man named Lassiter told me about it."

They rode along in silence a long time after that. Then Banjo--

"Well, I hope we don't bust out onto them cavalry fellers too sudden
and meet a flock of bullets. I'd never forgive the man that put a
bullet through my fiddle."

"We'll go slowly, and keep listening; I can tell cavalry from cowboys
as far as I can hear."

"I bet a purty you can, brought up with 'em like you was."

"They'll not be able to do anything before daylight, and when we
overtake them we'll ride around and get ahead while they're waiting
for morning. I don't know where the hom