gnantly.

"To m-make a man of him."

"Hell's bells! I'm no dry nurse to fellows shy of sand. He can travel a
lone trail for all of me."

"Keep him kinda encouraged."

"Why pick on me, Blister? I don't want the job. He ain't there, I tell
you. Any fellow that would let another guy take his wife away from him
an' not hang his hide up to dry--No, sir, I got no manner o' use for him.
You can't onload him on me."

"I've been thinkin' that when you are alone with him some t-time you'd
better devil him into a fight, then let him whale the stuffin' outa you.
That'll do him a l-lot of good--give him confidence."

Hollister stared. His face broke slowly to a grin. "I got to give it to
you, Blister. I'll bet there ain't any more like you at home. Let him
lick me, eh? So's to give him confidence. Wallop me good an' plenty, you
said, didn't you? By gum, you sure enough take the cake."

"Won't hurt you any. You've give an' took plenty of 'em. Think of him."

"Think of me, come to that."

"L-listen, Dud. That boy's what they call c-c-constitutionally timid.
There's folks that way, born so a shadow scares 'em. But he's
s-s-sensitive as a g-girl. Don't you make any mistake, son. He's been
eatin' his h-heart out ever since he crawled before Houck. I like that
boy. There's good s-stuff in him. At least I'm makin' a bet there is.
Question is, will it ever get a chance to show? Inside of three months
he'll either win out or he'll be headed for hell, an' he won't be
travelin' at no drift-herd gait neither."

"Every man's got to stand on his own hind laigs, ain't he?" Hollister
grunted. He was weakening, and he knew it.

"He needs a friend, worst way," Blister wheezed. "'Course, if you'd
rather not--"

"Doggone yore hide, you're always stickin' me somehow," stormed the
cowboy. "Trouble with me is I'm so soft I'm always gettin' imposed on. I
done told you I didn't like this guy a-tall. That don't make no more
impression on you than a cold runnin'-iron would on a cow."

"M-much obliged, Dud. I knew you'd do it."

"I ain't said I'd do it."

"S-some of the boys are liable to get on the prod with him. He'll have to
play his own hand. Tha's reasonable. But kinda back him up when you get a
chance. That notion of lettin' him lick you is a humdinger. Glad you
thought of it."

"I didn't think of it, an' I ain't thinkin' of it now," Dud retorted.
"You blamed old fat skeezicks, you lay around figurin' out ways to make
me trouble. You