ut of their comfortable homes.
You've got to keep your eyes on your suitcase and your hand on your
wallet when you sit down among civilized people, Smith."

"Say, I guess you're right about that," admitted Smith after some
reflection. "I read in the paper the other day that they're goin' to
build three new battle-ships. Yes, I reckon things'll change here in
this part of Wyoming now. It'll be so in a year or two that a man can't
leave his pants hangin' out on the line overnight."

"Yes, you'll come to that," the doctor agreed.

"Pants?" pursued Smith reminiscently. "Pants? Well, I tell you. There
was a time in this country, when I drove stage from Casper to Meander,
that I knew every pair of pants between the Chugwater and the Wind
River. If one man ever had come out wearin' another feller's pants, I'd
'a' spotted 'em quick as I would a brand on a stray horse. Pants wasn't
as thick in them days as they are now, and crooks wasn't as plentiful
neither. I knew one old sheepman back on the Sweetwater that wore one
pair of pants 'leven years."

"That's another of the inconveniences of civilization."

"Pants and pie-annos," said Smith. "But I don't care; I'll put in a
stock of both of 'em just as soon as folks get their houses built and
their alfalfa in."

"That's the proper spirit," commended Slavens.

"And insurance and undertakin'," added Smith. "I'll ketch 'em comin' and
goin'."

"If you had a doctor to hitch in with you on the deal," suggested
Slavens.

"What's the matter with you?" grinned Smith.

"I'll be cutting a streak out of here before long, I think."

"Soon as you sell that claim?"

Slavens nodded.

"Don't let 'em bluff you on the price," advised Smith. "They're long on
that game here."

Slavens answered as Smith doubtless expected, and with a show of the
deepest confidence in his own sagacity, no matter what feeling lay in
the well of his conscience at that hour. He left Smith and went back to
Agnes' camp, hoping to see a light as he drew near. There was none. As
he carried no food with him, he was forced to draw on her stores for
supper.

For a long time he lay upon his saddle, smoking beside the stove,
turning over in his mind a thousand conjectures to account for her
sudden and unexplained absence. He was not worried for her safety, for
he believed that she had gone to Comanche, and that was a ride too long
for her to attempt in a day. Doubtless she would set out on the return
early in th