ved a hand toward him by way of introduction. "Gents of the
D Bar Lazy R outfit, we now have with us roostin' on the wagon tongue Mr.
David Sanders, formerly of Arizona, just returned from makin' love to his
paint hoss. Mr. Sanders will make oration on the why, wherefore, and
how-come-it of Chiquito's superiority to all other equines whatever."

The youth on the wagon tongue smiled. His blue eyes were gentle and
friendly. From his pocket he had taken a knife and was sharpening it on
one of his dawn-at-the-heel-boots.

"I'd like right well to make love to that pinto my own se'f, Bob,"
commented a weather-beaten puncher. "Any old time Dave wants to saw him
off onto me at sixty dollars I'm here to do business."

"You're sure an easy mark, Buck," grunted a large fat man leaning against
a wheel. His white, expressionless face and soft hands differentiated him
from the tough range-riders. He did not belong with the outfit, but had
joined it the day before with George Doble, a half-brother of the trail
foreman, to travel with it as far as Malapi. In the Southwest he was
known as Ad Miller. The two men had brought with them in addition to
their own mounts a led pack-horse.

Doble backed up his partner. "Sure are, Buck. I can get cowponies for ten
and fifteen dollars--all I want of 'em," he said, and contrived by the
lift of his lip to make the remark offensive.

"Not ponies like Chiquito," ventured Sanders amiably.

"That so?" jeered Doble.

He looked at David out of a sly and shifty eye. He had only one. The
other had been gouged out years ago in a drunken fracas.

"You couldn't get Chiquito for a hundred dollars. Not for sale," the
owner of the horse said, a little stiffly.

Miller's fat paunch shook with laughter. "I reckon not--at that price.
I'd give all of fohty for him."

"Different here," replied Doble. "What has this pinto got that makes him
worth over thirty?"

"He's some bronc," explained Bob Hart. "Got a bagful of tricks, a nice
disposition, and sure can burn the wind."

"Yore friend must be valuin' them parlor tricks at ten dollars apiece,"
murmured Miller. "He'd ought to put him in a show and not keep him to
chase cow tails with."

"At that, I've seen circus hosses that weren't one two three with
Chiquito. He'll shake hands and play dead and dance to a mouth-organ and
come a-runnin' when Dave whistles."

"You don't say." The voice of the fat man was heavy with sarcasm. "And on
top of all that edju