trotting along
quietly in the dust of the rear, on the same fiery steed, who in that
prosaic light bore an astounding resemblance to an ordinary team horse.
Later in the day he sought an explanation from the rider.

"You see," answered Jim gloomily, "thar ain't a galoot in this yer crowd
ez knows jist WHAT'S in that hoss! And them ez suspecks daren't say! It
wouldn't do for to hev it let out that the Judge hez a Morgan-Mexican
plug that's killed two men afore he got him, and is bound to kill
another afore he gets through! Why, on'y the week afore we kem up to
you, that thar hoss bolted with me at camping! Bucked and throwed me,
but I kept my holt o' the stirrups with my foot--so! Dragged me a matter
of two miles, head down, and me keepin' away rocks with my hand--so!"

"Why didn't you loose your foot and let go?" asked Clarence
breathlessly.

"YOU might," said Jim, with deep scorn; "that ain't MY style. I just
laid low till we kem to a steep pitched hill, and goin' down when the
hoss was, so to speak, kinder BELOW me, I just turned a hand spring, so,
and that landed me onter his back again."

This action, though vividly illustrated by Jim's throwing his hands down
like feet beneath him, and indicating the parabola of a spring in
the air, proving altogether too much for Clarence's mind to grasp, he
timidly turned to a less difficult detail.

"What made the horse bolt first, Mr. Hooker?"

"Smelt Injins!" said Jim, carelessly expectorating tobacco juice in
a curving jet from the side of his mouth--a singularly fascinating
accomplishment, peculiarly his own, "'n' likely YOUR Injins."

"But," argued Clarence hesitatingly, "you said it was a week
before--and--"

"Er Mexican plug kin smell Injins fifty, yes, a hundred miles away,"
said Jim, with scornful deliberation; "'n' if Judge Peyton had took my
advice, and hadn't been so mighty feared about the character of his hoss
gettin' out he'd hev played roots on them Injins afore they tetched ye.
But," he added, with gloomy dejection, "there ain't no sand in this yer
crowd, thar ain't no vim, thar ain't nothin'; and thar kan't be ez long
ez thar's women and babies, and women and baby fixin's, mixed up with
it. I'd hev cut the whole blamed gang ef it weren't for one or two
things," he added darkly.

Clarence, impressed by Jim's mysterious manner, for the moment forgot
his contemptuous allusion to Mr. Peyton, and the evident implication of
Susy and himself, and asked hurr