nce.

After that, Hen followed Bud around like a pet dog, and found time
between stable chores to groom those astonished horses, Stopper and
Smoky and Sunfish, as if they were stall-kept thoroughbreds. He had them
coming up to the pasture gate every day for the few handfuls of grain he
purloined for them, and their sleekness was a joy to behold.

"Hen, he's adopted yuh, horses and all, looks like," Dirk observed one
day to Bud when they were riding together. And he tempered the statement
by adding that Hen was trusty enough, even if he didn't have as much
sense as the law allows. "He sure is takin' care of them cayuses of
your'n. D'you tell him to?"

Bud came out of a homesick revery and looked at him inquiringly. "No, I
didn't tell him anything."

"I believe that, all right," Dirk retorted. "You don't go around tellin'
all yuh know. I like that in a feller. A man never got into trouble
yet by keepin' his mouth shut; but there's plenty that have talked
themselves into the pen. Me, I've got no use for a talker."

Bud sent him a sidelong glance of inquiry, and Dirk caught him at it and
grinned.

"Yuh been here a month, and you ain't said a damn word about where you
come from or anything further back than throwin' and tyin' that critter.
You said cow-country, and that has had to do some folks that might be
curious. Well, she's a tearin' big place--cow-country. She runs from
Canady to Mexico, and from the corn belt to the Pacific Ocean, mighty
near takes in Jackson's Hole, and a lot uh country I know." He parted
his mustache and spat carefully into the sand. "I'm willin' to tie to a
man, specially a young feller, that can play the game the way you been
playin' it, Bud. Most always," he complained vaguely, "they carry
their brand too damn main. They either pull their hats down past their
eyebrows and give everybody the bad eye, or else they're too damn ready
to lie about themselves. You throw in with the boys just fine--but you
ain't told a one of 'em where you come from, ner why, ner nothin'."

"I'm here because I'm here," Bud chanted softly, his eyes stubborn even
while he smiled at Dirk.

"I know--yuh sung that the first night yuh come, and yuh looked straight
at the boss all the while you was singin' it," Dirk interrupted, and
laughed slyly. "The boys, they took that all in, too. And Bart, he
wasn't asleep, neither. You sure are smooth as they make 'em, Bud. I
guess," he leaned closer to predict confidentially,