APTER VIII.

_Just a Day-dream._

Charming Billy rode humped over the saddle-horn, as rides one whose
mind feels the weight of unpleasant thoughts. Twice he had glanced
uncertainly at his companion, opening his lips for speech; twice he
had closed them silently and turned again to the uneven trail.

Mr. Dill also was humped forward in the saddle, but if one might judge
from his face it was because he was cold. The wind blew chill from out
the north and they were facing it; the trail they followed was frozen
hard and the gray clouds above promised snow. The cheek-bones of Dill
were purple and the point of his long nose was very red. Tears stood
in his eyes, whipped there by the biting wind.

"How far are we now from town?" he asked dispiritedly.

"Only about five miles," Billy cheered. Then, as if trivial speech had
made easier what he had in mind to say, he turned resolutely toward
the other. "Yuh expect to meet old man Robinson there, don't yuh?"

"That was the arrangement, as I understood it"

"And you're thinking strong of buying him out?"

"His place appeals to me more than any of the others, and--yes, it
seems to me that I can't do better." Mr. Dill turned the collar of his
coat up a bit farther--or fancied he did so--and looked questioningly
at Billy.

"Yuh gave me leave to advise yuh where yuh needed it," Billy said
almost challengingly, "and I'm going to call yuh, right here and now.
If yuh take my advice yuh won't go making medicine with old Robinson
any more. He'll do yuh, sure. He's asking yuh double what the outfit's
worth. They _all_ are. It looks to me like they think you're just out
here to get rid of your pile and the bigger chunk they can pry loose
from yuh the better. I was going to put yuh next before this, only yuh
didn't seem to take to any uh the places real serious, so it wasn't
necessary."

"I realize that one cannot buy land and cattle for nothing," Dill
chuckled. "It seemed to me that, compared with the prices others have
asked, Mr. Robinson's offer was very reasonable."

"It may be lower than Jacobs and Wilter, but that don't make it
right."

"Well, there were the Two Sevens"--he meant the Seventy-Seven, but
that was a mere detail--"I didn't get to see the owner, you know. I
have written East, however, and should hear from him in a few days."

"Yuh ain't likely to do business with _that_ layout, because I don't
believe they'd sell at any price. Old Robinson is the washout yuh