te ornaments which any use would bust to smithereens.
Here's his outfit layin' around, bitin' their finger nails with ongwee an'
pinin' away to slivers yearnin' to get into the big meal-lee, an' him
racin' an' tearin' around the country fightin' it out by his lonesome. I
call it rank selfishness!"

"He sure ought to have give us a chancst to claw the hair outen that
damned Corrigan feller!" complained Weaver. "In some ways, though, I'm
sorta glad the damned mine was blew up. 'Firebrand' would have sure got
a-hold of her some day, an' then we'd be clawin' at the bowels of the
earth instid of galivantin' around on our cayuses like gentlemen. I reckon
things is all for the best."

The two had come in from the river range ostensibly to confer with
Trevison regarding their work, but in reality to satisfy their curiosity
over Trevison's movements. There was a deep current of concern for him
under their accusations.

They had found the ranchhouse dark and deserted. But the office door was
open and they had entered, prepared supper, ate with a more than ordinary
mingling of conversation with their food, and not lighting the lamps had
gone out on the gallery for a smoke.

"He ain't done any sleepin' to amount to much in the last forty-eight
hours, to my knowin'," remarked Barkwell; "unless he's done his sleepin'
on the run--an' that ain't in no ways a comfortable way. He's sure to be
driftin' in here, soon."

"This here country's goin' to hell, certain!" declared Weaver, after an
hour of silence. "She's gettin' too eastern an' flighty. Railroads an'
dams an' hotels with bath tubs for every six or seven rooms, an'
resterawnts with filleedegree palms an' leather chairs an' slick eats is
eatin' the gizzard outen her. Railroads is all right in their place--which
is where folks ain't got no cayuses to fork an' therefore has to hoof
it--or--or ride the damn railroad."

"Correct!" agreed Barkwell; "she's a-goin' the way Rome went--an
Babylone--an' Cincinnati--after I left. She runs to a pussy-cafe
aristocracy--_an'_ napkins."

"She'll be plumb ruined--follerin' them foreign styles. The Uhmerican
people ain't got no right to adopt none of them new-fangled notions."
Weaver stared glumly into the darkening plains.

They aired their discontent long. Directed at the town it relieved the
pressure of their resentment over Trevison's habit of depending upon
himself. For, secretly, both were interested admirers of Manti's growing
impo