then he dozes off again.

We were only a mile from the ranch house; it was again the wind an' it
wasn't much use to waste ammunition, but I finally got out my gun an'
begun to shoot at intervals.

"What the deuce you makin' that racket for?" grunted the kid at the
third shot. I boxed his ears and went on shootin' until at last the
cold went through sheepskin an' woolens an' hide an' flesh, an' I grew
warm an' contented; an' the next I knew, the cook was rubbin' my wrists
an' pourin' hot coffee into me. I was purty mad at bein' dragged back
to earth an' grumbled about it free an' hearty, but the cook kept
croonin' to me the same as if I'd been a baby: "Neveh mind, honey,
neveh mind; ol' Monody'll bring ya around all right. Take another sip
o' coffee, chile, that's right, that's right."

It took me quite a spell before I could tell whether I was alive or
not, 'cause while the cook had changed a heap since I'd first met up
with him, I'd never heard any such talk as this; but after a time I
came out of it an' the anguish I underwent gettin' back to life wasn't
nowise worth the experiment.

It had stopped blowin', but it was colder than ever, an' at last I
began to take enough interest in things to want 'em to get settled one
way or another. As soon as I was able to think along a straight line,
the cook would give a heave to the pony an' I would give myself a jerk.
The lantern shed a splash o' light on the shelf, but the jump-off
looked like the mouth o' the pit, an' I jerked purty tol'able careful.
At last I was out, an' if you'll believe it, my leg was only broke in
two places. I thought it was broken clear off. I couldn't get back up
the cliff to the trail any way we could figger, so the cook said I
should roll up in the Navajos he'd brought an' he'd take the kid an' go
back an' bring a couple o' the boys an' pack me in.

The kid had found the blankets all right an' had rolled himself up, an'
we had to shake the stuffin' out of him to rouse him again. He
complained most bitter when he found he had to go back to the ranch
house; but at last they got started an' it wasn't long before they had
me there too, an' next day Phil McLaughlin rode over an' brought out a
doctor who lined up my bones as good as new, while Jim told me about
the cook.

Old Monody was like a salamander for heat, an' you couldn't drag him
away from the fire in the winter time; but when I didn't return he
began to worry: "If the' was a man left in