pair of
mud-caked trousers and a disreputably dirty silk shirt. The Texan
picked his way down the hill, slipping and sliding in the soft mud.

"Breakfast about ready?" he asked, with a grin.

"Breakfas'! _Voila_! A'm lak' A'm got som' breakfas', you bet!
Me--A'm gon' for cut de chonk of meat out de dead steer but de pilgrim
say: '_Non_, dat bes' we don' eat de damn drownded cattle--dat better
we sta've firs'!"

Tex laughed: "Can't stand for the drownded ones, eh? Well I don't know
as I blame you none, they might be some soggy." Reaching into his
shirt-front he produced a salt bag which he tossed to Endicott.
"Here's some sinkers I fetched along. Divide 'em up. I've et. It
ain't no great ways back to camp----"

"How is she--Miss Marcum? Did she suffer from the shock?"

"Nary suffer. I fixed her up a camp last night back in the timber
where we all landed, an' then came away."

"She spent the night alone in the timber!" cried Endicott.

The Texan nodded. "Yes. There ain't nothin' will bother her. I
judged it to be the best way." Endicott's hand shot out and the
cowboy's met it in a firm grip. "I reckon we're fifty-fifty on that,"
he said gravely. "How's the swimmin'?"

Endicott laughed: "Fine--only I didn't have to do a great deal of it.
I staged a little riding contest all my own, part of the way on a dead
cow, and the rest of it on this tree-trunk. I didn't mind that part of
it--that was fun, but it didn't last over twenty minutes. After the
tree grounded, I had to tramp up and down through this ankle-deep mud
to keep from freezing. I didn't dare to go any place for fear of
getting lost. I thought at first, when the water went down I would
follow back up the valley, but I couldn't find the sides and after one
or two false starts I gave it up. Then Bat showed up at daylight and
we managed to build a fire." Endicott divided the biscuits and
proceeded to devour his share.

Tex rolled a cigarette. "Say," he drawled, when he had lighted it with
a twig from the fire, "what the hell did you whallop me in the jaw for?
I seen it comin' but I couldn't dodge, an' when she hit--it seemed like
I was all tucked away in my little crib, an' somewhere, sweet voices
was singin'."

"I had to do it," laughed Endicott. "It was that, or both of us going
to the bottom. You were grabbing for my arms and legs."

"I ain't holdin' it against you," grinned Tex. "The arms an' legs is
yours, an' you're welcome