oy, "but I don't look friendly none on payin' a cheap price for
a horse. Speakin' generally, there's somethin' that every feller likes a
whole lot, an' out here, where domestic life ain't our chief play, it's
mostly a horse. Leastways, when I hit the long trail, I'll be just as
sorry to leave some ponies behind as I will humans."

"A horse can be a great chum," assented Wilbur. "So can a dog."

"No dogs in mine," said Bob-Cat emphatically, "they reminds me too much
o' sheep. But when it comes to a horse, I tell ye, there's a lot more in
the deal than buyin' an animal to carry you; there's buyin' somethin'
that all the money in the world can't bring you sometimes--an' that's a
friend."

Wilbur waited a moment without reply, and then the cowboy, deliberately
changing the topic to cloak any strain of sentiment which he thought he
might have been betrayed into showing, continued:

"How about saddles?"

"I'd been thinking about that," replied the boy, "and I thought I'd wait
until I got out here before deciding. You can't use an English
saddle-tree, of course, and I hate it anyway, and one like yours is too
big. Those lumbering Mexican saddles always look to me as if they were
as big a load for a little pony to carry as a man."

"Sure, they're heavy. But you can't do any ropin' without them. If you
try 'n' rope on a small saddle the girth'll pretty near cut a pony in
two. But you ain't got any ropin' to do, so I sh'd think an army
saddle-tree would be about right. There's Rifle-Eye Bill comin' out of
the bunk-house now. Ask him. He'll know."

Wilbur looked up, and saw emerging from the door of the bunk-house a
tall, gaunt mountaineer. He strolled over to the corral with a long,
loose-jointed stride.

"Got him, all right, Bob-Cat, did you?" he said in a measured drawl,
then, turning to the boy, added: "Glad to see you, son."

"I've been hearing all about you, sir," answered Wilbur, "and I'm
awfully glad to meet you here." He was about to dismount, but noting
that Bob-Cat had merely thrown a leg over the horn of his saddle, he
stayed where he was.

The old Ranger looked him over critically and closely, so that Wilbur
felt himself flushing under the direct gaze, though he met the clear
gray eye of his new acquaintance without flinching. Presently the
latter turned to the range-rider.

"What do you think of him?" he asked in a slow, curiously commanding
way.

Bob-Cat squirmed uneasily.

"You is sure annoyin'," h