you won't miss him much. How are you making it?"

"Me? Fine! Reckon I'll take out me papers for a full-chested range
cook afore long. You see the L.D. outfit says that I could have a job
with them after the round-up. It kind of leaked out about them pies.
'Course they was joshin', mebby. I dunno."

"The L.D. boys are all right," said Corliss. "If you want to make a
change--"

"See here, boss! I done some ramblin' in my time. Guess because I was
lookin' for somethin' new and excitin'. Well, I reckon they's plenty
new and excitin' right to home on the Concho. Any time I get tired of
fallin' off hosses, and gettin' beat up, and mixin' up in dog and wolf
fights, why, I can go to bustin' broncos to keep me from goin' to
sleep. Then Chance there, he needs lookin' after."

Corliss seemingly ignored the gentle hint. He mounted and called to
the dog. Chance made no movement to follow him. Corliss frowned.
"Here, Chance!" he commanded, slapping his thigh with his gauntleted
hand. The dog followed at the horse's heels as Corliss rode across the
hard-packed circle around the camp. Sundown's throat tightened. His
pal was gone.

He puttered about, straightening the blankets. "Gee Gosh! but this
here shack looks empty! Never knowed sick folks could be so much
comp'ny. And Chance is folks, all right. Talk about blue blood! Huh!
I reckon a thoroughbred dog is prouder than common folks, like me.
Some king, he was! Layin' there lookin' out at them punchers and his
eyes sad-like and proud, and turnin' his head slow, watchin' 'em like
they was workin' for him. They's somethin' about class that gets a
fella, even in a dog. And most folks knows it, but won't let on."

He took Chance's drinking-basin--a bread-pan appropriated from the
outfit--and the frayed saddle-blanket that had been the dog's bed, and
carried them to the cottonwoods edging the river. There he hid the
things. He returned to the lean-to and threw himself on his blankets.
He felt as though he had just buried a friend. A cowboy strolled up
and squatted in front of the lean-to. He gazed at the interior, nodded
to Sundown, and rolled a cigarette. He smoked for a while, glanced up
at the sky, peered round the camp, and shrugged his shoulders.

Sundown nodded. "You said it all, Joe. He's gone."

The cowboy blew rings of smoke, watching them spread and dissolve in
the evening air. "Had a hoss onct," he began slowly,--"ornery,
glass-eyed, sh