could run them sheep of his over on you and take away
five or six hundred more than he brought, and I guess he'd 'a' done it
if it hadn't been for Reid."

"It looks that way, Dad. I sure was easy, to fall into his trap the
way I did."

Mackenzie was able to get about again, and was gaining strength
rapidly. He and Dad were in the shade of some willows along the creek,
where Mackenzie stretched in the indolent relaxation of convalescence,
Dad smoking his miserable old pipe close at hand.

And miserable is the true word for Dad's pipe, for it was miserable
indeed, and miserable the smell that came out of it, going there full
steam on a hot afternoon of early autumn. Dad always carefully reamed
out the first speck of carbon that formed in his pipe, and kept it
reamed out with boring blade of his pocket knife. He wanted no
insulation against nicotine, and the strength thereof; he was not
satisfied unless the fire burned into the wood, and drew the
infiltrations of strong juice therefrom. When his charge of tobacco
burned out, and the fire came down to this frying, sizzling
abomination of smells at last, Dad beamed, enjoying it as a sort of
dessert to a delightful repast of strong smoke.

Dad was enjoying his domestic felicity to the full these days of
Mackenzie's convalescence. Rabbit was out with the sheep, being needed
no longer to attend the patient, leaving Dad to idle as he pleased.
His regret for the one-eyed widow seemed to have passed, leaving no
scar behind.

"Tim don't take no stock in it that Swan planned before to do you out
of a lot of your sheep. He was by here this morning while you was
wanderin' around somewhere."

"He was by, was he?"

"Yeah; he was over to see Reid--he's sent him a new wagon over there.
Tim says you and Swan must both 'a' been asleep and let the two bands
stray together, and of course it was human for Swan to want to take
away more than he brought. Well, it was sheepman, anyhow, if it wasn't
human."

"Did Sullivan say that?"

"No, that's what I say. I know 'em; I know 'em to the bone. Reid knew
how many sheep him and you had, and he stuck out for 'em like a little
man. More to that feller than I ever thought he had in him."

"Yes," Mackenzie agreed. He lay stretched on his back, squinting at
the calm-weather clouds.

"Yeah; Tim says both of you fellers must 'a' been asleep."

"I suppose he'll fire me when he sees me."

"No, I don't reckon he will. Tim takes it as a kind o