horse long and earnestly. Finally he turned
around again. "I know thot horse!" he yelled.
"And I'm tellin' you thees, Franke," he went on,
suddenly belligerent toward the other. "If you
don' t'ink I'm gettin' thee right _caballo_, I have
you arrested for stealin' thot seex dolars thot
time! Money is money, too. But a horse is a
horse. I know thees horse. Thot's enough!"
Yet he relapsed into a moody silence, puffing
thoughtfully on his cigarette.

Behind the outfit, Pat continued along docilely.
In a way he was enjoying this strange journey
across the mesa. It was all very new to him,
this manner of crossing, this being tied to the
rear of a wagon, and he found himself pleasantly
mystified. Nor was that all. Not once had he
felt called upon to rebel. In perfect contentment
he followed the rigging, eyes upon the outhanging
reach, for he was intent upon maintaining safe
distance between this thing and himself. Once,
when they were mounting up to the mesa, he had
met with a sharp blow from this projection -- due
to sudden change of gait in the horses -- and he
only required the one lesson to be ever after careful.
As for the men forward, he knew nothing of
them, and never, to his knowledge, had seen them
before. But in no way was he concerning himself
about them. Nor, indeed, was he worrying
over any part of this proceeding. For in his
dumb animal way he was coming to know, as all
dumb servants of man come to know, that life,
after all, is service, a kind of self-effacing series

[[92]]

p091 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p092w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p093

v?