_I_?? want you to tell me who it was took care of you
last winter -- under mighty trying circumstances,
too -- and put you in the way of easy money this
spring! But you needn't tell me," he suddenly
concluded, picking up the cards savagely. "I
know who it was without your telling me, and you
know who it was without my telling you. And
now what's the returns? When I give you a
chance to come back a little -- in a dead-square,
open game of cards -- you crawl into your shell
and act like I'd asked you to step on the gallows.

Jim permitted himself a quiet smile. "I don't
think I'm playing the hog, exactly," he rejoined,
evenly. "I guess maybe I'm thinking of the
horse as much as anything. And not so much of
him, either, maybe, as of you, the way you handle
horses if they don't dance a two-step when you
want a two-step. In about a week, Johnson,"
he continued, mildly, "you'd have that horse
jabbed full of holes with them Mexican rowels of
yours! He wouldn't stand for that kind of affection,
or I'm no judge of horseflesh. He ain't used
to it; he ain't that kind of a horse -- your kind!
You ought to see that yourself. You don't want
no spirited horse like him, because either you'd
kill him or he'd kill you. _I_?? can see it, if you
can't!"

"We'll now cut for deal," interposed Johnson,
grimly.

"Take myself," went on the other, half smiling
"why I like the idea of keeping him. I used to
kill cats and rob nests and stone dogs when I was

[[178]]

p177 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p178w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p179

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