"Long Bill's the hardest character in Choteau County."
Endicott glanced at his swollen knuckles: "He is hard, all right."
Tex eyed him in amazement, "Win, you didn't--punch his head for him!"
"I did--and his stomach, too. We were nearly starved, and he refused us food. Told us to go back where we came from. So I reached for him and he dozed off."
"I took them away from him before I tied him up."
"Tied up. He called me a lot of names because I turned the horses into his alfalfa. They were hungry and they enjoyed it, but Bill nearly blew up. Then we got dinner and took the horses and came away."
"You're the luckiest man out of hell! You doggoned pilgrim, you!" Tex roared with laughter: "Why accordin' to dope, he'd ought to just et you up."
"He whined like a puppy, when we left him, for fear we would get lost and he would starve to death. He is yellow."
"His kind always is--way down in their guts. Only no one ever made him show it before."
"How far did we miss the water-hole last night?" asked Endicott, as he and Tex sat talking after the others had sought their blankets.
"About two miles. The wind drifted us to the east. Bat didn't get far 'til his horse went down, so he bled him like we did, and holed up 'til the storm quit. Then, after things cleared up, we got here about the same time. The water ain't much--but it sure did taste good." For a long time the two lay close together looking up at the million winking stars. Tex tossed the butt of a cigarette into the grey dust. "She's a great girl, Win. Game plumb to her boot heels."
"She is, that. I've loved her for a long time--since way back in my college days--but she wouldn't have me."
"You hadn't earnt her. Life's like that--it's ups an' downs. But, in the long run, a man gets about what's comin' to him. It's like poker--in the long run the best player is bound to win. There's times when luck is against him, maybe for months at a stretch. He'll lose every time he plays, but if he stays with it, an' keeps on playin' the best he knows how, an' don't go tryin' to force his luck by drawin' four cards, an' fillin' three-card flushes, why, some day luck will change an' he wins back all he's lost an' a lot more with it, because there's always someone in the game that's throwin' their money away drawin' to a Judson."