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肩書を与える: Tiger 注目する，もくろむ Author: B M Bower * A 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 1500251h.html Language: English Date first 地位，任命するd: 損なう 2015 Most 最近の update: May 2017 This eBook was produced by Colin Choat and Roy Glashan. 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed 版s which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is 含むd. We do NOT keep any eBooks in 同意／服従 with a particular paper 版. Copyright 法律s are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright 法律s for your country before downloading or redistributing this とじ込み／提出する. This eBook is made 利用できる at no cost and with almost no 制限s どれでも. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the 条件 of the 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia License which may be 見解（をとる）d online at http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au/licence.html To 接触する 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia go to http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au
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"Tiger 注目する，もくろむ," Grosset & Dunlap 版, 1930
Because "殺し屋" Reeves, 負かす／撃墜する on the Brazos in Texas, had killed a man in self-弁護, he had been drawn into a 反目，不和. His sons were brought up never to 嘘（をつく）, to live straight and to be dead 発射s. One by one they fell 犠牲者s of the 反目，不和 until only the youngest, "Tiger 注目する，もくろむ", was left. Rather than be drawn in and have to become a 殺し屋 himself, he left home and went to Montana, looking for a 職業 as a cowboy.
As a scout for the Poole outfit, who were 行うing war against the "nesters", the kid met Nellie Murray, a daughter of a "nester" who was 発射 負かす／撃墜する in 冷淡な 血 in his own dooryard. When from her and from his friend Babe's delirious babblings he heard bitter and dreadful 発覚s about Poole, the kid saw himself caught in a terrible 窮地. How he 作品 himself out at the 危険 of his life, still 辞退するing to kill, gives B.M. Bower the 主題 and setting for another thrilling Western story.
THE kid was running away, but he was taking his time about it, and he was enjoying every foot of his flight. いつかs when a curlew circled and gazed 負かす／撃墜する curiously, with his yellow 注目する，もくろむs peering, first one and then the other, the kid would stop dead still in the 追跡する and with his own 注目する，もくろむs turned 上向き to the bird, he would call "Kor-reck?" "Kor-reck?" in playful mimicry. Other times he would pull from his breast pocket a mouth 組織／臓器 worn through to the 厚かましさ／高級将校連 in places where his fingers clasped it, and would polish it 厳粛に on his sleeve, 始める，決める the tiny pigeonholed 辛勝する／優位 to his smooth young lips and ripple a few 公式文書，認めるs to match the meadow lark's song. From that he would slide into "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean," and "The Spanish Cavalier." But at this particular moment the mouth 組織／臓器 reposed in his pocket with his Bull Durham 捕らえる、獲得する, and he was singing:
"A Spanish cavalier stood in his 退却／保養地
And on his guitar played a tune, dear.
The music so 甘い he'd ofttimes repeat—
'The blessing of my coun-try and you-oo, dear!'"
But for all his leisurely and tuneful 進歩, the kid was running away, and he had been running for more than a month now. He was running away from several things that had begun to harry him, even at twenty: his father's enemies—such as had 生き延びるd straight-狙撃 old 殺し屋 Reeves; but he was not running from the enemies so much as from the 差し迫った necessity of 狙撃 them. The kid had no ambition for carrying on the 反目，不和 and getting the 指名する of 存在 a 殺し屋, like Pap. He did not want to kill; he had seen too much of that and it carried neither novelty nor the glamour of adventure. Then, too, he was running away from a girl who had called him Tiger 注目する，もくろむ to his 直面する. The kid felt a streak of 解雇する／砲火／射撃 shoot up his spine when he thought of the way she had pronounced the 指名する men called him. Always before he had 受託するd it just as he would have 受託するd any other 愛称 示唆するd by something in his character or 外見, but she had made it a taunt.
He couldn't change the yellow 星／主役にする of his 権利 注目する，もくろむ, any more than he could remember not to squint his blue left 注目する，もくろむ nearly shut when he really meant something. His mother always told him he got that tiger 注目する，もくろむ at a circus she had visited before he was born. The kid didn't know about that, but he knew he had it and that it was the 注目する，もくろむ that looked 負かす／撃墜する a gun バーレル／樽 when he practised 狙撃; the 注目する，もくろむ that 星／主役にするd 支援する when somebody tried to give him some of their lip. They didn't, very often; they seemed to 推定する／予想する him to ride with his 権利 glove off and his gun loose in its holster, the way Pap always did.
The kid left off gloves altogether, except when he was working with a rope, but that was so he could play his mouth 組織／臓器. His gun never had stuck in its holster and never would—Pap's training had been too 厳しい for such bungling. But the kid never 手配中の，お尋ね者 to shoot any one. That was the main 推論する／理由 why he had left home. He had 表明するd it all in one 宣告，判決 to his mother when he told her good-by.
"I'll be 殺人，大当り, same as Pap, if I stay around heah." And his mother had nodded in somber 協定 and let him go. His mother didn't know about the girl.
That was nearly six weeks ago. The kid had pointed his pony's nose to the north and never once had he spread his 一面に覆う／毛布s twice in the same （軍の）野営地，陣営. He had followed the 追跡する of the wild goose, winging high 総計費 to its nesting grounds. Rivers, 砂漠s, mountains, plains,—he had crossed them all. He'd be in Canada if he didn't stop pretty soon, he thought. He didn't want anything of Canada; too 冷淡な up there. He'd stay 負かす／撃墜する in Montana, where the chinook 勝利，勝つd ate the snow 権利 out from under your horse's feet in winter, によれば what he had heard. Lots of the boys went up into Montana with the big 追跡する herds and didn't come 支援する; seemed to like the country 罰金.
It was nice country, all 権利, and the kid decided that he had about reached the end of his 旅行. From where the 追跡する approached the 辛勝する／優位 of a high, wide 高原, which the kid called a mesa, after the fashion of the southern 範囲s, he had a splendid 見解（をとる） of the country spread out below him. Evidently the 追跡する was 捜し出すing 平易な 降下／家系 to the valley. There were little rolling 山の尾根s 負かす／撃墜する there, with grassy flats between and the 向こうずね of small streams glimpsed now and then in the open spaces の中で 新たな展開ing threads of darker green which the kid knew would be trees and bushes. He did not see any houses, except within the wide 武器 of a coulee toward which the road seemed to lead. The kid could look 権利 負かす／撃墜する into the wide mouth of that coulee and see corrals, the squatty stable and the small house 支援するd up against the red sandstone 塀で囲む. It looked 肉親，親類d of snug and friendly 負かす／撃墜する there. Maybe he could get a 職業 and stop 権利 there, without looking any さらに先に.
The kid swung his わずかな／ほっそりした 団体／死体 around in the saddle to see if his pack horse was coming 権利 along as he should, and as he did so his buckskin horse squatted and shied violently away from something white ぱたぱたするing in the 最高の，を越す of a soapweed と一緒に the road. The kid stopped singing, pulled the horse up with a 解除する of the reins and wheeled him about to make him ride at the thing. Nothing but a piece of white paper—nothing to 殺到 a horse as trailwise as old Pecos. Make him go 権利 up and stick his nose against it and smell it; teach him not to be afraid of a little paper.
The kid spurred Pecos toward the white ぱたぱたする, talking to him softly. Twice the horse whirled away. The third time the kid leaned and plucked the paper off the bush and 診察するd the thing as he 棒. It seemed to be a 天然のまま yet 公正に／かなり 正確な 地図／計画する of the country lying 負かす／撃墜する below him, between the （法廷の）裁判 and the river. All the creeks were 示すd, and at 確かな points there were little penciled squares, plainly 示すing the ranches. Beside each square was a man's 指名する and a brand. And before nearly every 指名する there was an X, made 黒人／ボイコット and 際立った with pencil.
The kid spread the paper flat on his saddle horn and got it lined up with the country. Yes, here was the place he was coming to. によれば the paper, the ranch was owned by a man 指名するd Nate Wheeler and his brand was the Cross O. The kid grinned a little as he 倍のd the paper and put it in his pocket. He was in luck. He could ride 権利 up and call the man by 指名する, just as if he'd heard all about him. It would make a difference, all 権利. Nate Wheeler wouldn't think he was just some 飛行機で行く-by-night stranger riding through. He'd probably give him work; he would, if he had any.
"'Oh-h, it's off to the war, to the war I must go—
To fight for my coun-try and you-oo, dear—'"
The kid had a nice 発言する／表明する, soft with that liquid softness which the South gives to its sons. He did not sing very loudly, having no 願望（する） to advertise himself to the country, for he was bashful and would blush if you spoke to him suddenly—that is, in a friendly トン. The other 肉親，親類d brought no 紅潮／摘発する; only that 安定した, disconcerting 星／主役にする of his yellow 権利 注目する，もくろむ.
A man was riding toward him, coming out of the wide-武装した coulee to the left—the one which the 地図／計画する had identified as Nate Wheeler's place. He could not have heard the kid singing and he did not see the kid at once. The man was riding at a jog trot, his 団体／死体 jerking sidewise at each step the horse took. The kid saw him the minute he （機の）カム around the bold 激しく揺する ledge that 示すd that end of the coulee and he wondered if this might not be Nate Wheeler himself. He'd ask him, anyway, as soon as they met. He'd rather do that than ride up to the house and bone the fellow for a 職業 in 前線 of his wife; there was one, he knew by the skirts and aprons ballooning on the clothesline と一緒に the cabin. A baby too, if the little pink dresses didn't 嘘（をつく）.
Pecos 選ぶd his way daintily 負かす／撃墜する into a 狭くする wrinkle of the hill that swallowed the kid from sight for a good hundred yards, the gravelly road slanting steeply 負かす／撃墜する to the valley. Barney, the pack horse, was a little tender-footed behind and （機の）カム lagging along, 好意ing his feet where he could; and the kid, ちらりと見ることing 支援する, let him take his time. Barney would catch up anyway, when the kid stopped to talk with this man Wheeler, or whoever he was.
So it was that the two 独房監禁 horsemen 棒 up into sight of each other やめる suddenly, fifty yards apart and the slope dropping away on either 味方する. The rancher jerked his horse up as if about to wheel and ride 支援する whence he （機の）カム. The kid kept straight on. Then the rancher did a most amazing thing. He yanked his gun from its holster, drove the 刺激（する）s against his horse and （機の）カム 肺ing straight at the kid.
"Draw, you coyote! I'm comin' a-shootin'!" he yelled as he 棒.
The kid was caught 完全に off his guard, but he had been trained in a hard school that 受託するd no excuse for fumbling. The pow-w of his forty-five was not a 分裂（する） second slower than the other. He felt a vicious jerk at his hat as his finger 強化するd around the 誘発する／引き起こす of his gun. Then he was riding 今後 to where the man had 倒れるd from his horse. The little pinto shied away and would have started running, but the kid caught it with one sweep of his long arm that gathered in the 追跡するing reins.
He was sitting there on his horse, 星／主役にするing incredulously 負かす／撃墜する at the dead man, when another horseman （機の）カム galloping 負かす／撃墜する a grassy 山の尾根, no more than a 石／投石する's throw away. The kid turned and looked at him hardly along the バーレル／樽 of his gun.
"Yo'all stop where yo're at," he 命令（する）d in his soft drawling 発言する／表明する, and the stranger stopped, throwing up both 手渡すs laughingly as he did so. The kid 調査するd him 批判的に with his peculiar, tigerish 注目する，もくろむ, the other squinted half-shut. It gave him a deadly look in spite of his boyishness, but he did not know that.
"That's all 権利—I'm a friend. Think I'd 棒 out in sight if I wasn't?" the stranger 発言／述べるd easily. "I'm riding for the Poole."
WITHOUT moving his gaze, the kid 攻撃するd his 長，率いる わずかに toward the 新たな展開d 人物／姿／数字 on the ground.
"Yo'all heahd what he said?"
"Yeah, I heard 'im. He had it comin', Kid."
"I 目的（とする）d to shoot his gun ahm 負かす／撃墜する. I didn't 目的（とする） to kill him."
"You'd been outa luck, Kid, if you hadn't. He'd'a' got you."
"Plumb crazy," said the kid. "Comin' at me that-a-way."
"Sure was. You from the South?"
"Brazos," the kid answered succinctly.
"Yeah. 井戸／弁護士席, it's lucky I happened along. My 指名する's 獲得する. Babe 獲得する. How come you're ridin' to Wheeler's?"
The kid gave one その上の look at 獲得する, decided that he was all 権利 and holstered his gun. He pulled the 倍のd paper from his breast pocket, opened it and 攻撃するd it so that the other, riding closer, could see.
"This place over heah was the closest," he explained, pointing a finger at the 指名する and the X. "This Wheelah?"
"Yeah." Babe 獲得する looked from the paper up into the kid's 直面する. His own steely 注目する，もくろむs were 尋問, impressed. "You sure as hell don't waste any time. Mind tellin' me your 指名する?"
"（頭が）ひょいと動く Reeves." The kid looked 十分な at 獲得する, a 反抗的な 表現 around his mouth. "Folks call me Tiger 注目する，もくろむ 支援する home. They gotta be friends to do it, though."
Babe 獲得する ちらりと見ることd obliquely at the heap on the ground, nodded and looked away, up the road and 負かす／撃墜する.
"Say, you better 霧 along to my （軍の）野営地，陣営 with me," he said uneasily. "These damn nesters is shore mean. Let the pinto go. Anybody come along and catch you here, it's fare ye 井戸／弁護士席. What kinda gun you got?"
"Colt forty-five."
"Good. That won't tell nothin' if the nesters get snoopy. Come on, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ. I'll see yuh through this."
He wheeled his horse, and led the way 支援する up the hill, and the kid followed without a word. Talking was never his habit and he certainly was not in the mood now for conversation. The damned, dirty luck of it! Having to shoot the first man he saw in the country, the one he was going to strike for a 職業! Of course, having Babe 獲得する show up as a friend was sure lucky, but it couldn't 相殺する that other 大災害. Another thing bothered him; how had he happened to 行方不明になる, like that? He had 目的（とする）d at Wheeler's gun arm. How had he 発射 so far wide that the 弾丸 went through Wheeler's 長，率いる? 殺し屋 Reeves' son 狙撃 wide of the 示す!
"Pap shoah would peel me foh that, if he knowed about it," the kid thought glumly, again and again. It never occurred to him that his father or any one else would disapprove of the 狙撃. That would be called a 事例／患者 of "have to." And as he meditated 厳粛に on the necessity of defending himself, he remembered the jerk of his big hat and took it off to see just what had happened.
There it was—a smudged 穴を開ける 権利 in the middle of the 栄冠を与える. The kid passed one を引き渡す his 長，率いる and brought it away with a lock of hair the size of his forefinger; a curl, to be exact. Locks of hair were やめる likely to stand out from the kid's scalp in half-moons and circles. He was regarding the 赤みを帯びた-yellow curl soberly, his lips pursed a little, when Babe 獲得する ちらりと見ることd his way.
"Damn の近くに," Babe commented. "You want to keep your 注目する，もくろむ peeled hereafter. These nesters'll shoot a man on sight."
"What foh?"
"'原因（となる） they're damn' cow thieves and the Poole has called the turn," Babe said savagely. "They hang together like sand burrs to a dog's tail. Us Poole riders is fair game to them. You heard what he hollered."
"Yeah, I heahd."
"That's the nester's war whoop, these days. The Poole has had four men fanned with 弾丸s in the last month. We're needin' riders that can shoot. You come in time."
The kid 棒 for awhile in silence, his 弾丸-scarred hat pulled low over his 注目する，もくろむs, his fingers absently toying with the 赤みを帯びた curl. 突然の he turned his tiger 星／主役にする on Babe.
"How many men has the nestahs lost?"
Babe hesitated, gave his 長，率いる a shake, laughed one hard chuckle.
"You know of one, anyway," he said meaningly.
The kid questioned no その上の but followed silently in Babe's lead. Over a 溶岩 bed they went, where the horses must 選ぶ their way carefully but where they left no 跡をつける. 負かす／撃墜する along the 縁 of the benchland, past the 長，率いる of the coulee 示すd on the 地図／計画する as Wheeler's. Once, the kid looked 負かす／撃墜する almost upon the roof of the cabin. A woman （機の）カム out and began pulling the 着せる／賦与するs off the line, her 支援する to the bluff. A baby in a pink dress toddled out on the doorstep, sat 負かす／撃墜する violently and began to squirm backward off the step. Wheeler's baby. Only there wasn't any Wheeler, any more. Just a heap of dressed-up bones and meat, 支援する there in the 追跡する.
They swung 支援する from the 縁, and the kid saw no more of the cabin and the woman taking 着せる／賦与するs off the line, and the baby はうing backward 負かす／撃墜する off the step. 削減（する） little devil. Run to 会合，会う his pappy, most likely, and want a ride on the pinto horse.
What devil's luck was it that had made the kid shoot wide, like that? Used to shoot the pips out of cards somebody held out for him—sis would 持つ／拘留する cards out for him to shoot, any time. Never had 行方不明になるd that-a-way before. The kid could not understand it. It worried him almost as much as the 殺人，大当り.
Babe 獲得する had a snug cabin, not to be approached save from one direction, up a 明らかにする, 法外な little 山の尾根 to a 塀で囲むd-in 水盤／入り江 where two springs 泡d out from the 激しく揺する 塀で囲む and oozed away through ferns and tall grasses with little blue flowers 攻撃するing on the 最高の，を越すs. Babe made him welcome, stabled the horses and cooked a good meal. He talked of many things, but not again of Nate Wheeler.
The kid did not talk at all, except to reply to direct questions, and never then with two words if one would carry his meaning. He washed the dishes while Babe wiped them, and swept the cabin, corners and all, and upended the broom behind the door as his mother had taught him to do. によれば 殺し屋 Reeves' wife, boys must learn to cook and keep a house clean in a country where women were few, and the kid was 井戸／弁護士席 trained in more things than 狙撃. When all was done Babe took a paper-bound novel 負かす／撃墜する off a high shelf where many more were piled. He ちらりと見ることd at the kid inquiringly.
"Lots to read if you want it," he 申し込む／申し出d, lying 負かす／撃墜する on the bed with his 倍のd coat under the pillow for greater 高さ, and his 負担d gun の近くに to his 権利 手渡す. "Make yourself to home, （頭が）ひょいと動く."
"Reckon I'll take a ride," the kid said 静かに, 小衝突ing off the stove 最高の，を越す with a wild duck's wing. "目的（とする） to get the lay of the land."
"Oh, sure." Babe 熟考する／考慮するd the kid from beneath his 攻撃するs. "Want any help? We're pardners 今後—Tiger 注目する，もくろむ."
"Don't need he'p 権利 now, thanks," said the kid, 紅潮／摘発するing with shy 感謝. "Yo'all lay still and read yoah 調書をとる／予約する, Babe. I'll come 支援する."
"Take care of yourself," Babe gave 警告 and 別れの（言葉，会） together, still covertly 注目する，もくろむing the kid.
"Shoah will, Babe," 約束d the kid, and let himself out into the warm, slanting sunlight. Babe got off his bunk and went to the doorway.
"Give this signal when you come up the 追跡する, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ," he directed, and whistled a 緊張する like the cry of some night bird. "Us Poole boys あられ／賞賛する each other that way at night. Safer. You hear that call, you know it's a friend."
"Thanks," said the kid, and repeated the signal 正確に. "Shoah will remember it, Babe."
"Shore yuh don't want no help?"
"I'll make out, I reckon."
"井戸／弁護士席—take care of yourself, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ."
"Shoah will, Babe."
Babe waited in the doorway until the kid （機の）カム riding by the cabin, his long 脚s swinging gently with the 平易な, pacing stride of Pecos. Babe waved his 手渡す and the kid waved 支援する, his mouth smiling in wistful friendliness, his ちらりと見ること not tigerish at all, though there was in it something ばく然と 乱すing. Babe went 支援する to his bed and his 調書をとる／予約する, but though he 星／主役にするd at the open page he did not read a line for five minutes. He was wondering about the kid.
The kid was wondering too, but not about Babe. He was wondering who would do Nate Wheeler's chores, and he was wondering who would take in the 団体／死体 and who would bury Wheeler. He kept wondering who would tell that woman 負かす／撃墜する there in the coulee that her husband was dead, and who would 会合，会う that baby when it toddled out in its little pink dress, and give it a ride on a horse.
THE kid did not ride 支援する the way Babe had brought him. He circled around another way, and so （機の）カム into the 追跡する from the north instead of the south. He hoped the 団体／死体 of Wheeler had been discovered before now, but it had not. The 赤みを帯びた light of the sun just setting behind a distant mountain 範囲 touched the 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd 人物／姿／数字 with a sanguine glow. The pinto pony, more faithful than most horses, stood there worriedly beside the 団体／死体, just where the kid had dropped the reins at Babe 獲得する's suggestion.
As far as the kid could see in either direction, the 追跡する was empty, and the wide valley lay 法外なd in mellow light, tranquilly aloof from Nate Wheeler's little 悲劇. Shoah was an empty country, thought the kid. Nobody stirring around much. 'Peared like a 団体／死体 could lay out all night and coyotes find it before anybody happened along. And again he thought of the woman pulling skirts and aprons and little pink dresses off the whipping clothesline, while the baby cannily turned around and はうd backward off the doorstep. The kid whirled Pecos 突然の in the 追跡する.
He 棒 at a sharp lope 負かす／撃墜する the lower slope and around the point of 激しく揺するs, across the wide mouth of the coulee and up to a gate not far from the house. Nate Wheeler had の近くにd that gate behind him carefully, as a thrifty rancher should, giving thought to drifting 在庫／株. The kid also took time to の近くに the gate before he 棒 on and dismounted to knock at the cabin door.
A woman's 直面する at the window peered out at him. The kid felt that hot streak of shyness shoot up his spine as her steps （機の）カム toward the door. But the 冷気／寒がらせる of the message he carried 安定したd him as the door pulled open three インチs—no more—and her thin, worried 直面する showed there in the 割れ目.
"Evenin', Ma'am. Theah's a man layin' 支援する up there a piece in the road. I—is yoah husband—home?" The kid got the words out between gulps at his growing Adam's apple and his 直面する was red to his hatband.
"No, Nate's gone." She opened the door another three インチs and looked at him unafraid. He was so young and so shy, and his 発言する／表明する had the crooning melody of the South. "He せねばならない be 支援する any time now. Is it—is the man—"
"Dead, I reckon." A bold 声明, but the kid's 発言する／表明する robbed it of harshness.
"Oh!" The woman shrank 支援する a little, but not from the kid. "Is he—do you know who it is?"
"No'm, nevah did see him befoah. A—he was ridin' a 黒人／ボイコット pinto hawse." That would tell her, thought the kid, and looked away.
"Nate! They've got Nate! They said they would—they nailed a 警告 on the gate—they've killed him!" Then she pulled herself together and （機の）カム out on the step, の近くにing the door behind her to shut the baby in. The kid could hear the baby's inarticulate 勧めるing to be let out. His little 握りこぶしs began （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing an indignant tattoo upon the door.
"Where is he? Is it far? I'll go with you. The 殺人ing devils! How far is it?"
"No'm, yo'all bettah stay 権利 heah. I'll go こども him in, Mis' Wheelah. I'll こども him on his hawse."
Inside, the baby was （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing its 握りこぶしs still upon the door when the kid thrust toe in the stirrup and reined Pecos 支援する up the 追跡する. The mother stood upon the step and watched him go, her 手渡す 保護物，者ing her 注目する，もくろむs from the last direct sunrays. Her 直面する was white and her mouth was grim. The kid did not look 支援する, but he knew she was standing there watching him go, and he knew there was 殺人 in her heart; not for him who brought the message—for the man who had 発射 her husband.
A 荒涼とした sense of 存在 somehow tricked by circumstance swept over the kid. It wasn't fair. He wasn't a 殺し屋, he hadn't 手配中の，お尋ね者 to kill, but a man lay dead because of the kid's bungling 発射. He, who had 発射 the pips out of cards his own sister held out for him, how had he ever 発射 so wide that the 弾丸 meant for a man's gun arm had gone through his 長，率いる? A good six インチs off to one 味方する. Not even the amazing suddenness of Nate Wheeler's attack could excuse such 狙撃 as that.
Draw and shoot—and snip the heart out of the エース of hearts six times out of six; or the diamond; or call the pips and 選ぶ them one by one, out of a six-位置／汚点／見つけ出す tacked to a 地位，任命する, and 運動 in the 長，率いる of the tack after he had reloaded. Draw and shoot—that was the way 殺し屋 Reeves had taught his son. No, sir, not even the surprise of Nate Wheeler coming at him 十分な belt could ever excuse such 狙撃 as that 発射 which had killed Nate Wheeler.
Shoah funny, Babe 獲得する 存在 権利 there の近くに where he could see and hear the whole thing. Never needed any explaining—just took it for 認めるd the kid only did what he had to do. Never said a word, either, about that poor 狙撃. Six インチs wide of the 示す. Pap shoah would turn in his 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な if he was to know Tiger 注目する，もくろむ couldn't shoot any straighter than that. Shoah white of Babe 獲得する, though, taking him home with him before the nesters got wise to what he had done.
That little woman standing on the doorstep, shading her 注目する，もくろむs with her 手渡す! The baby inside, 続けざまに猛撃するing the door with his 握りこぶしs, wanting to come out! The kid gave his 長，率いる an impatient shake, trying to 運動 that picture out of his mind. Shoah hell, the way things happened いつかs.
Getting Wheeler on the pinto, tying him on with his own rope—like こどもing a deer out of the hills along the Brazos. Like こどもing Buck Thomas in from that fight Pap and Buck had with the Gonzales boys. The pinto was a little snorty over the dead smell, but gentle. The kid worked calmly enough, but he worked 急速な／放蕩な and he did not look straight at Nate Wheeler's 直面する; not once. Damn' shame. Couldn't 行方不明になる on a deer or a coyote or anything like that—had to go and 行方不明になる on a man. Babe 獲得する called it lucky, but the kid couldn't see it that way. 狙撃 Wheeler's arm 負かす／撃墜する would have done just 同様に. Better. A damn sight better for the woman and that baby.
She was 負かす／撃墜する by the gate, waiting in the dusk, when the kid （機の）カム riding up, 主要な the pinto with its grisly pack. Up in the cabin the baby was hollering its を回避する, wanting to get out. Mad, that little devil. Shoah had a temper. Bet it wasn't shedding a 涙／ほころび; just yelling at the shut door.
The little woman unfastened the gate, her fingers 粘着するing to the 天候d, ひもで縛る-worn 悪賢い in her husband's 手渡すs. Hundreds of 開始s, hundreds of closings, in daylight and dark, in haste and at leisure, in fair 天候 and blinding blizzards. And now the buckle must 緩和する to let the pinto walk through with Wheeler's dead 団体／死体 tied across the saddle like a 発射 deer—血まみれの 長，率いる hanging 負かす／撃墜する on one 味方する, feet in rider's boots with rundown heels dangling a bit stiffly on the other 味方する. Rope crisscrossed over his 支援する, 持つ／拘留するing him in place.
She did not speak as the grim 重荷（を負わせる） went through. Just reached out and caught a swaying, inert 手渡す and laid it 速く against her cheek and let it go. The kid swallowed hard at his young Adam's apple and turned his tiger 星／主役にする straight ahead, up the 追跡する toward the darkened cabin. Baby in there, hollering like hell. Didn't want to stay alone. 脅すd of the dark, maybe. Kicking on the door—the kid could hear the 強くたたく, 強くたたく of the little scuffed shoes as he 棒 up. Spunky little devil. Few years bigger, he'd go gunning for the man that killed his pappy. Nothing to do now but try and kick the door 負かす／撃墜する, wanting his mother.
Shoah plenty of 勇気, though. 勇気 like his pappy had, riding straight at a strange rider and yelling "Draw, you coyote!" That took 勇気. Didn't know he was 会合 up with Tiger 注目する，もくろむ, old 殺し屋 Reeves' son. Didn't know Tiger 注目する，もくろむ Reeves had the 指名する of never 行方不明の a 発射. Didn't know—didn't know that was the one time Tiger 注目する，もくろむ Reeves was 予定 to 行方不明になる. Hell of a 公式文書，認める, 行方不明の that one 発射!
"I'll go 直す／買収する，八百長をする the bed for him," the little woman 発表するd dully, coming up as the kid 停止（させる）d at the doorstep and swung limberly 負かす／撃墜する from the saddle. "I put my washing on the bed till I could get time to ぱらぱら雨 負かす／撃墜する the 着せる／賦与するs."
Sounded like the kid's mother, always planning her 家事. ぱらぱら雨 負かす／撃墜する calico skirts and check aprons and little pink dresses. Roll them tight and cover them up till the アイロンをかけるs got hot. ぱらぱら雨 the pink baby dresses with 涙／ほころびs now, most likely. No need now to 押し進める the アイロンをかけるs 支援する and cook supper for her man when he got home. Home, all 権利—but he wouldn't want any supper. Hell of a 公式文書，認める, 狙撃 crooked like a damn' Mexican.
The kid was unfastening the rope where the last hitch had been taken in the middle of Nate Wheeler's 支援する. The 団体／死体 had sagged to one 味方する, and the kid 解除するd it by one arm,—the gun arm, the one he meant to "shoot 負かす／撃墜する." The arm gave limply in his しっかり掴む, the bone 粉々にするd above the 肘; and the kid froze to an amazed immobility for ten seconds, his mind blank, his fingers groping and 実験（する）ing.
Arm shoah was plugged, all 権利. Not a 疑問 in the world about that. Funny the kid hadn't noticed it before. But, then, Wheeler had fallen on that 味方する and his arm had been underneath, and the 穴を開ける in his 長，率いる was too plain to 行方不明になる seeing. It never had occurred to the kid to look at that arm. Hadn't happened to get 持つ／拘留する of it when he 負担d him on the pinto, either. Hell, he hadn't 行方不明になるd, after all! 攻撃する，衝突する the arm 権利 where he 目的（とする）d, up above the 肘 where there was only one bone to 破産した／（警察が）手入れする and no 広大な／多数の／重要な 害（を与える） done. Few weeks in a sling, arm good as ever. The kid knew. He'd had a 弾丸 in the arm once, by mistake. Darn fool brother trying to do stunts with cards, the kid fool enough to 持つ／拘留する the card.
The kid felt the little 熱波s streaking up his spine at the woman's 発言する／表明する from the doorway, and the heat warmed and dissipated that 冷淡な lump he had been carrying in his chest. He hadn't bungled that 発射, after all. Wheeler must have ducked his 長，率いる 権利 in line with the 弾丸. It was an 事故—and that made a difference; a very 広大な／多数の／重要な difference to the kid, 正確に，正当に proud of his 技術.
He 解除するd Wheeler's 団体／死体 from the pinto to his own 支援する, shouldering it as he had shouldered many a 殺害された buck. He carried it in and laid it on the bed, now neatly spread with white marbled oilcloth from the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する—careful housewife even in her grief, this little woman!—and composed the dead 脚s in their worn leather chaps, and the 手渡すs primly 倍のd one upon the other across the blue chambray shirt with all the white buttons sewn neatly in place by his wife, who now stood 星／主役にするing 負かす／撃墜する at him with the hot, 乾燥した，日照りの 注目する，もくろむs of hate. Hate for the man who had killed her husband. The kid knew, just 同様に as if she 叫び声をあげるd aloud the 悪口を言う／悪態s seething within her mind and heart. 静かな 肉親，親類d, she was; the 肉親，親類d his mother always said would take things hard.
She stooped now and 選ぶd up the baby and 始める，決める him astride one bony hip and wiped his nose and cheeks with a corner of her apron. Red-長，率いるd little tike, that baby. Red-長，率いるd like his pappy. Nate Wheeler had red hair, sandy mustache and yellow splotches of freckles on his cheekbones; his 手渡すs were freckled on their hairy 支援するs and his wrists too. Baby had four teeth, two above and two below like a squirrel, only stubby and white. It pointed now to Wheeler and said, "Daddy go bye?" twice, waving its chubby arm toward the bed.
That did something to the woman, kinda. She grabbed the baby's arm 負かす／撃墜する and turned away quick, and sat 負かす／撃墜する on a 激しく揺するing 議長，司会を務める and started moaning and 激しく揺するing, the baby's 直面する 圧力（をかける）d so の近くに against her shoulder that its little stubby nose was flattened and it kicked like a calf at the branding 解雇する／砲火／射撃, trying to get loose. Never cried, though. Shoah was a spunky little devil. Reckon he'd be ready to ride at a stranger when he got big enough—ride and shoot, like his pappy. The kid sighed. Pity a baby can't stay little and 削減（する）. Nate Wheeler was a little tike once; and now—there on the bed with his 手渡すs 倍のd on his chest.
"ANYTHING yo'all want me to do—milk, or anything like that?" The kid stood by the door with his 弾丸-scarred hat in his 手渡す, trying to keep the red out of his 直面する.
"No—oh, no—oh, 料金d the pinto—and 料金d the team—" The little woman still 激しく揺するd the baby, speaking jerkily like that between her moaning.
The kid went out and led Pecos and the pinto 負かす／撃墜する to the stable. Pecos, because he never separated himself very far from his horse when he was in strange country. In the stable everything was neat and 整然とした. Even in the gloom of a dusk 急速な／放蕩な 深くするing to night, the kid could see that the 立ち往生させるs were clean. No use wasting hay, though, keeping the horses inside when there was no man to use them. He turned the team into the corral where he heard the gurgle of water running into a 気圧の谷 in one corner from some spring 支援する の中で the 激しく揺するs, 麻薬を吸うd 負かす／撃墜する to water the animals.
Pecos he led behind the stable, where the 激しく揺する 塀で囲む （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する sheer, ten feet away. Dark, 支援する in there. Pecos snorted a little, but he'd stand, all 権利. No use having him out in sight—not in a country where the nesters hollered "Draw, you coyote!" and then started popping it 権利 to you, without waiting to see if yo'all were going to draw. Holler and shoot. That was the way Nate Wheeler had done. More 勇気 than brains, the kid decided, with 青年's 準備完了 to 裁判官.
The chores were soon done; the pinto unsaddled and turned into the corral, the saddle riding an empty manger, because the kid did not know where Nate Wheeler kept it. There were no cows to milk, though there should be, with that baby on the ranch. The kid was finished in ten minutes, and yet he ぐずぐず残るd at the stable, hating to go 支援する into the room where that woman sat 激しく揺するing and moaning and squeezing her baby so tight it kicked.
How about a 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な? There せねばならない be one dug—but maybe she had some particular place 選ぶd out in her mind where she'd want it. Women did; his mother, for instance. She always took the say when it （機の）カム to digging a 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な for some of the family. The kid 設立する a 選ぶ and shovel in a little shed by the grindstone, but he only looked at them and stood them 支援する again, shaking his 長，率いる. Plumb foolish to start digging, unless he knew where to dig. She せねばならない have the say about that, but he hated to ask her.
Riders coming. Poole men, maybe, after Nate Wheeler. They oughtn't to bother the 未亡人 now, the way she was feeling. The kid started running, slipping through the 影をつくる／尾行するs with no noise at all scarcely; running like an Indian, and not with 激しい, clumping steps that could be heard a mile. He reached the cabin door and opened it while the riders were still at the gate. In the dark he could not see the woman, but he heard the creak of the 激しく揺するing 議長，司会を務める pause and he heard the baby's sleepy little whimper, 抗議するing because she had stopped 激しく揺するing.
"Men a-comin' heah, Ma'am. If yo'all don't want 'em—"
"Oh, let 'em come," she answered wearily. "They can't do any more 損失. They've got Nate—they せねばならない be 満足させるd with that."
She got up and crossed the room, and presently the kid saw her 直面する, dead white in the ゆらめく of a match she was 製図／抽選 across the lamp wick. She blew out the match and slipped the glass chimney within the little 厚かましさ／高級将校連 guards, working with one 手渡す, the baby drooping over the other shoulder, 星／主役にするing sleepily at the light. Clean chimney, the kid noticed. Clean, with little flecks of lint that disappeared in the heat of the 炎上. Good housekeeper—Nate Wheeler had a good wife, anyway.
The riders stopped outside the cabin and some one whistled a call—but it was not the night-bird call Babe 獲得する had taught the kid. Different. This was the first 緊張する of that old war song, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." The kid's lips puckered thoughtfully and he repeated the 緊張する, standing just inside the の近くにd door. Friends, they must be; that is, friends of the Wheelers. He wouldn't have to dig that 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な, after all. The kid was glad, for he hated 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な digging. It was a 職業 they always put off の上に him at home and he had got so he hated the sight of a 選ぶ and shovel. Still, of course, when it was a 事例／患者 of have-to—
He opened the door and the men （機の）カム in; four of them, one after the other. Shaggy, 農業者-looking men, with stubbly cheeks that stuck out on one 味方する with 広大な／多数の／重要な cuds of タバコ. The kid felt a vague distaste for them. They better look out where they spit, he 警告するd them mentally. She'd just scrubbed the 床に打ち倒す that day and they better be careful.
They 停止（させる）d at sight of him, 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるing just within the room instead of scattering, as they せねばならない have done if they meant to start something. But the kid's hat was off, and though it dangled from his left 手渡す he looked at home there, somehow. Besides, they had got their signal all 権利. The leader, a tall man with 注目する，もくろむs too の近くに together and separated only by a high, thin beak of a nose, ちらりと見ることd around the room and relaxed when he saw the little woman in the 議長，司会を務める, 激しく揺するing her baby to sleep and patting its little pink dress with soothing, 一打／打撃ing 動議s of her 権利 手渡す. He did not see what was on the bed, for that was behind the door in the 影をつくる／尾行する, and the kid stood in the way. The tall man relaxed, dropped his 手渡す to his 味方する.
"We come to tell Nate there's a meetin' over to Hans Becker's place and we'd like to have him go along." He cast another 怪しげな ちらりと見ること toward the kid and checked what more he would have said. "You better get ready and go too. The women are talkin' about stayin' all together over there, where it's a big house and plenty of room, till we git the Poole—" He stopped again. "This boy workin' for you?" he asked brusquely.
"He's—been helping me—"
"Oh. I don't call him to mind. Yuh want to look out for strangers. Where's Nate?"
The little woman 解除するd her 手渡す from patting the baby, and pointed one finger 厳しく to the corner where stood the bed.
"Sick?" The tall man lowered his 発言する／表明する, scowling a little. The kid sensed that a sick nester would be considered a nuisance.
A headshake was his answer, and the kid did not move. The man's scowl 深くするd.
"No time to go on a toot, with the Poole—"
"They got him." Nate's wife spoke in that dull, level トン which the kid hated to hear. "発射 him on the road somewhere. The boy 設立する him and brought him home."
The kid stood aside for them, as they 急ぐd to the bed to look at Nate, but no one paid any attention to him. Not then. The tall man brought the lamp and they 診察するd the 団体／死体 rather 完全に, stooping with their 長，率いるs almost touching, 解除するing the 武器 and turning the 団体／死体 this way and that. They muttered together, but the kid could not hear what they said, because he stayed 支援する, 近づく the foot of the bed. 近づく the door too. No use letting them 封鎖する the way out, even if they did think he was working for the Wheelers. He would have been, he reckoned, if things had gone different.
One man went to the wash （法廷の）裁判 and filled the 水盤／入り江 with water.
"There's clean rags on the lower shelf of the cupboard there behind the stove," said Nate's wife, without turning her 長，率いる or looking any way except straight before her. She knew what was going on, then. The kid let out a careful breath. She wasn't so upset she didn't know, and she wouldn't say anything to give him away. 井戸／弁護士席, come to think of it, she couldn't. She didn't know anything to tell.
One man held the 水盤／入り江, another the lamp, a third man washed where the tall man told him to. The kid's 注目する，もくろむs went again and again to the tall man's 直面する, bent 負かす／撃墜する in the 十分な light of the lamp. Mean looking, that nester. Plumb ornery and mean and tricky. The kid thought that even if the tall man was a friend you wouldn't want to turn your 支援する on him. Just looking at him made yo'all feel like 解除するing your hair and showing your teeth like a dog.
There was a sudden and 重要な pause in the washing. The tall man leaned over and 調査（する）d carefully with a finger, then stood up and spat over his shoulder into the 影をつくる／尾行するs. The kid's tiger 星／主役にする became more 直す／買収する，八百長をするd and malevolent at that, but he craned his neck to hear what the man was going to say about that 穴を開ける in Nate Wheeler's 長，率いる. The tall man did not について言及する the 負傷させる, however. Instead of that, he looked past his companions, 直す／買収する，八百長をするing his unpleasant gaze on the kid.
"You over there, what's yore 指名する?"
"（頭が）ひょいと動く Reeves," said the kid, looking 負かす／撃墜する at his hat, which was about on a level with every gun butt in the room.
"Reeves—don't know that 指名する. Where you from?"
"Brazos." The kid did not 解除する his 注目する，もくろむs—much. But he got a pretty 包括的な 見解（をとる） through his 攻撃するs. He saw the three move a little away from the tall man, as if they 推定する／予想するd something.
"He brought Nate home to me. And he did the chores." The little woman in the 激しく揺するing 議長，司会を務める, 持つ／拘留するing the sleep-slackened form of her baby in her 武器, stopped 激しく揺するing and turned her anguished 注目する，もくろむs upon the tall man. "He's been awful nice and 融通するing, Pete Gorham."
"Accommodatin'!" The tall man snarled the word like an 誓い. "Prob'ly one of the Poole's new Texas 殺し屋s they shipped in! You heard him—he's from the Brazos. That's in Texas. Accommodatin'! 融通するd you, mebby, by killin' Nate. Willin' to take Nate's place, mebby!" The sneer in that 宣告，判決 was so obvious that the man with the 水盤／入り江 流出／こぼすd half the water while he growled a remonstrance.
The kid 解除するd his 注目する，もくろむs now, though one was squinted shut and the other was the 注目する，もくろむ of a tiger. They did not see him draw his gun, but the little woman jumped and caught her baby up against her breast at the 粉々にするing roar of the kid's 発射.
"That's to （ーのために）とっておく yo'all so white folks'll know and walk wide of a skunk," drawled the kid, as the tall man clapped 手渡す to his 長，率いる. "And that's for spittin' on the 床に打ち倒す," he 追加するd, on the echo of another 発射. "Scuse me, Ma'am—I couldn't stand to see him 侮辱 yo'all that-a-way."
No one in that room saw the kid make a hurried move, but the door opened, fanned the acrid 煙霧 of 砕く smoke and, shut with a bang. Where the kid had stood there was empty space. They looked at one another, and they looked at Pete Gorham, with the 血 trickling 負かす／撃墜する each 味方する of his neck from 弾丸 穴を開けるs bored through the gristly 最高の，を越すs of his ears that stood out against the 黒人／ボイコット brim of his hat.
ONCE more the kid was running away, but he was not taking any more time than was necessary. He ran lightly, silently, a swift-moving 影をつくる／尾行する in the gloom. He went so 静かに that he did not startle the four horses standing grouped before the cabin and he did not 脅す Pecos, when he suddenly appeared in that dark niche behind the stable. He was in the saddle and waiting, peering 前へ／外へ like a fox from its burrow, when he heard the cabin door open, saw a 薄暗い 形態／調整 steal out. Then another, and after a minute one more.
Afraid of him, the way they 行為／法令／行動するd. Afraid he would hide outside in the dark and 選ぶ them off one at a time as they （機の）カム out. That's about their notion of what a Texas 殺し屋 would be like. That was about the way they would fight—Pete Gorham, anyway. The kid remembered that 指名する and he remembered the place on the 地図／計画する where Pete Gorham had his ranch. Over across the valley, it was, 肉親，親類d of off by itself. His brand was the IV. Now he would go （ーのために）とっておくd the 残り／休憩（する） of his life. He'd hate the kid for that. Go gunning for him, maybe—but that was all 権利. Save him the trouble of trying to make out he was a friend. Shoah was a neat trick, and tempting too, with his ears sticking up like a field mouse under his 黒人／ボイコット hat. Shoah made a 罰金 示す, easier than 狙撃 the pips out of cards. The kid gave a sudden boyish laugh at the thought of those ears with their 一連の会議、交渉／完成する 弾丸 穴を開けるs.
The three went in again, slipping in one at a time. The kid grinned again. He'd bet Pete Gorham was the man that stayed inside and didn't come out.
After awhile they （機の）カム out again, this time with a lantern, one man walking ahead as if he were on guard. The kid didn't know about that lantern. If they went snooping around, and if they looked behind the stable, he might have to shoot somebody. Better not take a chance. So he 支援するd Pecos a step at a time, 支援する and 支援する until they were out beyond the stable. There he could ride around behind the corral and off 負かす／撃墜する toward the gate, away from the 追跡する where a 深い little 乾燥した，日照りの gully would hide it from 見解（をとる）. The kid called it an arroyo, after the manner of the South.
There, within sight of the gate—within 平易な 狙撃 distance too—the kid waited, off his horse so his 長，率いる wouldn't stick up like a signpost above the bank and tell them where he was. They thought he had ridden away from the ranch, for they went 支援する and 前へ／外へ now with the lantern, the 脚s of the three men 黒人／ボイコット against the fitful light. The kid watched and saw them hooking the team to the wagon. They were going to take the woman and baby over to Hans Becker's, then. The kid was glad of that.
Half an hour more, while the kid waited with the patience of an Indian in the gully not far from the gate. They drove away from the house at last, coming his way. One man was 運動ing the team, his horse に引き続いて behind the wagon. The little woman was on the seat beside him. Two riders went ahead. That left one man in the cabin with Nate Wheeler—but the kid would bet the man that stayed wasn't Pete Gorham with the 弾丸 穴を開けるs through his ears.
Half a mile behind them, he followed the little cavalcade. 平易な enough, with the cluck of the wagon coming faintly through the starlight. The kid wondered if they were afraid he might be on their 跡をつける. Probably not. His little argument with Pete was 肉親，親類d of personal. One of the men didn't like Pete's 発言／述べるs any too 井戸／弁護士席. He'd be glad Pete got himself （ーのために）とっておくd that-a-way.
Nice and 融通するing, the little woman had said. The kid's lips 新たな展開d in a smile too bitter for his young 直面する. Shoah, he was 融通するing! He was 融通するing enough to pack her husband home and not let him lay out all night—after he'd killed him! Nothing very damn' 融通するing about that; but still, the kid was guiltily glad she thought that way of him. He wouldn't want her to know the truth.
And then his thoughts returned in their 疲れた／うんざりした circle to the cruel starting point of his 悲惨. To-night was not like any other night in his life. He had killed a man. 事故 or not, a man was dead by his gun 手渡す. Every night of his life, 今後, he would have to go to sleep thinking of that. Tiger 注目する，もくろむ Reeves—in Texas they had joshed him and told him his tiger 注目する，もくろむ was a 殺し屋 注目する，もくろむ, and he had cussed them 支援する and said it wasn't so. They knew it wasn't, too. But it was true now. Why couldn't he have killed one of those old varmints that hated the Reeves 血, if he had to kill? Why did he have to ride away up here, hundreds of miles, just to 直す／買収する，八百長をする it so that red-長，率いるd little baby would grow up without its pappy?
The kid wondered a good 取引，協定 about that, on that slow ride to Hans Becker's place. He looked up at the 星／主役にするs and wondered what they thought about the world, anyway. Did they think up there that this was just a speck of light? And if folks lived on the 星／主役にするs like the school 調書をとる／予約するs （人命などを）奪う，主張するd, did they kill folks and wish they had let themselves get 発射 first?
But a man had to defend his own life. Pap had always 大打撃を与えるd that into the kid. Everybody did. The 法律 stood 支援する of yo'all in that. But somehow, to-night, the 法律 and Pap's 厳しい teaching could not 慰安 the kid.
He followed the wagon to Becker's ranch and saw the men gathered there, and knowing the signal, he softly whistled the first two 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," and so got by the man on guard at the gate. The room would not 持つ／拘留する all the men gathered there, and some stood outside in the dark and talked and smoked. Drank, too, from 瓶／封じ込めるs that went from 手渡す to 手渡す until they were emptied and thrown away.
The kid did not talk, for he knew his Texas drawl would bring him no good. Men up here, they yapped like coyotes, and he couldn't talk like them nohow. So he kept his mouth shut and his ears open, like old 殺し屋 Reeves always had advised. And when the 集会 showed 調印するs of breaking up, he melted into the 影をつくる／尾行するs so 静かに he never was 行方不明になるd, and presently he 棒 past the unsuspecting guard at the gate and went his way.
The kid remembered the plain story of the 地図／計画する and 削減（する） straight across an arm of the valley on a 追跡する he had not traveled before, until he was sure he had not been followed. Then he swung to the left and climbed over one 山の尾根 and followed up a canyon and left that for another 明らかにする 山の尾根. After a while, Pecos caught の上に the fact that he was getting の近くに to Barney, and began to 攻撃する his ears 今後 and pull at the bit, wanting to lope up hill after all his travel that day. But the kid made him walk, the 非難する fool; wanting to 破産した／（警察が）手入れする his 肺s on the last mile.
THE kid 緩和するd himself in the saddle and pulled his mouth 組織／臓器 from his shirt pocket. He polished it 厳粛に upon his sleeve, 始める，決める its little pigeonholed 辛勝する／優位 against his young lips and began to play softly while he 棒 along. He played "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" three times, with intricate variations of his own 発明. Then he played "The Spanish Cavalier", and after he had played that twice, he sang it softly, each 公式文書，認める true as a silver bell but so faint a man within ピストル 発射 could not hear one 公式文書，認める of the song.
"Say, darling, say, when I am far away-ay,
いつかs you may think of me, dear!
有望な sunny days will soon pass away—
Remember what I say, and be true, dear!"
The kid was not thinking of any girl in particular while he sang that. He was singing because he felt like singing, and there was a yearning tenderness in the song that seemed to fit his mood.
Twenty yards from the cabin he heard the plaintive cry of a night bird that sounded 脅すd. After a 有罪の pause he answered it faithfully and 棒 on.
"Damn you, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ," Babe 悪口を言う／悪態d him with exasperated 救済, "don't you know I darn 近づく took a 発射 at yuh?"
"Thought yo'all would be in baid," the kid わびるd in his melodious drawl.
"You thought wrong. I been on 辛勝する／優位, wonderin' what was keepin' yuh."
"Shoah mighty sorry foh that, Babe."
The kid unsaddled Pecos, rubbed him 乾燥した，日照りの and went whistling up the path. The cabin was warm and reeked with the smell of coal-oil ガス／煙s and stale cigarette smoke. Babe's paper novel lay open, 直面する 負かす／撃墜する on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, only two or three pages left unread at the 支援する. Babe's gun was thrust inside his waistband just where his 手渡す would 減少（する） easiest to the 支配する. Babe の近くにd the door behind the kid, shutting out the lamplight from any one in the valley, and looked the kid over.
"I damn' 近づく saddled up and took out after yuh, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ," he said querulously. "These are shore bad times to be ridin' around alone. Nester see yuh—井戸／弁護士席, you oughta know."
"Shoah do, Babe." The kid's 注目する，もくろむs were 向こうずねing with a strange, soft light.
"Have any trouble? If it's a fair question."
"Not to call trouble. 追跡するd some nestahs to Sam Becker's ranch. Had a meetin' theah. 権利 smaht gatherin'. They 目的（とする） to call the Poole men into a 罠（にかける）. Some talk of drivin' cattle into Oxbow Bend. Poole men'll go theah and half the nestahs will be （武器などの）隠匿場所d in the pass—"
"Yeah?" Babe looked startled. "Say, that might 'a' drawed the Poole riders out, at that, if they didn't know it was a 陰謀，しくまれたわな. We been watchin' our chance to get 'em in the 行為／法令／行動する, the damn' cow thieves! Say, you got no call to take a chance like that," Babe frowned as the kid's 偉業／利用する recurred to him. "'F they'd 'a' caught yuh there, they'd 'a' strung yuh up in a 宗教上の minute. Don't yuh take another chance like that, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ."
The kid did not say anything to that. He had discovered that Babe had made fresh coffee not so long ago, and he was cuddling the マリファナ with his fingers and trying to 裁判官 whether the coffee would be fit to drink without reheating. He decided that it would, and reached for a cup hanging on a nail beside him.
"Say, you goin' to 約束 me yuh won't take no more chances like that?" Babe 圧力（をかける）d the point.
"Shoah would hate to worry yo'all, Babe," the kid said softly, 注ぐing coffee and not 解除するing his ちらりと見ること from the dark stream.
"You got something more under your hat than what you told me," Babe 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d, hesitating between 怒り／怒る and amusement. "Damn you, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ, what more you been doin' to-night?"
The kid turned and looked long at Babe over his cup. His yellow 注目する，もくろむ was curiously 軟化するd.
"I been hearin' talk about Nate Wheeler," he said finally, and blinked when he saw how Babe failed to repress a start. "I been findin' out I didn't shoot so wide. I 目的（とする）d to 攻撃する，衝突する his gun ahm 負かす／撃墜する, and that ahm shoah was 攻撃する，衝突する, just like I 目的（とする）d it would be."
"Yeah?" Babe's 注目する，もくろむs took on a hard, watchful look.
"I heahd men say it was a ライフル銃／探して盗む 弾丸 攻撃する，衝突する him in the haid," the kid drawled softly. "I reckon yo'all thought he was goin' to shoot me. I shoah am much obleeged to yo'all, Babe."
Babe 獲得する 星／主役にするd, then laughed すぐに and turned away.
"Yo're welcome, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ." He turned and began 強くたたくing pillows with savage energy. "Which 味方する the bed you want? Me, I like to lay on the 辛勝する／優位, where I can roll out quick."
"Just lay wheah yo'all feels the best, Babe," grinned the kid, swallowing the last of the coffee. "I'm sleepin' sound to-night, no mattah wheah I lay my haid."
THE kid was scouting along the 縁 of the Big （法廷の）裁判 a day or two later, playing his mouth 組織／臓器 as he 棒. Softly, because yo'all had to be mighty careful nobody 負かす／撃墜する in the valley noticed and took a long 発射 at you, just for luck. Lead hornets buzzed やめる plentiful 負かす／撃墜する where the cow thieves lived, and a man had to be careful how he 棒. But shucks! Yo'all couldn't hear that mouth 組織／臓器 any さらに先に'n you could flip a 激しく揺する with your thumb and finger.
So the kid played "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" with all those variations he had invented while he 棒 the long 追跡する from Texas. Any mouth-組織／臓器 player could play "Bonnie", but nobody played it just like the kid. Same way with the "Mocking Bird." Yo'all had to know mockers before you could play that piece so it sounded like anything at all. The kid could do it. He could start the chorus same as anybody, "Listen to the mocking bird! Listen to the mocking bird—" and from there on he could trill and warble and twitter and cheep that old mouth 組織／臓器 for half a mile, Pecos going at a walk with his 長，率いる swinging low, half asleep.
The kid didn't play the "Mocking Bird" now. You had to have your mind at 残り／休憩（する） and nothing to do but ride the long 追跡する when you put the mocker into that tune. Couldn't play it 価値（がある） shucks when you didn't know what minute yo'all might have to やめる playing and 得る，とらえる your gun and shoot. So the kid played "My Bonnie" softly, and his 注目する，もくろむs ちらりと見ることd warily this way and that as he 棒.
Bad country up this way. Worse than 負かす／撃墜する on the Brazos, when Pap and Buck Thomas got to fighting the Gonzales boys. Never knew what minute a Gonzales might try to マリファナ 発射 yo'all just '原因（となる） you were one of old 殺し屋 Reeves' boys. Up here it was worse, because the whole 非難するd country was out gunning for each other. Nice country, but plumb 十分な of ornery no-account cow thieves that wouldn't wait to see if a fellow was all 権利 but would holler, "Draw, you coyote!" and come a-狙撃, plumb crazy like. 井戸／弁護士席, the kid drew, all 権利. No boy of old 殺し屋 Reeves could be slow with a gun and keep his hide on his 支援する.
Funny, though. If Nate Wheeler hadn't come riding and 狙撃 that-a-way, the kid wouldn't have met up with Babe 獲得する. It shoah was 価値（がある） riding all the way up from Texas to Montana, just to 会合，会う up with a fellow as nice and friendly as Babe 獲得する was. The kid felt a warm wave of 感謝 shoot up his spine at the thought of Babe's 罰金 歓待 and friendship. Couldn't （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 that nowhere, not even 支援する home on the Brazos.
Shoah was a snaky kinda country, though. The kid didn't know just all the ins and outs of the fuss, for Babe 獲得する didn't tell any more than he had to. But he seemed to think the kid せねばならない be told enough so he wouldn't go riding straight up to a man again in this country.
The way Babe told it, the cow thieves, that let on like they were nesters, had banded together to wipe out the Poole, which was a big Eastern outfit. Babe said the nesters were stealing the Poole blind and the bosses 支援する East 手配中の，お尋ね者 it stopped. Babe said the Poole wouldn't stand for no more, and they now looked on all cow thieves same as they did on wolves,—varmints to be got rid of. Nate Wheeler was gunning for Poole riders, Babe said, and that was why he 棒 at the kid that-a-way.
Babe said the kid could stay 権利 there in line （軍の）野営地，陣営 with him and ride for the Poole. He said the kid would be on the payroll because the Poole needed good honest men and Babe would send word to the boss he had one over here. That was shoah white of Babe. Again the kid felt that warm, boyish glow of 感謝.
He played absently, his thoughts dwelling on what Babe had said. Babe seemed to think Poole riders had to be 闘士，戦闘機s. Reckon he せねばならない tell Babe he wouldn't kill a man for nobody; he'd seen too much of that 支援する home. But Babe never had asked him yet if he'd kill a man. Babe knew he could shoot and would shoot, and he seemed to kinda take it for 認めるd that meant shoot to kill. The kid hated to lay 負かす／撃墜する on Babe, but it was kinda hard to explain just how he felt about 殺人，大当り. Anyway, Babe never asked him a word about that part. If he did, the kid would tell him straight out where he stood.
Poole riders kinda 推定する／予想するd to 負かす／撃墜する a man for keeps if it （機の）カム to gun play between them and nesters, the kid reckoned. Babe said ranching was just a blind with the nesters, and they really were 無法者s that made a 商売／仕事 of robbing and 殺人，大当り and slapping their brands on Poole stuff. Brand the calves and beef the cows, and peddle the meat to butchers in the towns around that stood in with the ギャング（団）. Babe said the Poole had tried the 法律 and it wouldn't work, because the Poole was an Eastern 会社／堅い and all the nesters and town folks hung together. No 陪審／陪審員団 in the country would 罪人／有罪を宣告する a cow どろぼう, Babe said.
So the Poole was going to shoot it out with the ギャング（団）. He said the kid must keep his 天候 注目する，もくろむ peeled and not let any rider get within 射撃 of him unless he was a friend and a Poole man. What the kid should do if the man turned out to be a rustler, Babe didn't say. Reckon he thought a man just up from the Brazos would know without any telling. Draw and shoot—and be darn shoah yo'all do it quicker than the other feller. That was the way it was when Nate Wheeler 棒 at him. If that was a 見本 of what folks in the valley were like, the kid decided that Babe 獲得する didn't make the story against the cow thieves half strong enough.
Riding slowly along the 縁 of the （法廷の）裁判 land as he thought things over, the kid 星／主役にするd curiously at the country spread below. Little hills and wide valleys, all covered with grass and flowers, and meadow larks singing on every bush and 少しのd, and a creek running along the 底（に届く） of every wrinkle between the hills—all 負かす／撃墜する in there was cow-どろぼう country. All that wide stretch away north to the Missouri was cow-どろぼう country too, （許可，名誉などを）与えるing to Babe. 支援する up here, on what Babe called the Big （法廷の）裁判, was Poole country. Nesters in the low land, Poole in the high country, and the cattle wanting to drift 負かす／撃墜する off the Big （法廷の）裁判 into the valley—or 存在 driven where the grass looked green and the winding creeks 冷静な／正味の, and only the war between the nesters and the Poole to make the valley bad 範囲 for Poole cattle.
That rough country away over there next the river, that was Bad Lands, によれば Babe. That was where the cow thieves drove the cattle they stole. Had their little ranches 支援する up here in the coulees and 工場／植物d oats and wheat and ran their 盗品故買者s where all the best water and grass would be inside. Looked like honest nesters getting a home 直す／買収する，八百長をするd up for their families and never 害（を与える）ing anybody—but they were all banded together against the Poole, stealing cattle, running off horses, 狙撃 Poole riders on sight.
The kid's 職業 was to ride along up here on the 縁, just lazy like, and watch through field glasses for any bunch of cattle 存在 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd up or driven along in the nester country below. Anything that looked like a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する-up 負かす／撃墜する there, or even a bunch of riders going anywhere, the kid was to ride to the 最高の，を越す of a small pinnacle, standing 支援する from the 縁 of the （法廷の）裁判, and signal with a little, 一連の会議、交渉／完成する looking-glass Babe 獲得する had given him.
It wasn't much of a 職業. The kid would rather ride with Babe, wherever it was he had struck out for at daylight. But Babe didn't 行為／法令／行動する like he 手配中の，お尋ね者 anybody along. Just gave the kid the field glasses and the little looking-glass and told him where to go and what to do, and to look out no nester went to bouncing 弾丸s around him. Watch the valley and 報告（する）／憶測 any movement of men or cattle. Three quick flashes for a bunch of riders, and three, two, one for riders 運動ing cattle. Then one flash if they went toward the Bad Lands, two for the river, three for the Big （法廷の）裁判. Poole （警察，軍隊などの）本部 was 支援する somewhere on the Big （法廷の）裁判 and somebody at the ranch would get the signals, Babe said. 平易な. Too 非難するd 平易な for Tiger 注目する，もくろむ Reeves from 負かす／撃墜する on the Brazos.
The kid watched faithfully for awhile, 停止（させる）ing Pecos behind bowlders while he got off and 焦点（を合わせる）d the glasses on this ranch and that ranch and the tranquil 範囲 land in between. 静かな as Sunday afternoon in a Quaker village, 負かす／撃墜する there. Chickens walking around 追跡（する）ing grasshoppers in the 辛勝する／優位 of the 穀物 fields—darn good glasses, that would show you a 女／おっせかい屋 after a grasshopper three, four miles off! These belonged to Babe. The kid hoped he wouldn't be needing them to-day. He liked Babe 獲得する. Shoah would hate to have anything happen to him. If any cow どろぼう got Babe—The kid did not follow that thought to its 結論, but his yellow 権利 注目する，もくろむ took on a 脅迫的な 星／主役にする altogether deadly and 誤って導くing. They better not touch Babe 獲得する!
He 機動力のある and 棒 slowly on to where new vistas 現在のd themselves. Coulees whose high, 避難所ing 武器 had heretofore 封鎖するd his 見解（をとる） lay wide open now to his sight, and the kid once more dismounted and settled himself comfortably on a 激しく揺する while he 検査／視察するd each ranch in turn and compared it with that 地図／計画する of the valley he had 設立する.
Nobody seemed to be stirring in the valley: no riders bobbing around on the levels, nobody working in the fields, no dust cloud showing where cattle were 存在 held in a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する-up. Babe had thought there might be some 活動／戦闘 to-day on account of Nate Wheeler 存在 発射, but there wasn't. Reckon the nesters were laying low; waiting for dark, maybe. Over across there was Nate Wheeler's place, 支援する in its 深い coulee. The kid could see the 追跡する 負かす／撃墜する off Big （法廷の）裁判, where he had been riding along 負かす／撃墜する, when Nate Wheeler （機の）カム spurring straight at him hollering "Draw, you coyote!"
The kid's mouth drooped a little at the corners as the very 位置／汚点／見つけ出す seemed to spring 権利 at him through the powerful glasses. Damn' fool, coming at him that-a-way without waiting to see who he was 会合 up with. If all the nesters were like that one, it shoah did 支払う／賃金 a man to watch out for 'em.
The kid swung the glasses さらに先に into the coulee and along the 追跡する to the gate, and on up to Wheeler's cabin. There he held them 安定した, little puckers showing in the 肌 around his 注目する，もくろむs, he squinted so. His lips fell わずかに apart as he watched. No wonder the valley was empty and no nesters were stirring! Having a funeral for Nate Wheeler, that was why. Yard 十分な of wagons and saddle horses, men standing around outside the house, not talking but just standing there, looking sour. Every one packing guns. A Poole man wouldn't stand no show a-tall in that （人が）群がる. About as much show as a 小衝突 rabbit with a pack of hounds. If they knew who it was 発射 Nate Wheeler—if they knew it was Babe 獲得する and Tiger 注目する，もくろむ Reeves—hell shoah would be a-popping 権利 soon!
"Nate Wheelah mus' be a 権利 populah man," the kid murmured to himself. But his forehead pulled into 深い lines of puzzlement while he gazed. Something about that （人が）群がる over there in the coulee nagged at him with a sense of strangeness, but it wasn't the guns, and it wasn't the 厳しい 静かな of the men.
The kid sharpened the 焦点（を合わせる） a little, still gazing with his forehead wrinkled, trying to 人物／姿／数字 out what was wrong. Now the men were 辛勝する／優位ing 支援する from the door—plain as if he stood in the yard with them he could see all they did; plain as looking at a play on the 行う／開催する／段階. Fetching the 棺 out now. Just a board box with ひもで縛る 扱うs nailed on, nesters all stretching their necks like turkeys in a 穀物 field, minding their manners but wanting to see it all. Something mighty strange, though. And then the kid knew what it was. There weren't any women at that funeral. Nate Wheeler had a wife and baby, but they weren't there, either. Just men, not dressed up in their Sunday 着せる／賦与するs, but wearing colored shirts and 全体にわたるs. Not shaved, either. Looked like they had just stopped by from their work. Plenty of guns, though, and belts 十分な of 爆撃するs.
Seemed like he could hear the wagons 動揺させるing. Never knew yo'all could bring wagons so の近くに with glasses you could hear 'em 動揺させる. The kid 星／主役にするd for two seconds longer and took the field glasses from his 注目する，もくろむs.
即時に that grim 集会 in the coulee receded into the slight movement of vague dots three miles and more away. The scene was gone, wiped out by the distance. Instead, the kid was 星／主役にするing 負かす／撃墜する off the hill at a wagon that （機の）カム 動揺させるing 負かす／撃墜する a long slope 直接／まっすぐに toward him. The driver was standing up, 攻撃するing the horses into a run, with the long ends of the lines which he swung like a flail upon their 支援するs. The wagon was jouncing along over hummocks and a woman with her bonnet off, and her hair 飛行機で行くing straight out behind her like the tail of a running horse, was hanging to the seat like grim death.
THE kid needed no field glasses to see what happened next. A man on horseback （機の）カム 涙／ほころびing up over the 最高の，を越す of the little 山の尾根. He started 狙撃, but he didn't 攻撃する，衝突する anything at first and the team （機の）カム on, leaving the road at the first turn and galloping straight 負かす／撃墜する the slope. The driver didn't seem to care where they went, so long as they kept going.
The horseman spurred closer, still 狙撃, and at the third 発射 the driver made a sudden dive 負かす／撃墜する on one of the horses, rolled off の上に the ground and lay still. The team shied violently aside and snagged the 前線 wheels in a big clump of buckbush which they tried to またがる. 権利 lucky they stopped there—they'd have piled up in a 狭くする little gully in another ten feet. The girl jumped out and started running for the hill, the man taking after her, yelling at her to stop. But she didn't do it, though. She kept 権利 on along the 辛勝する／優位 of the wash.
She was a girl, all 権利. The kid knew that as soon as she jumped out and started running. She didn't run like a woman, kinda stiff and jerking her shoulders, taking little short steps and maybe hanging to her skirts with one 手渡す, 持つ／拘留するing them up out of the way. This one legged it for the hill like a boy, her hair loose and waving out behind her like a yellow 旗.
The fellow after the girl was trying to catch her before she got in の中で the 激しく揺するs where he couldn't ride. He'd have to go it 進行中で then and she'd have the better chance. It kinda looked as if she might make it all 権利, 特に when she went over that wash in one 走り幅跳び like a deer and the fellow's horse 妨げるd and 後部d 支援する on the 辛勝する／優位. The man yelled again, pulled 負かす／撃墜する with his gun and sent a 弾丸 kicking up the dust 権利 in 前線 of her. That 脅すd her so she stopped, not knowing which way to turn. The fellow didn't shoot again but took 負かす／撃墜する his rope and jumped off his horse.
The kid was waiting, with his blue left 注目する，もくろむ squinted nearly shut and his yellow 権利 注目する，もくろむ open and 星／主役にするing like a tiger, watching till his supper walks a little closer. They kept coming closer and closer, and the kid's gun バーレル／樽 jabbed 今後 and spat its opinion of such doings.
The man was 広げるing his 宙返り飛行 as he ran, but he dropped it as his arm jerked 負かす／撃墜する to his 味方する. He wore two guns, though. He started to draw a second gun with his left 手渡す, but the kid 解雇する／砲火／射撃d another 発射. The man gave a lurch and almost fell. Then he turned and started running off up the slope, ducking this way and that, like a coyote dodging a wolf-hound. Suddenly he sat 負かす／撃墜する 権利 where he was and leaned over sidewise, 事実上の／代理 kinda sick.
When the kid took another look at the girl, she was lying on the ground all in a heap, like she'd fainted or been 発射 or something. He watched her for a minute and saw she didn't move, so he went jumping 負かす／撃墜する the bluff like a 緩和するd bowlder, bringing smaller 石／投石するs, gravel and sand along with him and 集会 勢い as he （機の）カム. He wished he could travel 航空機による like his 弾丸s, he could go so much quicker and easier.
Then, just as he was slipping and 事情に応じて変わる and digging in his heels to stop himself beside the girl, a shyness 掴むd him and dyed his 直面する a 深い crimson. He was plumb sorry for her and he hoped she wasn't 傷つける, but he hung 支援する and didn't want to touch her or turn her over to see if she was dead. Her hair was all 負かす／撃墜する over her 直面する, and it was the longest, yellowest hair he had ever seen in his life. One foot was thrust straight out beneath her plaid gingham skirt. The kid thought of a thoroughbred colt when he ちらりと見ることd at her ankle and looked quickly away. Then she gave a 深い, gasping sigh and he stepped 支援する a little さらに先に. She had just fainted. She'd be coming to in a minute, and she wouldn't thank him for standing there gawping at her that-a-way.
The kid went on 負かす／撃墜する the hill, a little surprised to see how far the girl had run from the wagon. Maybe he could do something for her pappy; he reckoned it was her old pap 運動ing the horses, because he had long whiskers blowing out to one 味方する of his 長，率いる when he stood up, 注ぐing the gad to the team. Shoah would be hell if the old man was killed. 罰金 doings, taking after an old man and a girl like that!
The kid walked over and stood looking 負かす／撃墜する at the fellow on the ground. The man glared up at him like a 罠にかける wolf. A tall, lean man with a high thin nose and his 注目する，もくろむs 始める，決める too の近くに together, meanness emanating from him like a 明白な thing. Both ears were swollen and red, a puckery 一連の会議、交渉／完成する 穴を開ける showing in the 優れた 爆撃する of each. The kid 注目する，もくろむd those ears with the peculiar and personal 利益／興味 of one who gazes upon his handiwork and is rather proud of the 職業.
"When I plugged them eahs," he drawled contemptuously, "I shoah thought yo'all was just plain skunk. I wisht I'd known then yo'all was half skunk and half sidewindah!"
He turned and looked over to where the horses stood panting on the brink of the gully, the wagon 攻撃するd perilously over the stout old bush. It seemed as though the man 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd on the ground moved his 脚s a little; a feeble 動議 hardly more than a twitching. The kid walked over there and 解除するd him into the shade of the wagon.
Old man, all 権利. Her old pappy, 発射 without a chance in the world to help himself. Didn't even have a gun on him. Old 農業者, by the look of him. Bald-長，率いるd and little and old. Skinny old neck, wrinkled like an apple that's laid out through a 冷淡な snap. Wasn't dead, though. The kid pulled the old man's shirt out of his 全体にわたるs and took a look at the 負傷させる, small and bluish at the 支援する, torn and bleeding in 前線. Too far over to one 味方する to do much 害（を与える）. Reckon it was that knock on his 長，率いる, 権利 to one 味方する of the bald 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where the hair was thin, that laid him 冷淡な.
The kid 調査／捜査するd the 長，率いる 傷害, 調査するing with gentle fingers too wise for a boy. But he had grown up in a 厳しい school and he had looked upon many 傷つけるs in the twenty years that he had lived. That 発射 in the 味方する—that wouldn't 量 to much. The knock on the 長，率いる might or might not be serious, the kid thought. Didn't seem to be any 割れ目 in the skull, but still you couldn't tell, with an old man like him. Have to wait and see how it panned out.
The kid got up and looked in the wagon. A 解雇（する） of flour was there, and a box of groceries, all jumbled together, and a demijohn lying on its 味方する. The kid hoped it held whisky, and reached a long arm for it. Shoah enough—old pappy liked his 注目する，もくろむ opener when he got up in the morning, and was taking home a jugful. The kid gave him an 注目する，もくろむ opener now, 持つ／拘留するing the old man's 長，率いる up and 攻撃するing the jug to the ashy lips pinched in together in the long 耐えるd. Then he 注ぐd a little in his palm and rubbed it on the blue lump in the thin gray hair, and after that he trickled a pungent little stream on the 弾丸 負傷させる, 前線 and 支援する. Pap always （人命などを）奪う，主張するd whisky was good for 傷つけるs. Kept out 血 毒（薬）. Carbolic 酸性の or whisky—Pap always 好意d the whisky.
The kid was 徹底的な. He 攻撃するd the jug again to the old man's mouth, and this time there was a 限定された 試みる／企てる to swallow the stuff. The man's faded blue 注目する，もくろむs opened and he 星／主役にするd ばく然と up into the kid's 直面する.
"Reckon yo'all's feelin' some bettah, suh," the kid said shyly. "権利 smaht 割れ目 on the haid, but the whisky'll keep 負かす／撃墜する the swellin'." And when the old 注目する，もくろむs still questioned, the kid 申し込む／申し出d その上の 激励. "弾丸 dug itse'f a 追跡する in yo'all's 味方する, but it ain't 深い, nohow."
The old man opened his mouth and moved his jaw uncertainly, trying to speak. His 注目する，もくろむs never left the kid's 直面する.
"Pete Gorham, he ain't feelin' so peart himse'f," the kid 観察するd mildly, ちらりと見ることing over to where he had left Pete. 突然の he laid the old man 負かす／撃墜する and stood up.
"Yo'all ovah theah, seddown!" he called はっきりと, and went over and sat Pete 負かす／撃墜する without 儀式. He yanked off Pete's suspenders and tied his feet together with them before he returned to the wagon.
"Where's Nellie?" The old man was still dazed, but at least he could speak once more. The kid gave a sigh of 救済.
"Why, suh, she—" he turned and looked 支援する toward the hill "—she's comin'. She'll be heah 直接／まっすぐに, suh." And he bethought him to 攻撃する the jug again to the old man's lips, quick before the girl got there. Women were queer. They'd know there was a jug in the house and they'd sweep all around it, but they made a fuss if their men took a drink of it. The kid had always wondered at the way his mother and sisters 行為／法令／行動するd about Pap's whisky jug.
The drink 生き返らせるd the old man a little, but he seemed to have only a vague idea of what had taken place.
"Team run away," he mumbled. "Throwed me out. Where's Nellie? She was in the wagon when the team run away."
She （機の）カム, wearily choosing the easiest way through the 激しく揺するs and 小衝突, her long yellow hair pulled 今後 over her left shoulder and her fingers moving mechanically with three 立ち往生させるs big as a 井戸／弁護士席 rope, braiding them together as she walked. Her 直面する was pale and her mouth drooped at the corners, and her 注目する，もくろむs were glassy with terror, but the kid thought she was beautiful and he blushed a dark red as he tipped his hat to her. When she （機の）カム up he 退却／保養地d to the nearest horse, which stood with sweaty 側面に位置するs heaving spasmodically after the run. The kid stood at his 長，率いる and pulled the forelock smooth under the brow 禁止（する）d while he watched the girl with sidelong ちらりと見ることs from under his hat brim.
"YOU 傷つける, Pa?" The girl sank on her 膝s beside the old man. "Pete 発射 you, didn't he?"
"Pete? Pete who? The horses run away. Guess they throwed me out. Where was we goin', Nellie? Wasn't we goin' some place?"
"We were going home, Pa." She was ひさまづくing there, looking at the blue lump on her father's 長，率いる, and from there her 星／主役にするing 注目する，もくろむs turned to the 弾丸 負傷させる in his 味方する, which the kid had left 暴露するd ready for その上の ablutions of raw whisky. "Don't you remember when Pete Gorham took in after us, and you remembered you never got your gun 支援する from the bartender before you left town?"
"Town? What town?" The old man 解除するd a shaking 手渡す to his 長，率いる and winced as his fingers touched the lump there. "Horses run awa—I remember that. Did we go to town? I can't remember any town we went to, Nellie."
"You don't?" The girl sat 支援する and looked at her father with a puzzled 肉親，親類d of horror. "Don't you remember we went to Nate Wheeler's funeral yesterday, and you read a 一時期／支部 in the Bible there at the 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な over by Hans Becker's house, where they had him?"
"Becker, Becker? No-o, I can't—"
"井戸／弁護士席, don't you remember we drove 権利 from the funeral on into Badger Creek, and stayed all night at Uncle Jim's place? And don't you—"
"Jim?" The old man's mental groping was painful to 証言，証人／目撃する. "Jim—kinda remember something about Jim—don't know who he was—"
"Uncle Jim tried to make us stay in town till the Poole outfit is cleaned out. And you wouldn't, because you were afraid they'd steal everything off the ranch. You—were drinking." In spite of her worry and her pity, her 発言する／表明する sharpened at the 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金. "You were so mad at Uncle Jim you forgot to go 支援する and get your gun, so when Pete Gorham come after us—"
"Pete Gorham! Who's he? I don't remember any—"
The kid's 手渡す left its slow 一打／打撃ing of the horse's sweaty jaw. He walked over and stood beside the ひさまづくing girl, bashful but 決定するd.
"Scuse me," he said diffidently, gunhand to his hat brim when she looked up. "Did yo'all say Nate Wheelah's funeral taken place yeste'day?"
The girl stood up, her yellow 長，率いる just about even with the kid's pocket, where the mouth 組織／臓器 stood on end と一緒に his 捕らえる、獲得する of Bull Durham. The kid's ears turned a slow and angry red under her gaze.
"Why, of course it was—" she checked herself 突然の, one swift, troubled ちらりと見ること going to her father on the ground. "You must be a stranger in the valley if you don't know—" She cast a swift, suddenly enlightened ちらりと見ること 上向き. "Are you one of them Poole 縁 riders?"
The kid turned his 長，率いる and sent a ちらりと見ること 支援する up the hill. It looked pretty high from 負かす／撃墜する here, and the rough ledge 形式 at the 最高の，を越す did much 似ている a 縁. His 注目する，もくろむs turned to the girl and the red slowly faded from his ears and neck.
"I happened to be up theah when Pete Gorham 発射 yoh pap," he said, with slow meaning. "I taken it upon myse'f to stop Pete befoah he could carry out his 計画（する）."
"井戸／弁護士席, wasn't you 縁 riding on the valley?"
"I just happened to be theah at the time."
"You're a Poole rider, ain't you?"
"Poole! Poole rider!" The old man 緊急発進するd to a sitting posture, his 直面する working furiously as memory （機の）カム 支援する with a 急ぐ. "One of them Texas 殺し屋s, I betcha! Was it you 乾燥した，日照りの-gulched my son, Ed? Where's my gun?" He clawed futilely at his hip, where no gun was holstered. "If it was you killed my son Ed—"
"No, suh, it wasn't me." The kid's thumbs went instinctively to his gun belt, hooking themselves negligently over the 辛勝する／優位; as negligently as a tiger draws its 前線 paws 支援する toward its breast when it hears a strange sound in the bush. "If I was a killah, Pete Gorham would be daid 権利 now, 'stead of settin' ovah theah with both ahms broke."
Both the girl and her father looked in the direction 示すd by the kid's languid left thumb. The girl gave an involuntary shudder and の近くにd her 注目する，もくろむs for a second.
"Even if he's a Poole rider, Pa, he—did us a big 好意," she said, a little color staining her cheeks. "We've got to be 感謝する for that."
"Yo'all needn't be," the kid said coldly. "I taken plumb dislike foh that hombre, fu'st time I evah saw him."
"Are you the fellow that 発射 Pete in the ears? They were talking about that yesterday at Nate Wheeler's fune—" she caught herself up, biting her lip.
"Nate Wheelah's funeral," the kid finished softly. "Yes'm, I had the pleasuah of eah-mahkin' Pete the othah evenin'."
"Then you're one of those Texas 殺し屋s. They said it was a Texas 殺し屋 done that. Pa, ain't you able to get in the wagon? I can 運動, if you can sit and ride."
She was in a hurry to get away from him, even though he had saved her from that skunk, Pete Gorham. Saved her and her pappy's life, and this was all the thanks he got. The kid swung on his heel and gave all his attention to 支援 the wagon off the buckbush so the team could be turned around. They 手配中の，お尋ね者 to get away from him. 井戸／弁護士席, he was やめる as anxious that they should go.
While the girl was 涙／ほころびing cloth from her petticoat to 包帯 over the 弾丸 負傷させる, the old man kept bewailing the loss of his gun. The kid kept his 支援する turned until he knew that she had finished. Her pap 手配中の，お尋ね者 another drink, and the girl didn't want him to have it. Just like a woman. 棒 with the jug in the wagon; knew it was there, knew it was 十分な of whisky; and yet she didn't want her old pap to have a drink now when he needed it to を締める him for the ride home. Plumb simple, the way women 行為／法令／行動するd いつかs.
The horses 辞退するd to 支援する into the scraggy 支店s of the bush, and only 後部d and struck at him with their 前線 feet, when he stood with 手渡すs on their bridles, trying to 軍隊 them backwards. The kid 静めるd them with soft words and a pat or two. Then he unhooked them from the wagon and led them out of the way while he 解除するd the wagon off the bush with a powerful heave or two. The girl left her father to come and help him cramp the wagon and 支援する it around so it 長，率いるd up the slope again, but she didn't say a word, and when he went for the horses she returned to her father, her long yellow braid swinging on her shoulders as she walked. The kid caught that 詳細（に述べる） in a swift ちらりと見ること as he drove the horses to the wagon.
He worked 速く, surely, his 有能な 手渡すs never wasting a 動議, never uncertain of the thing they should 遂行する. The spring seat had jounced loose from its 支配する on the wagon box and he 取って代わるd it with two yanks and a 押す that 始める，決める the clamps in place. The wagon tongue had a splintery 割れ目 負かす／撃墜する half its length, and he sliced off the ends of the long reins and strapped the tongue so that it would 持つ／拘留する together for the trip home—wherever that was. He 選ぶd up the scattered grocery 一括s and 取って代わるd them in the box, 設立する the old quilt that had been 倍のd to serve as a cushion on the spring seat and refolded it lengthwise, shaking off the dirt it had collected when it fell from the wagon. This must serve as a bed for the old man. Not much better than the 明らかにする wagon box, but it would help a little. The team was restless, wanting to go home, and the kid turned to the girl.
"If yo'all would be so accommodatin' as to come 持つ／拘留する these hawses a minute," he said stiffly, "I'd be shoah pleased to こども yoh pap ovah and lay him in the wagon."
A hot streak went crimpling up his spine when her 手渡すs touched his in taking the lines, and because of it he turned away so that she could not see how red his 直面する was all of a sudden. 燃やすd like 解雇する／砲火／射撃 when he stooped and 解除するd the old man up in his 武器 like a child.
"I 肉親，親類 walk, dang ye!" the old fellow cried pettishly. But he couldn't, except with the help of the kid's arm under his shoulders, taking all the 負わせる off the wobbly old 脚s.
The kid had brought the jug along, dangling it awkwardly beside his 脚s so the girl wouldn't see it if she should happen to look that way. When he had the old man around at the 支援する of the wagon he gave him another swig of whisky, his 幅の広い shoulders 封鎖するing the girl's 見解（をとる） of the reprehensible 訴訟／進行. And when the old man's 手渡すs reluctantly let go of the wicker-covered jug, the kid 注ぐd whisky into one palm and bathed the high lump と一緒に the bald 位置／汚点／見つけ出す before he corked the jug and 解除するd him into the wagon. It was not going to be a comfortable trip, but it was the best he could do.
"We're much 強いるd," the girl said constrainedly, as the kid walked past her to the horses' 長，率いるs, so that she might 安全に climb up to the seat. "Even if you are a 縁 rider for the Poole, I want to thank you for—all you've done."
"Don't について言及する it," said the kid, in the carefully polite トン his school teacher had taught him not so many years ago. "It was no trouble at all."
She looked at him doubtfully, 解除するd a foot to the 中心 of the 前線 wheel and hesitated, ちらりと見ることing in upon her father, who was babbling incoherent 脅しs against the Poole riders who had 発射 his son. Then she looked at Pete Gorham, who sat 悪口を言う／悪態ing beside a sagebush, took her foot 負かす／撃墜する off the 中心, and （機の）カム over to where the kid stood 一打／打撃ing the nose of the horse he was 持つ／拘留するing by the bridle.
"If you don't kill Pete Gorham, he'll kill you," she said in a 猛烈な／残忍な undertone.
"Reckon it'll be a 権利 smaht while befo' he's able." The kid did not look at her.
"That don't make any difference. Pete's part Injun. He'll wait." She ちらりと見ることd again toward the querulous murmur of her dad's 発言する／表明する. "You better やめる the Poole and get outa the country," she said hurriedly. "The valley folks'll kill you—" From the corner of his 注目する，もくろむ the kid saw the quick, anxious look she gave him. She took a long breath. "The valley's wise to you 縁 riders! They—you shouldn't believe all you see."
She seemed to think that was 説 more than she dared, for she turned はっきりと away and climbed into the wagon. The kid stood 支援する and 攻撃するd his hat for good-by and the team 肺d 今後 in little rabbit jumps, until the slope and the girl's 会社／堅い 手渡すs on the lines slowed them 負かす／撃墜する. She could 運動, all 権利. The kid waited until he was sure of that before he turned to other 事柄s.
He went over to Pete Gorham and sacrificed an almost new bandanna and his neckerchief to make 包帯s, and adjusted them with 天然のまま efficiency, while Pete snarled 脅しs and 悪口を言う／悪態s. But the kid didn't care for that. He had so many other things to think about that he scarcely heard what Pete was 説. He 除去するd the suspenders from Pete's ankles, 解除するd him to his feet and 直面するd him toward the valley.
"Go 追跡（する） yo'se'f a coyote den and はう into it," he advised 厳しく, and started 支援する up the hill, climbing like one in a 広大な／多数の／重要な hurry.
THE kid sat in the shade of a bowlder on the 縁 of the Big （法廷の）裁判, scanning the valley through field glasses that seemed irresistibly drawn to one 確かな 位置／汚点／見つけ出す no more than half a mile distant. She could 運動, all 権利. That damned pinto was a mean devil—shying at his 影をつくる／尾行する and always biting at the sorrel, trying to 選ぶ a fuss. The girl could 扱う 'em all 権利, though. Yellow braid blowing across her shoulders like a 広大な／多数の／重要な rope of gold 向こうずねing in the sun—The kid caught himself maundering and moved the glasses away from the team and wagon just dipping into a hollow.
There went Pete Gorham, 長，率いるing straight out across the valley to some ranch on the other 味方する. Staggered like he was drunk, but the kid reckoned that two 発射 武器 were enough to make a man feel kinda sick. 弾丸s through both ears, 弾丸s through both 武器—have to start in on his 脚s next, if Pete tried any more cussedness.
The kid's lips thinned and straightened when he remembered that girl running for the hill, Pete after her with his rope. Any other man would have 発射 to kill. Pap shoah woulda laid Pete out too dead to kick. But somehow this thing of 殺人，大当り—it was plumb 平易な to do, but yo'all never could put the life 支援する in a man once you'd 発射 it out. Pete Gorham would shoah get his, some of these days, but the kid didn't want to be the one that did the getting.
Funny about the nesters 存在 wise to Poole 縁 riders. The kid wondered if the girl meant there was somebody hiding out amongst the 激しく揺するs, waiting for a マリファナ 発射 at him. Didn't seem to be—not 権利 along here, anyway. They could have 負かす／撃墜するd him like a rabbit while he was climbing the hill. Would, too, if they had been （武器などの）隠匿場所d within 狙撃 distance. Funny the girl didn't realize that. Reckon maybe she was just giving him a hint, same as Babe did, so he wouldn't ride along too careless. If the nesters really were wise to the riders on the 縁, watching the valley, why didn't they have somebody up here, ready to take a 発射 at one? If he was a nester and knew the Poole had somebody keeping 事例／患者s, he shoah would guard the old 縁. He'd 直す／買収する，八百長をする it so they couldn't come snooping along and see everything that went on 負かす／撃墜する in the valley.
The very silence and emptiness and 明らかな safeness of the 縁 troubled the kid. They knew, all 権利, or the girl wouldn't have told him so—and be so 脅すd to tell. 縁 rider—a Poole 縁 rider. That shoah sounded like they were known and talked about, or the nesters would not have a 指名する to call them by. Didn't bother her any to think of it, either, any more than it did to call him a Texas 殺し屋. That's what Pete Gorham had called him too, that time he （ーのために）とっておくd Pete.
The kid 突然の swung the glasses over to where the funeral 行列 had been starting away from Nate Wheeler's place. That funeral was another strange thing. They buried Nate Wheeler yesterday, she said. Then what did they want to carry out a 棺 and start another 行列 to-day for? The kid couldn't see any sense to that. Unless that was what she meant when she said he wasn't to believe all he saw.
Now the coulee across the valley lay empty, open to the sun and the 勝利，勝つd, that swayed the tall 少しのd and bushes. With the glasses he swept a prairie-dog village and saw the fat little rodents running from 塚 to 塚, comically busy with their own 事件／事情／状勢s, stopping to chitter and gossip while one stood up beside his burrow, keeping watch over the town. Nobody within half a mile of them, that was sure, or there wouldn't be so many out of their 穴を開けるs. The funeral 行列 was gone. Nate Wheeler's place was 砂漠d.
The kid searched the valley with 注目する，もくろむs keen as a 強硬派's. He ちらりと見ることd up at the sun and made a swift mental 計算／見積り. He hadn't spent more than an hour 負かす／撃墜する there at the foot of the hill. A funeral wouldn't go far in an hour. Two miles—three miles, maybe, if the horses stepped 権利 out.
Plumb strange, that was, having a funeral twice for the same man. At Becker's place, yesterday, the girl said. Didn't mean to let that slip, either. Said he was buried 権利 on the ranch. The kid got out his 地図／計画する and looked for Becker's place, then tried to 位置を示す it in the valley. All he could see was the crablike claws of a coulee so nearly の近くにd that even from the 縁 he could not look in upon the ranch. No Poole rider could see what was going on at Becker's—at least, not from this 味方する of the valley.
The kid 機動力のある and 棒 slowly 支援する the way he had come, watching this way and that, mindful of the girl's 警告 but keeping an 注目する，もくろむ on the valley too. 特に on the wagon はうing up a long hill, the old man in the 支援する sitting up and trying to 安定した the jug to his mouth. The kid chuckled boyishly at that 業績／成果, and he grinned when the girl finally 始める，決める the ブレーキ and stopped the team, and climbed into the 支援する of the wagon and took the jug away from her pap, arguing furiously with him. The kid's 注目する，もくろむs 軟化するd when he saw her bite her lips, on the brink of 涙／ほころびs.
Darned old fool, what'd he want to go and make her cry for? Must have 攻撃する，衝突する that jug of booze pretty often before the kid looked, because he shoah did 行為／法令／行動する orrey-注目する，もくろむd, waggling his darned old fool 長，率いる and arguing and gesticulating with his 手渡すs. 味方する couldn't 傷つける him much, or his 長，率いる either, the way he 行為／法令／行動するd. Man as old as him oughta have some sense. Getting drunk 権利 in 前線 of his own daughter! Didn't show much 尊敬（する）・点 for her, making her cry like that, after all she'd had to stand for—Pete Gorham trying to 誘拐する her 権利 in 幅の広い daylight that-a-way.
The kid turned away from the vivid pantomime in the wagon and looked for Pete. Might 同様に make shoah he wasn't trying to 追跡する the girl. No, Pete was going straight across the flat, making a beeline for Becker's coulee, as nearly as the kid could 裁判官. 満足させるd, he turned the glasses again upon the wagon.
Shoah was a pretty girl. The kid never had seen such yellow hair in his life. Wasn't much like that darned stuck-up girl 支援する home that had made fun of his yellow 注目する，もくろむ. This girl, Nellie, never noticed his 注目する，もくろむ. Never gave it a second look. Ladylike little thing—and that old 引き裂く of a pappy of hers was making her cry! The kid 手配中の，お尋ね者 to go 負かす／撃墜する there and give the old man a shoah-enough talking to, but he'd need Pecos and there wasn't much chance of getting a horse 負かす／撃墜する off the hill 権利 along there. Take an hour to catch up with 'em 進行中で. Longer than that; it was さらに先に than it looked, when you took into consideration all the hills and hollows that would have to be crossed.
He sighed and gave another 広範囲にわたる ちらりと見ること, at the valley. Shoah was a funny thing about that funeral. Reckon they were just trying to fool him with it, like the girl hinted. Maybe they 手配中の，お尋ね者 to go all in a bunch somewhere and couldn't 人物／姿／数字 out any way to keep from 存在 seen, and maybe they just had a 偽の funeral to fool any Poole 縁 rider that happened to be keeping 事例／患者s. Plumb foolish. Easiest way was to send somebody along over here to bushwhack him. The kid gave a sudden grunt of understanding. The nesters had sent somebody, all 権利. Or they thought they had. They'd sent Pete Gorham. And Pete had kinda got 味方する-跡をつけるd, thinking he could kill off that old man and get the girl.
The kid's 直面する darkened at the 簡単 of the 計画／陰謀. Pete had thought he could do it and lay it to the Poole. The nesters would never think of a valley man attacking a nester. They'd 非難する the Poole, and they'd go running after them harder than ever. If he hadn't come along and stopped the thing when he did, Pete would have a 罰金 陰謀，しくまれたわな on the Poole. 狙撃 an old man in the 支援する and carrying off the girl would shoah 動かす things up around here. But Pete didn't make it stick. The kid had come along and 直す／買収する，八百長をするd Pete good and plenty for a 権利 smart while, and the girl and her pappy knew now just what 肉親，親類d of a skunk Pete was. There'd be a hanging bee, he reckoned, as soon as the nesters 設立する out about it.
Now the girl was up on the seat again, 運動ing, and the jug was up there と一緒に her, out of the old man's reach. The kid wished he could change places with that jug—and blushed at the foolishness of the thought. But he watched her, riding along the 縁 in the direction she was taking, so that he could keep opposite the wagon. He was not afraid of 存在 待ち伏せ／迎撃するd from the 激しく揺するs. He felt very 確かな he had settled that 可能性 when he settled Pete Gorham.
Little by little, the kid pieced together the 宣告，判決s she had spoken. "Are you a 縁 rider?—Even if he is a Poole rider, he's done us a big 好意—" This to her old pappy on the ground. She meant the way he had stopped Pete Gorham. She—when she was going to get into the wagon, she stopped long enough to come 権利 up to him and tell him—井戸／弁護士席, maybe she didn't tell him anything much; anything Babe hadn't told him, except that the valley was wise to their 縁 ridin'. But it was the way she said it. It was the トン of her 発言する／表明する.
There was something in her 発言する／表明する that was like her hair. Something like gold. Of course, yo'all couldn't say a 発言する／表明する was yellow, or had a shiny sound, but yo'all could kinda imagine it was like gold. That girl 負かす／撃墜する in Texas—her 発言する／表明する was like a tin pan. Funny about 発言する／表明するs—they say more than words, いつかs. More than a person wants their 発言する／表明する to say. Hers did. Hers said she'd shoah hate to have anything happen to a 縁 rider.
The kid 棒 dreamily along, watching the wagon as it bumped over the 薄暗い 追跡する in the grass. Watching just in 事例／患者 she might need help or something. Team might run away, or her old pappy might take and 落ちる out of the wagon, the old fool. Girl like that oughta be wearing pretty 着せる／賦与するs and sitting in a 激しく揺するing 議長，司会を務める making lace, or playing the 組織／臓器, or something like that. Girl like that didn't belong with no nester outfit. She oughta have some big rich cattleman for a pappy and ride around on a nice, gentle horse.
But the kid soon changed that imaginary setting for her. If she were the daughter of a rich cattleman, he wouldn't be her equal. She'd be so far above him he wouldn't even have the 権利 to go and sit in her parlor on Sunday. All he could do would be to tip his hat when she 棒 by. No, he reckoned she was all 権利 just as she was. Time enough for a silk dress and a nice parlor when—井戸／弁護士席, when she got into a home of her own. She wasn't so far up in the world she wouldn't look at a fellow just because he was a cowboy working for 給料. Even if he was a Poole rider. Her 発言する／表明する didn't sound as if she'd hate a fellow for that.
The wagon finally turned into a shallow 不景気 and was seen no more from the 縁. The kid 示すd the place where she lived; 示すd it with a special significance in his mind. It wasn't 負かす／撃墜する on the 天然のまま 地図／計画する he carried, but he could have ridden straight to her ranch on the blackest night. Over across the valley a fellow might be able to look 負かす／撃墜する into that 水盤／入り江 from the 縁. The kid's 注目する，もくろむs chose a point where he meant to try it, first chance he got.
He got off Pecos and 設立する himself a shady place under a 棚上げにするing 激しく揺する and sat 負かす／撃墜する, 残り／休憩（する）ing his 肘s on his 膝s that he might 持つ／拘留する the glasses steadier. Now and then he swept the valley with a perfunctory ちらりと見ること, but most of the time he was 星／主役にするing at the 山の尾根 which hid her home. A thin line of cottonwoods ran up along a creek there. There were places where the 最高の，を越すs of the trees showed above the 山の尾根. One place, where the 山の尾根 dipped a little, the kid thought he could make out part of the roof of a building. Might be 激しく揺するs, but it shoah did look like a roof.
THE 影をつくる／尾行する of the Big （法廷の）裁判 crept さらに先に and さらに先に out into the valley. The kid traced its bold 輪郭（を描く） dreamily, his gaze wandering here and there, but like a compass needle swinging to the north, always coming 支援する to the line of cottonwoods running up behind the 山の尾根, and to that brown splotch which might be the roof of a house. He wondered if there were 雇うd men on the ranch to do the chores. Nesters didn't 雇う much help—not if they were honest. Good-looking team and a pretty good harness and wagon, though. No poor trash would have an outfit like that. Maybe there was some fellow there—somebody she liked—
The kid stirred uneasily and let the glasses 減少（する） from his 注目する，もくろむs. A long, oddly attenuated 影をつくる／尾行する was 事情に応じて変わる stealthily 負かす／撃墜する the 激しく揺するs beside him, a big hat and a pair of shoulders growing longer as he looked. The kid sprang up like a startled deer, his gun in his 手渡す and pointing straight at the man who stood looking at him. Then suddenly the kid smiled sheepishly and tucked the gun 支援する in its holster.
"Come alive like a rattler, didn't yuh?" Babe 獲得する grinned. "Saw a 脚 sticking out from behind the 激しく揺する and I thought shore they'd got yuh, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ. Say, that's the second time you've throwed 負かす／撃墜する on me. You always that quick?"
"Reckon I try to be, Babe," the kid drawled diffidently. "Pap always told me I nevah'd have to be too slow moah'n just once."
"I coulda got yuh that time, though, if I'd 手配中の，お尋ね者 to. Any nester want to slip on yuh, he could'a' done it." Babe 注目する，もくろむd him curiously. "You been asleep?"
"No. I been watchin' the valley." The kid 解除するd the glasses by their rawhide thong to show Babe, but he did not 解除する his 注目する，もくろむs to 会合，会う Babe's keen 熟考する／考慮するing ちらりと見ること.
"Hunh!" Babe's トン sounded skeptical. "See anything?"
"Saw a fune'l ovah to Nate Wheelah's place."
"You didn't 報告（する）／憶測 it to the Poole," Babe 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金d grimly. "What was the 事柄? 麻ひさせるd, so you couldn't git to the pinnacle?"
The kid's yellow 権利 注目する，もくろむ took on the curious, 冷淡な 星／主役にする of a tiger. That was because of Babe's rebuke. But the 注目する，もくろむ 軟化するd すぐに, and that was because the kid loved Babe.
"No, suh, I was 権利 busy soon aftah," he said mildly.
"Doin' what?"
"Shootin' a nestah, suh." Funny, but the kid never had called Babe sir before; but then, Babe never had used just that トン to the kid.
"Hell! Why didn't yuh say so?" Babe's トン had warmed amazingly. "Some one tryin' to 乾燥した，日照りの-gulch yuh, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ?"
"I reckon he was aimin' that-a-way, Babe."
"You son-of-a-gun!" Babe stepped 今後 and clapped a 手渡す admiringly 負かす／撃墜する on the kid's shoulder. "I knowed there was some 推論する／理由 why you let that damn' 偽の funeral get by. I told the boys you had a good 推論する／理由 for not giving the signal. Got you a nester, hunh? I knowed you was the goods, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ!"
"Yo'all says it was a 偽の fune'l, Babe?"
"Shore, it was a 偽の. One of the boys got wise 't they was goin' to pull off something. You was sent over here to keep 事例／患者s, but one of the boys over at the Poole happened to see 'em when they come up on the （法廷の）裁判. Old man, he 疑惑d something was wrong about that percession, so he sends us all over to the buryin' ground over on Cotton Creek. That's where they was headin' for. Shore had more 会葬者s than what they 人物／姿／数字d on!"
"Yo'all didn't fight 'em, Babe?"
"No—shore, we didn't. Ain't p'lite to 解雇する／砲火／射撃 on a funeral, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ. But we shore （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 'em to that buryin' ground! Thirty-five punchers was settin' on their horses 支援する on the 山の尾根 about a hundred yards away, when that funeral percession come along. There wasn't no 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な dug, so we 始める，決める there and watched 'em dig it.
"They shore 行為／法令／行動するd mournful, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ! Them with six-guns and us with ライフル銃／探して盗むs laid across our saddles and never sayin' a damn' word. They never, either. But you bet yore 甘い life they was thinkin' a-plenty! Nervous as cats. In a damn' hurry too. Didn't dig that 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な more'n two feet 深い."
"Yo'all shoah they buried Nate Wheelah ovah theah?" The kid was trying to keep his ちらりと見ること away from a 確かな line of cottonwoods in the valley.
"Nate Wheeler? Naw, they never buried Nate Wheeler there. Jim Poole's nobody's fool. He saw through their little 計画／陰謀 権利 off. They buried something, all 権利, because we 始める，決める up there on the 山の尾根 and watched 'em, so they had to. I guess you don't savvy, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ. You're a stranger in the country. It's like this. 権利 up the creek, about two miles from that burying ground, is the Poole ranch, and it's a good seven miles across to Cotton Creek from here. If they got over on Cotton Creek with a funeral percession, they could こそこそ動く on up the creek to the Poole. Seven miles of bald prairie, and four miles under cover. Savvy now?"
"Shoah do, Babe," said the kid, his thoughts flashing to the girl and what little she had dared to say.
"They thought nobody'd ever think a funeral would turn itself into a （警察の）手入れ，急襲. They know they're watched, and they know the Old Man is kinda hangin' 支援する and don't want to start nothin'. So they でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるs up a little su'prise party of their own. They shore had it," Babe chuckled, pulling out his little yellow 調書をとる／予約する of papers. "Nothin' to do but go on and bury what they brought and go off about their 商売／仕事. And that's what they done."
"Shoah hope yo'all didn't have no trouble, Babe."
"Never had a word of trouble, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ. Old Man, he was runnin' this and he won't start nothin'." Babe's 注目する，もくろむs 隠すd themselves suddenly from the kid's 尋問 星／主役にする. "Know what they done, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ? They knowed they had to go through with that buryin' or we'd smell a ネズミ. So they did. They buried a 棺 十分な of ライフル銃／探して盗むs they 目的（とする）d to use on us. When they was gone, the old man had us dig up the box and open it."
Babe 倍のd a paper into a 気圧の谷, 精査するd in a little タバコ, evened it with a careful finger tip, rolled it deftly and drew the 辛勝する／優位 of the paper lightly along the tip of his tongue before he 圧力（をかける）d it 負かす／撃墜する and 倍のd up one end. He fished a match from a pocket, flicked his thumb-nail across the 長，率いる and got a 炎上, and lighted the cigarette, then snapped the match stub in two and dropped the pieces at his feet. The kid watched him, his mind piecing together 確かな 詳細（に述べる）s of the story which Babe did not know.
"I shore was worried about you, Kid," Babe said finally, 製図／抽選 a mouthful of smoke. "The Old Man was kinda 疑わしい about you. But I told him you're on the square and you'd 'a' signaled from the pinnacle if something hadn't happened."
"Shoah would, Babe. That fune'l looked plumb strange to me. I had the glasses awn 'em and I was watchin' to see wheah they went. Then 直接／まっすぐに I had to get 権利 busy myse'f."
"Where'd that feller jump yuh, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ—if it's a fair question?"
"支援する 負かす／撃墜する the 縁 about a mile."
"Unh-hunh. Musta took yuh やめる a while." Babe fanned the smoke away from his 直面する while he looked hard at the kid.
"Takes a 権利 smaht while, Babe, to 罠（にかける） a wolf." A strange, implacable look （機の）カム into the kid's boyish 直面する. Babe looked at him and looked away again.
"Shore. 井戸／弁護士席, let's go," he said after a silence, and there was a new 公式文書，認める of 尊敬（する）・点 in his 発言する／表明する. "I'll tell the Old Man how it was. You done the 権利 thing, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ."
IN the cabin at 冷淡な Spring line （軍の）野営地，陣営 that evening, Babe 獲得する lay on his bunk with a novel held before his 直面する, but he didn't turn two leaves in an hour. He was listening to the kid play his mouth 組織／臓器, and he was wondering a little at the 産む／飼育する of men that （機の）カム up from the Brazos.
Hard—that's what Babe called the kid. Smooth cheeks and wavy red hair. Always ready to give you a smile for every pleasant word you spoke. Not much to say, but with a 発言する／表明する soft and mellow and 十分な of music. But hard. Hard as nails. Kill a man in the afternoon and sit and play the mouth 組織／臓器 like that all evening. Babe was pretty hard himself, but he wasn't as hard as that.
Over by the stove, with his booted feet cocked up on the hearth, which he had neatly 小衝突d with a wild duck's wing, the kid was playing the mouth 組織／臓器, his わずかな／ほっそりした browned fingers cupped and touching the metal where the nickel was worn through to the 厚かましさ／高級将校連.
He played "Listen to the Mocking Bird" with all the trills and warbles and low mating calls and shrill pipings he had ever heard from the mockers flitting about in the hackberry bushes along the Brazos. He played "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" three times, with a haunting wistfulness in the トンs that made Babe 獲得する chew his underlip and think yearningly of a girl he used to know in Wyoming when he was about as old as Tiger 注目する，もくろむ.
And then the kid played another tune which he had never cared much about until to-day, and his mind clung to the words until his cheeks were hot to the touch of his fingers:
Come love, come, the boat lies low—
The moon 向こうずねs 有望な on the old bayou;
Come love, come—oh, come along with me
And 'll take you 負かす／撃墜する-n-n to Tennessee!
Babe spoke from the bunk, when the kid's dreams could no longer be compassed by the music and he sat 星／主役にするing at the smoky 底（に届く） of the dishpan hanging 支援する of the stove—and seeing a girl running toward him, her yellow hair 飛行機で行くing out like a golden pennant behind her.
"Say, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ, you shore can make a mouth 組織／臓器 talk!"
"Shoah 会談 to me, いつかs, Babe," the kid murmured in his soft Texas drawl.
"Time to roll in, though. We got t' be ridin' at 夜明け."
"Comin' 直接／まっすぐに, Babe." The kid 始める，決める one foot on the 床に打ち倒す and laid the other across his 膝, tugging gently at heel and toe of his Number Six riding boot. Small feet were a 示す of the Reeves family on the Brazos. Small feet and keen 注目する，もくろむs and a gun 手渡す 安定した as a 激しく揺する.
"Moah 縁 ridin', Babe?" The kid had bethought him of the half-empty water buckets and was stamping his foot into his high-heeled boot again.
"Why? Yuh like 縁 ridin', Tiger 注目する，もくろむ?"
"Shoah do, Babe."
Hard! Just a kid—twenty last winter, he had said—couldn't even raise more than a little 赤みを帯びた fuzz on his upper lip. But hard! Why, men with half a dozen notches on their gun had more feeling than this kid showed. Play like that on the mouth 組織／臓器 権利 after—oh, hell! Babe sat up on the 辛勝する／優位 of the bunk to pull off his own boots, but instead of doing it 権利 then, he sat 星／主役にするing at the kid's dreamily smiling profile.
"Yuh shore look happy to-night, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ."
The kid stood up and stretched his strong young 武器 to the ridgepole. From his slender middle his leather cartridge belt sagged to the 権利 with the 負わせる of his 激しい six-shooter in its holster. His yawn was healthily sleepy but still smiling.
"Shoah feel that-a-way, Babe."
Babe pulled off a boot with a vicious yank and sat 持つ／拘留するing it in one 手渡す while he 注目する，もくろむd the kid.
"Damned if I can see what there is to be happy about, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ."
The kid stood with his thumbs 麻薬中毒の inside his gun belt and 星／主役にするd reflectively at Babe while he considered that 発言／述べる.
"Damned if I can eithah, Babe." He 選ぶd up the water buckets and went out into the night.
Babe looked after him, gave a grunt of 完全にする bafflement and dropped the boot with a thud. Hard! A 殺し屋 that loved to kill! Born in him, most likely! Babe frowned as he turned 支援する the 一面に覆う／毛布s to はう in. He liked the kid; but damn it, he was too 冷淡な-血d. Too hard.
"Stahs are shoah big and の近くに to-night, Babe," the kid said later, 解除するing the lantern chimney in its wire cage to blow out the 炎上. "'Peahs like yo'all can most reach up and touch 'em with yoah 手渡すs."
Babe rolled over and looked at the kid.
"Some folks can easier touch hell 解雇する／砲火／射撃 than 星／主役にするs," he said 意味ありげに.
"I'm reachin' foh stahs to-night, Babe." The kid's lips looked tender and smiling still, as he pursed them to blow out the light.
He stood a minute 星／主役にするing dreamily 負かす／撃墜する at the 炎上. Yellow like her hair. Waving a little—her hair had waves in it too. He blew out the 炎上 with a quick breath and his lips formed a word 内密に in the dark. Nellie. The kid blushed and crept あわてて over Babe and into his own place against the 塀で囲む.
THE 空気／公表する was clean and crisp and 減少（する）s of dew on the grass winked like diamonds in the sun. The horses had galloped 刻々と for more than a mile, but now they had settled 負かす／撃墜する to a walk and the reins lay loosely along their necks. Riding so, a habit born of the long 追跡する up from Texas took 持つ／拘留する of Tiger 注目する，もくろむ. Instinctively his 手渡す went to his breast pocket and pulled out his mouth 組織／臓器, and he began to play soft snatches of old melodies as he 棒.
The music seemed to adapt its rhythm to the footsteps of his buckskin horse Pecos. It timed the 平易な swing of the kid's わずかな／ほっそりした 団体／死体 in the saddle, and the 時折の clink of his アイロンをかける-bound stirrups against Babe 獲得する's 木造の ones. The tune didn't 事柄; a medley of this thing and that thing drifting along with his idling thoughts.
Come, love, come—the boat lies low,
The moon 向こうずねs 有望な on the old bayou—
When the kid played that, he thought of the girl 負かす／撃墜する in the valley behind him. Funny, but she seemed to come 権利 to mind when he played that old song. Reckon her hair must come below her 膝s when it was unbraided. Nellie. The mouth harp cannily began to warble "Nelly Bly" with a gaspy silence where the high 公式文書，認める should have been.
Reckon her old pappy was a rustler, like all the 残り／休憩（する） of them 負かす／撃墜する in the valley. Leastways, the kid had gathered that Nellie's brother Ed had been 発射 by a Poole rider, and they shoah seemed to hate the 指名する of Poole.
Now and then he scanned the 広大な／多数の／重要な level prairie and the distant mountains still capped with snow, though the horses scuffed through wild flowers 負かす／撃墜する here on Big （法廷の）裁判. Once a spray of wild larkspur caught his 注目する，もくろむ and he leaned from the saddle and plucked it, and wore it like a cockade at the 味方する of his big gray hat. The blue almost matched his left 注目する，もくろむ, which he turned half shyly toward Babe.
The kid didn't feel that he knew Babe, even after a week of living with him. Babe always seemed to have a lot on his mind. Laughed やめる a lot and joshed a good 取引，協定, but if yo'all just looked at his 注目する，もくろむs he never seemed to laugh at all. Gray 注目する，もくろむs are like that いつかs. But Babe shore was a 罰金 man and a 罰金 friend, and the kid wasn't the 肉親，親類d to 選ぶ 欠陥s in any one he liked.
A coyote going late home from his 追跡（する）ing slid up out of a shallow 溝へはまらせる／不時着する and 停止（させる）d for a surprised look before he went streaking it across the prairie. Babe drew to shoot, but the pow-w of the kid's forty-five （機の）カム just as Babe's gun was leaving its holster—and the kid scarcely left off his playing. He put away mouth 組織／臓器 and gun 同時に as he 棒 over to where the coyote lay limp in the 少しのd along the 溝へはまらせる／不時着する. Babe followed, 持つ／拘留するing in his horse that didn't like coyotes, dead or alive. He was looking queerly at the kid.
"You always that quick on the draw, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ?"
"Shucks, Babe, that wasn't quick. Looked at him a second befo' I thought about shootin'." The kid was off his buckskin, turning the dead animal to 検査／視察する its hide.
Babe 熟考する／考慮するd him, a frowning intentness in his gaze. 明らかに the 弾丸 穴を開ける between the coyote's slant 注目する，もくろむs didn't 利益／興味 Tiger 注目する，もくろむ at all. It was the fur he was feeling, wondering if it were 価値（がある） taking. He decided that it wasn't.
"Old he of 'em all," he drawled slightingly, as he remounted Pecos and reined him across the 溝へはまらせる／不時着する.
"Good 発射," Babe 試験的に 賞賛するd, ちらりと見ることing 支援する as they 棒 away.
"Couldn't 行方不明になる, that の近くに, Babe."
"I've saw fellers that could—flash 発射 like that," Babe grinned, his sidelong ちらりと見ること watching the kid's 直面する.
"Couldn't around my old pappy; not and keep yoah hide on." The kid got out his mouth 組織／臓器 again. So far as he was 関心d, the 出来事/事件 was の近くにd. 発射 a coyote—shucks! Not 価値（がある） talking about.
Babe got out his タバコ and papers and rolled a cigarette as he 棒 along. He lighted it, blew out the match, broke the stub in two and dropped the pieces to the ground. The kid was watching for that little trick and his 注目する，もくろむs twinkled when Babe's fingers went true to form. Almost a week now he had lived with Babe, and never had he seen Babe throw away a whole match stub. Always broke it in two. The kid wondered why, but he didn't ask. Pap shoah had learned him not to ask questions unless he plumb had to.
Far ahead across the level benchland a faint 隠す of dust crept slowly toward the north, carried far on the 微風 that fanned the kid's left cheek as he 棒. Cattle, bunched, and riders 運動ing 'em. The kid got that at a ちらりと見ること, because he knew horses would move faster, and grazing animals wouldn't kick up such a dust. His 注目する，もくろむs ぐずぐず残るd on the low-hanging dust cloud. Poole cattle, they must be. Reckon maybe Babe was taking him over so he could go to work on 一連の会議、交渉／完成する-up. The kid hoped so, for that was the work he 手配中の，お尋ね者 and had come all the way up from the Brazos to find.
He looked at Babe and caught Babe's 注目する，もくろむs just 事情に応じて変わる away from him. Looking at that tiger 注目する，もくろむ, the kid reckoned. Must look plumb strange と一緒に a blue one, and 'peahed like Babe couldn't get used to it somehow. Always 注目する，もくろむing him lately. But the kid didn't mind—not from Babe. He put away his mouth 組織／臓器, 解除するd his big hat and ran わずかな／ほっそりした brown fingers through his 厚い hair that just 行方不明になるd 存在 a 炎上ing red.
"Shoah will enjoy swingin' a rope again, Babe," he said in his soft drawl.
"Swingin' a rope?" Babe's 発言する／表明する had a startled 公式文書，認める.
"Er ridin' herd—anything, so it's cows."
The kid reckoned maybe they wouldn't put a stranger at roping 権利 off. Had their own rope 手渡すs, he reckoned. Kinda brash of him to talk like he 推定する／予想するd to go 権利 to work as a 最高の，を越す 手渡す, yet he knew he could qualify all 権利, if the Poole only gave him a chance.
Shucks, of course he could swing a lass rope! Learned to throw a 宙返り飛行 same time he learned to ride a horse and shoot a gun, and that was so far 支援する the kid couldn't even remember his first 試みる／企てる. Pap shoah started in 早期に training his boys. Ride and shoot and lass and keep yoah mouth shut, tell the truth and give every man a square 取引，協定; the kid had learned his lessons young and he had learned them 井戸／弁護士席. But he couldn't tell Babe that, of course. That would be too much like making his brag, and the kid would bite his tongue off before he did that.
"Yo're ridin' line with me," Babe reminded him すぐに. "Old Man ain't likely to put yuh on 一連の会議、交渉／完成する-up."
The kid did not argue the point, but his 注目する，もくろむs clung to the slow moving
dust cloud, and because his heart was there he unconsciously communicated his
願望（する） to the horse. Pecos gave his 長，率いる a knowing tos
s and 解除するd himself into a lope.
"O-oh, I'm a poah lonesome cowboy an' fah from my
売春婦-ome.
An' if yoh don't like me yoh can leave me a-lo-one—"
sang the kid.
"I was headin' for the ranch," Babe called, galloping abreast of him. "But if you want to take a look at the cattle, we can swing that way, I guess. Old Man called us in to 報告（する）／憶測. We'll have to fan the 微風 if we ride by the herd."
His トン was not enthusiastic, but the kid took no notice of that.
"（警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 yo'all to that line of bresh, Babe," he called, and leaned 今後. Pecos ran like a wolf, Babe's horse （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing a swift tattoo behind him. At the line of 小衝突 that 国境d a shallow watercourse, 乾燥した，日照りの save in time of rain or melting snows, the kid 始める，決める up his buckskin in two stiff-legged jumps and waited for Babe to come 雷鳴ing up.
"Damn you, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ, you got a runnin' start on me!" Babe swore, laughing away the sting of the 誓い.
"Shucks, Babe, yo'all shoah needs Texas trainin'," grinned the kid. "Hawse needs moah laigs too. This heah Pecos hawse—" he caught himself 支援する from too open a boastfulness. "Runnin' staht's what I always 目的（とする） to git, Babe. He—he 肉親，親類 mighty nigh outrun a 弾丸, I reckon."
"Yeah, he's 急速な／放蕩な," Babe 譲歩するd, riding 負かす／撃墜する into the gully ahead of the kid. "This old pelter never could run for sour apples. That brown I ride, he's shore a drifter."
"Shoah has got the look of one, Babe," the kid amiably agreed.
Riders were 明白な now in the fringes of the dust cloud. Riders and a slow-moving river of 支援するs seen dimly as the 微風 whipped up the 煙霧. Cattle going to some chosen 一連の会議、交渉／完成する-up ground. The kid's 注目する，もくろむs glistened at the thought. Dust and the bawling herd, swinging lasso and the blue, acrid smoke of branding アイロンをかける eating through the hair and searing its 示す in the hide. Shouts, laughter, good-humored jibes, and a headlong pace to （軍の）野営地，陣営 and the steaming Dutch ovens at supper time. Heaped-up plate balanced in your （競技場の）トラック一周, big cup of 黒人／ボイコット coffee in your 手渡す, fragrant steam of it in your nostrils as you blew across the surface to 冷静な／正味の it for your thirsty lips.
"I'll ride over and see who's in 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金," Babe said suddenly, and struck his horse with the quirt he carried.
The kid's 手渡す 強化するd on the reins. A 冷淡な 負わせる fell like a lump of アイロンをかける upon his chest. He didn't know those riders up ahead. They were not the same old boys, with Pap, tall and 強硬派-注目する，もくろむd, on his big horse, riding here and there, giving his 静かな orders. Plumb strangers, these were. Babe knew them, but he didn't. He was just an 部外者, and Babe wasn't taking him over to get 熟知させるd.
THE kid 棒 along 平行の with the herd while he waited for Babe. Just loafing along, to look at him—but every 神経 was alive and tingling with a 複雑さ of emotions. The bawling of the cows and the calves, the 発言する／表明するs of the riders shouting to one another filled him with a vague but aching loneliness. A man galloped out to 会合，会う Babe and the two talked, 手渡すs and 長，率いる making little unguarded gestures now and then. The kid's sidelong ちらりと見ること saw every move they made. They were talking about him, and they seemed to find a 権利 smart lot to say.
Babe finally turned in his saddle and flung out an arm in a beckoning gesture, but the kid kept his 直面する straight ahead and gave no 調印する that he saw the signal. Babe cupped his 手渡すs around his mouth and let out a loud "Ya-a-hoo!" But the kid 棒 straight on and paid no attention. Three times Babe called, then （機の）カム galloping over to where the kid lounged in the saddle, 手渡すs clasped on the horn and 団体／死体 swaying with the lazy grace of a panther as he 棒.
"Hey, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ! Y' asleep?"
The kid slid over so that his dangling foot might find its stirrup, and yawned as he looked at Babe.
"Yo'all got me outa baid befo' daylight, Babe."
"Come on over and 会合，会う 足緒 Markel."
The kid patted 支援する another yawn and sent a languid ちらりと見ること toward the rider who was loitering along, plainly 推定する／予想するing them.
"Ain't impawtant, is it, Babe?"
"Hell, no!" Babe gave him a 熟考する／考慮するing look. "Thought you 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 会合，会う the boys. You said—"
"Said I'd plumb enjoy swingin' a lass rope. Nevah said I was achin' to 会合，会う anybody, though."
"Hunh." Babe swung in と一緒に, 注目する，もくろむing the kid with that inscrutable, sidelong ちらりと見ること of his. "棒 over there to see if 足緒'd had any trouble with the rustlers. Some talk of their getting 支援する up on the （法廷の）裁判 and laying for 足緒 and his 乗組員, and I kinda 手配中の，お尋ね者 to know if he'd saw anything of 'em." Babe scowled as if he resented having to explain. "Be hell for the Poole if they take a notion to （警察の）手入れ，急襲 a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する-up this far from the valley."
"Reckon it would, Babe." The kid's Texas drawl was soft and friendly, but the yellow 注目する，もくろむ had its tiger look. That was because Babe 獲得する had lied. They had not talked about rustlers from the valley; they had talked about him. The kid wondered what they had 設立する to say that took so long.
"足緒 is wagon boss," Babe その上の explained. "Good man to know. Might put you on, when this trouble with the nesters is settled."
"When do yo'all think it's going to be, Babe?"
"When there ain't any more nesters left in the valley." Babe's smile left no mystery in his meaning.
"Take a heap of killin', Babe."
"Not so much. They'll take the hint and move out when they find they can't buffalo the Poole. 井戸／弁護士席, yuh goin' over and say hello to 足緒?" Babe's 注目する，もくろむs were coldly scrutinizing the kid, though his lips were smiling.
"Reckon I bettah make shoah of my 職業, first. And if yo'all want me line riding ovah on the 縁, I'd shoah love to stay with yo'all."
"足緒 is a Texas man." Babe 発言／述べるd in too casual a トン. "Thought maybe you might know him. Don't the 指名する mean anything, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ?"
The kid laughed a lazy chuckle and pulled out his mouth 組織／臓器 again, wiping it on his sleeve.
"Shucks, Babe, 指名するs don't nevah mean anything to a Texas man. Not up No'th. Plumb 平易な to lose yo'all's Texas 指名する awn the 追跡する."
"Did you?" It was a bold question to ask in those days, but the kid shook his 長，率いる in good-natured 否定 while he drew the mouth 組織／臓器 idly across his lips.
"Ain't wore my 指名する only twenty yeahs, Babe. No call to change it yet."
Babe 受託するd the reproof and said no more, though his 注目する，もくろむs stole another sidelong ちらりと見ること at the kid. In unspoken 協定 they touched 刺激（する）s to their horses and went galloping 刻々と across the flowered prairie at 権利 angles to the herd, toward a 木材／素質d butte that seemed to 示す the northern 境界 of the Big （法廷の）裁判. This way lay the （警察，軍隊などの）本部 ranch of the Poole, which was in reality a 会社／堅い of Eastern 資本主義者s dabbling in 範囲 投資s.
The Poole owners never saw their cattle. John Poole, 大統領，／社長 of the Poole Land and Cattle Company, gave orders from his New York office and 推定する／予想するd to see the result translated into columns of 人物／姿／数字s on the balance sheets. So many cattle, so many miles of 範囲, so many men 製図／抽選 so much money for their work. This sum for cost of 操作／手術, that sum deducted for normal loss, and the 投資 支払う／賃金ing a 確かな 百分率 to the 株主s. If the losses rose, the 利益（をあげる）s dropped in direct 割合. Winter blizzards, drouth that parched the 範囲, the depredations of wolves and mountain lions and coyotes had their place in the 調書をとる／予約するs of the New York office and were called Normal Loss. But when the calf 一致する dwindled out of all 割合 to 逆の 天候 条件s, John Poole sat up in his office 議長，司会を務める and dictated a letter to his superintendent. Rustlers or 病気 or whatever the 原因（となる）, this alarming shrinkage must stop 権利 there.
The superintendent was an old 範囲 man 指名するd Walter Bell and he was growing rich at managing the Poole. How he was doing it does not 関心 us now, but at any 率 he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to keep his 職業. He replied to that letter and he didn't （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 around the bush. The nesters, he said, were rustlers in reality and were stealing the Poole blind. John Poole replied that Bell must know what 薬／医学 to use on rustlers, and Bell wrote 支援する that he did, but it would cost some money. John Poole had built 鉄道／強行採決するs in his time and he was not afraid of high 初期の costs, so he wrote Bell to damn the expense but to （疑いを）晴らす the 範囲 of all cow thieves.
So Bell went 静かに and methodically to work, 雇うing men 技術d in the 罰金 art of 治めるing leaden pills as 要求するd, with no talk or fuss about it. Already the nesters in the valley were learning to ride carefully, with 負担d ライフル銃／探して盗むs across their thighs, and to hint darkly at Texas 殺し屋s on the Poole payroll, when Tiger 注目する，もくろむ Reeves 棒 up the long 追跡する from the Brazos, dreaming his dreams and playing his mouth 組織／臓器 as he （機の）カム.
A BROWN line in the prairie 示すd where a wagon road lay along the northern 辛勝する／優位 of the Big （法廷の）裁判 to a point where it dipped suddenly into a grassy hollow. The 木材／素質d butte rose boldly up from the level land beyond like a 抱擁する green 握りこぶし laid upon the prairie with one green finger pointing toward the east. That, Babe said, was Cotton Creek. They swung into the 追跡する and 棒 through a low 煙霧 of dust kicked up by other galloping horses and not yet settled. The kid's quick ちらりと見ること took in every 詳細（に述べる） with a young 切望 to see new places, and yet with a wariness as 直感的に as the sharp-注目する，もくろむd watchfulness of any wild thing. If he never 棒 this way again, he would always remember just how the butte thrust up from the level 床に打ち倒す of the prairie and how Cotton Creek ran straight away to the east.
"We lost time," said Babe. "Some of the boys got in ahead."
The kid said nothing. He put away his mouth 組織／臓器 and pulled his big hat half an インチ lower over his straight dark brows. He had forgotten the wild larkspur tucked under the leather 禁止（する）d. It still stood straight and unwilted, vivid against the gray. He looked as though he were going to see his girl, with a flower in his hat and a half smile on his lips.
Saddled horses stood in the shade of a big cottonwood tree, some still breathing quickly from hard riding, others 残り／休憩（する）ing a 脚 while they dozed. These awakened with a start as the two 棒 into the unfenced yard. Lean riders perched on the 最高の，を越す rail of the nearby corral or squatted on boot heels against the 盗品故買者, smoking and talking in desultory fashion of this thing or that. The kid felt them 注目する，もくろむing him as he swung 負かす／撃墜する from Pecos and followed Babe, but they didn't smile at the sight of him. The kid 攻撃するd his 長，率いる in 返答 to a nod or two, and took his place at one 味方する of the group—the 権利 味方する, which left his gun arm 解放する／自由な and gave him a （疑いを）晴らす path to his horse.
The kid didn't consciously take that position, any more than a wolf consciously 捜し出すs a high point to ざっと目を通す new 領土 before he 投機・賭けるs into it. It was born in his 血, 軍隊d into the plastic brain stuff of his childhood, taught him in the growing years when 殺し屋 Reeves had an eagle 注目する，もくろむ always open for fool tricks in his sons. These men were strange to the kid. Yo'all just never did take a chance with plumb strangers.
Babe left him, going on to the house, where he knocked on a door. Without turning his 長，率いる, the kid knew which door, and he knew that a girl opened it and let Babe in. Babe touched his hat but he didn't take it off when he went into the house, and for that he fell a notch in the kid's esteem. Babe shoah never did show his manners that time, but the kid reckoned maybe folks up North had different ways.
Sly 注目する，もくろむs watched the kid, but nobody said much. When they did, some 発言する／表明するs had the slow drawl of the South and they slurred vowels and dropped r's in a way so familiar to the kid that he could almost forget how far he was from the Brazos. But there were two that had the flat トン of the North, and these presently fell into amiable 論争 over the date and circumstance of a 殺人，大当り ten years old and over the line in Canada. Plumb foolish to argue over a thing like that, the kid thought, though he listened with the others. Plumb foolish, but 安全な, since the 殺し屋 was caught and hanged long ago.
Of the trouble with the nesters 負かす／撃墜する in the valley no one spoke a word, though that 支配する lay large in the foreconsciousness of every man 現在の. The kid wondered if these men with the look and トン of the South were the ones the nesters called Texas 殺し屋s. They might be, though no 直面する there was known to him. Texas was a big place. He didn't know all the 殺し屋s within its 国境s. The Poole didn't need to send south for 殺し屋s, the kid thought sardonically. He reckoned there were plenty in Montana.
The two with the flat 発言する／表明するs rambled on, gossiping of 範囲 事柄s and 製図／抽選 地図／計画するs of creeks and canyons and 追跡するs in the dust at their feet, and arguing over the distance from this place to that. Foolish talk, seeing the places were all away up yonder in Canada and nobody had any call to ride that way. The kid watched them pointing and waggling their 長，率いるs, and his lips curled in disdain. The others—four of them, lean and tanned and 説 little—smoked and listened. Texas men don't talk unless they got something to say. The kid felt a faint glow of pride in them because they were his 産む／飼育する of men.
Babe was a long time in the house. 'Peared like he must have a 権利 smart to say to the Old Man. The kid's feet grew tired, standing there leaning against the 盗品故買者, but he didn't sit 負かす／撃墜する. Yo'all don't feel much like hunkering 負かす／撃墜する on your heels 少なくなる yo'all know the folks you're setting with. Pap never did—and Pap was the kid's 法律 and gospel of the 範囲. Anyway, Babe would come along 支援する any minute now.
Another man 棒 up, some foreman or other. He told them to 料金d their horses and stay for dinner, and the group stirred and went off to …に出席する to their 開始するs. The kid 緩和するd the saddle on Pecos and Babe's horse, slipped off their bridles and turned them into the corral. He took more time about it than the others did, and he did not join them again in the shade of the cottonwood by the corral, but sat on the スピードを出す／記録につける でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる of the manger over at the far 味方する of the corral where the horses were nosing and chewing and 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするing hay in their search for the tenderest spears.
He could still see the group through the corral 政治家s, but the men over there didn't seem to take any notice of him, so after a bit he began playing on his mouth 組織／臓器, breathing softly into it and smothering the sound with his 手渡すs. Pecos reached over and poked the kid's big hat to one 味方する with his nose, a long wisp of hay dangling from his mouth, but his master only fended off その上の 軽く押す／注意を引くs with his 肘 and went on with his serenade.
"Listen to the mocking bird—listen to the mocking bird!" played the kid, with soft warblings and twitterings between the 緊張するs of music. 'Peahed like there weren't any songbirds up North. Not like the old mockers 負かす／撃墜する on the Brazos. No birds up this-a-way that could sing 価値（がある） shucks. Meddalark—but yo'all couldn't rightly call those few chirpings a song. That old mocker in the hackberry bushes by the spring at home—lawdy, how he could talk! Come a 十分な moon, and the mosquitoes humming and the frogs a-croaking all up and 負かす／撃墜する the medder creek, and that mocker singing in the hackberry bushes—
The kid blinked his long 攻撃するs very 急速な／放蕩な for a minute, and sat up straight, slipping his mouth 組織／臓器 into his breast pocket. Babe's 発言する／表明する calling out some careless 発言／述べる to the foreman （機の）カム to him at last, and over at the スピードを出す／記録につける house beyond the cottonwood some one was 続けざまに猛撃するing on a tin pan to say dinner was ready.
MEN were already splashing at the wash 水盤／入り江 on the （法廷の）裁判 outside the door when the kid （機の）カム up, and he stood 支援する and waited his turn, a bashful boy の中で hard-直面するd men whose minds seemed wholly engrossed with the 商売／仕事 of going fresh-washed and sleekly 徹底的に捜すd to their dinner. Babe emptied his 水盤／入り江 with a fling of soapy water into the bushes at the end of the house, gave the 水盤／入り江 to the kid and went inside. But he stopped just inside the door and 星／主役にするd 支援する over his shoulder at the kid, for all the world as if he were 推定する／予想するing something.
The kid dipped water from the big bucket standing there—gently, lest the splash should 溺死する some little sound he せねばならない hear; some little sound Babe was listening for, there inside the door. He dipped in his 手渡すs, washed his 直面する and wiped it on a clean 辛勝する／優位 of the roller towel, every sense 警報, every 神経 taut.
Somebody coming across the yard, walking kinda slow and careful. Hungry men don't walk that-a-way to their dinner. The kid took out his little 黒人／ボイコット pocket 徹底的に捜す, 広げるd it and leaned to the wavy mirror in its cheap でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる. He looked within and with his left 手渡す he drew the 徹底的に捜す through his 厚い, wavy locks that just 行方不明になるd 存在 red. Babe was still standing just inside the door, still looking out at the kid, waiting for him; waiting for something else too.
But even though Babe stood there waiting, he jumped when the kid whirled and 解雇する／砲火／射撃d. Even though he was looking, he did not 現実に see the kid draw his gun. All Babe could have sworn to afterwards was that the kid stood bent a little, 徹底的に捜すing his hair before a looking-glass hung for tall men; and then the kid was 直面するing the other way with a smoking six-shooter in his 手渡す. Babe was pretty quick with a gun himself, but he wasn't so quick you couldn't see him draw.
The kid ducked past the window and then 支援するd slowly, keeping の近くに to the 塀で囲む. His yellow 権利 注目する，もくろむ had the 冷淡な glare of a tiger, as he watched the men 急ぐing out to see what had happened. Twenty feet away, a man 安定したd himself and reached backward with his left 手渡す, and the kid saw and let him get the gun before he 解雇する／砲火／射撃d again. The man dropped the second gun and stood there, 持つ／拘留するing two 血まみれの 握りこぶしs out before him, 星／主役にするing from them to the kid.
"Yo'all stop wheah yoah at," the kid said to those at the door, and they 停止（させる）d on the 幅の広い step.
"I'll kill yo'all foh this, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ Reeves!" raved the man with the 血まみれの 握りこぶしs.
"Yo' kain't," the kid replied in his melodious drawl. "Yo'all nevah will shoot no moah, 足緒 Markel."
"Fer Gawd's sake, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ!" cried Babe from the step. "What's it all about? You said you didn't know 足緒."
"I nevah did say I don't know 足緒 Markel. I said men 平易な 減少（する） theah Texas 指名するs awn the 追跡する up heah. I nevah did say I don't know that lobo."
"Git 'im, boys!" raved 足緒, 持つ／拘留するing out his two 粉々にするd 手渡すs. "That's 殺し屋 Reeves' youngest boy—and the worst of the lot! Look what he done to me!" 足緒 was half crying with 激怒（する）. The kid smiled.
"I nevah do 破産した／（警察が）手入れする 負かす／撃墜する a 手渡す 少なくなる theah's a gun in it," he said.
"What yuh pull a gun on him for, 足緒?" The foreman walked scowling toward the 負傷させるd man. "The kid's dead 権利. You had your guns out when he 発射."
"He's 殺し屋 Reeves' son, didn't I tell yo'all? His pap killed my pap, that's why."
"Yoah pap nevah did draw quick enough," the kid reminded him. "'Peahs like slowness runs in yo'all's family, 足緒. Shootin' in the 支援する's moah yo'all's style."
"He's a damn 殺し屋 and the son of a 殺し屋!" raved 足緒.
"I don't nevah shoot a man in the 支援する, like yo'all tried to do," the kid said coldly.
"Tiger 注目する，もくろむ Reeves!" said one of the furtive-注目する，もくろむd men on the step, and the kid turned and 星／主役にするd in unblinking rebuke.
"My 指名する's （頭が）ひょいと動く, suh. It's only friends can call me Tiger 注目する，もくろむ."
Walter Bell himself （機の）カム with long, angry steps from the house. The girl was standing on the porch, gazing curiously at the 騒動. わずかな／ほっそりした little thing with dark hair tied at the 支援する of her neck with a big, wide 屈服する of 略章. Dark eyebrows—but the kid was too far away to see the color of her 注目する，もくろむs. Walter Bell stopped and looked at 足緒 Markel's 手渡す, gave a grunt and （機の）カム striding up to 直面する the kid, who looked 穏やかな and 害のない enough now, except for that 星／主役にするing tiger 注目する，もくろむ of his.
"You the fellow that 発射 my wagon boss?" Bell snapped, his gaze 避けるing that yellow 注目する，もくろむ.
"Yes, suh."
"You've 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd him for life. Know that?"
"Yes, suh. That's what I 目的（とする）d to do."
"Did, eh? You'll have to show a damn' good 推論する／理由 for that, young man."
"Yes, suh. I was combin' my hair and I saw 足緒 slippin' up, aimin' to shoot me in the 支援する. Seems like a Markel kain't 直面する a man in theah killin's, nohow. He kain't kill no mo'—少なくなる he kicks 'em like a mule."
"足緒 had both guns out, Mr. Bell," the foreman here 発言／述べるd, and pointed to the two smeared six-shooters on the ground. "The kid's telling it straight."
"Shore is, Mr. Bell," Babe spoke up, and left the doorstep to go over to the kid. "I was waitin' while he 徹底的に捜すd his hair. He was lookin' in the glass. I didn't see him draw, but I saw him shoot. He musta saw 足緒 comin' at him in the lookin'-glass."
"You didn't see him draw?"
"No. I was lookin' at him, but I didn't see him draw."
"I was comin' from the stable and I saw the whole thing," said the foreman. "Young Reeves was combin' his hair, just as he says. 足緒 pulled his gun and Reeves, here, whirled and 発射. He must have drawed his gun, but I never saw him do it. He sure as hell wasn't 徹底的に捜すing his hair with his six-gun—"
The group at the mess-house door laughed at that, and Walter Bell turned on 足緒.
"You brought it on yourself," he growled. "Come on up to the house and I'll 直す／買収する，八百長をする you up till you can get to a doctor. And I want the 残り／休憩（する） of you men to distinctly understand that I didn't 雇う you to work out your own 私的な grudges against each other. Any more 狙撃 の中で yourselves, I'll have the one that does it sent up for 殺人. Reeves, I'll see you at the house after dinner."
"Yes, suh."
"You done 権利, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ," said Babe, as the two ぐずぐず残るd outside.
"Shoah tried to, Babe."
"I thought 足緒 行為／法令／行動するd kinda funny, when we was over there at the 一連の会議、交渉／完成する-up. He asked me who I had with me, and I said a young feller from 負かす／撃墜する on the Brazos. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 your 指名する and I give it to him. He never said anything, but I 疑惑d he knowed yuh or had heard of yuh, just by his looks. But you never let on like you knowed him, so I let it pass." Babe gave the kid that sharp, sidelong look of his. "I was just tryin' to （不足などを）補う my mind whether I oughta tell yuh what I 疑惑d about 足緒, when the play （機の）カム off."
The kid drew a long, relieved breath and looked at Babe with the old 約束 向こうずねing in his 注目する，もくろむs.
"Shoah glad yo'all told me now, Babe. I plumb knowed there was something passed between yo'all and 足緒, up theah on the （法廷の）裁判."
"井戸／弁護士席, that was it. You're such a tight-mouthed cuss I kinda hated to butt in—but I guess I needn't 'a' worried. Gosh, you're quick with a gun! Come on and eat, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ."
"Shoah will eat with moah appetite now, Babe," said the kid softly, and followed Babe inside.
Men who had ignored him before hitched themselves along to make room for him on the long （法廷の）裁判 beside the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. Platters of meat, 一連の会議、交渉／完成する enamel 水盤／入り江s of potatoes, beans, stewed corn, 厚い brown gravy （機の）カム his way faster than he could spoon the food out upon his plate. Sugar and canned milk were 圧力（をかける）d upon him.
The kid thanked them for each proffered service and 充てるd himself 厳密に to the 商売／仕事 of eating. No one について言及するd 足緒 Markel or the 狙撃 or the fact that 殺し屋 Reeves and his sons were not unknown to them. They'd do their talking after awhile, when the kid was not there to hear. Just what they would say did not 大いに 関心 him. Tell how Tiger 注目する，もくろむ Reeves was counted the fastest and straightest shooter on the whole length of the Brazos, maybe. Tell how his old pap had raised a whole passel of boys in the saddle, with a six-gun in one 手渡す and a lass rope in the other. Tell how 殺し屋 Reeves never went for his gun 少なくなる the other man made the first play, and how he always did get his man first 発射. Tell—if they didn't feel too friendly to 足緒 Markel—how 足緒' old pap had got more than one man when he wasn't looking and 用意が出来ている, and how he tried to get Pap that-a-way, only Pap saw him out the tail of his 注目する，もくろむ and whirled and 発射 true. Tell a-plenty, the kid reckoned; but they wouldn't have anything to say to his 直面する.
"You'll get the 職業, all 権利," Babe said in his ear, when the two paused outside in the shade of the cabin to roll and light a cigarette apiece before the kid went up to interview Walter Bell.
足緒, on his way to the stable with the foreman, scowled and turned his 直面する the other way, walking wide of the kid. Both 手渡すs were 包帯d and carried in a sling before him and he looked sick. The kid's lips 強化するd a little as 足緒 passed. Never 嘘（をつく） behind another 激しく揺する, waiting to shoot a man in the 支援する—足緒 wouldn't. Never try to slip up on anybody again, 徹底的に捜すing their hair with their 支援する toward him. 殺し屋—but he never would kill again. Not after those 粉砕するd knuckles got 井戸／弁護士席. They'd be stiff as sticks. 足緒 would lose some of his fingers, the kid reckoned hopefully.
"You done 権利, Kid." Babe flicked his thumb-nail across a match 長，率いる, lighted the cigarette and snapped the stub in two pieces before he dropped them at his feet. "He'd 'a' got you and never give warnin'. Damn' こそこそ動く—didn't think 足緒 was that kinda man."
"If every killah had his 手渡すs broke, this would be a 権利 平和的な land, Babe."
Babe shivered in spite of himself.
"I'd as soon be killed as 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd," he said すぐに.
"Shucks! Yo'all ain't a killah, Babe. Man's got a 権利 to defend himse'f, I reckon. That's what Pap always said. Yo'all wouldn't shoot a man 少なくなる he come at yoh with his gun out, Babe."
"Shore not." Babe 発射 a keen ちらりと見ること at the kid. "Come on and talk to the Old Man. Just red tape, but you oughta 会合，会う him. He told me he'd put yuh on and let yuh ride 縁 with me."
"Shoah is mighty 罰金 of yo'all, takin' all this trouble foh me," murmured the kid, his heart pulsing with shy 感謝 as he followed Babe up to the house.
THE kid pulled up on the 縁 of the Big （法廷の）裁判 and 星／主役にするd 負かす／撃墜する into the valley below. It was not the first time he had ridden that way, and the bold lines of the bluffs with the 深い coulees creeping 支援する under the 縁 to hide the ranches from the keen 勝利，勝つd of winter looked familiar as a picture that used to hang at the foot of his bed, 負かす／撃墜する home on the Brazos. Like the picture, this 見解（をとる） held within it a 確かな remoteness, a 確かな untouchableness which the kid felt but couldn't explain.
A thrill of adventure lay in the fact that every coulee ranch held an enemy of the Poole. The cattle he saw grazing over there in the bottomland might be Poole cattle, rustled when they were sucking calves and branded with the nester's brand. That's what Babe said they were, only the Poole couldn't 証明する it.
The kid didn't need to take Babe's word for the fact that nesters shore would bushwhack any Poole rider they could catch 負かす／撃墜する there in the valley, because he still carried the smudged 弾丸 穴を開ける through his hat 栄冠を与える to remind him.
The kid's gaze wandered over to the coulee where Nate Wheeler had lived. Shoah was a plumb shame, 破産した／（警察が）手入れするing up a home that-a-way, but the kid couldn't see where any one was to 非難する, save Wheeler himself. Couldn't 非難する Babe for not knowing this was Tiger 注目する，もくろむ Reeves come up from the Brazos. How could Babe know that Tiger 注目する，もくろむ Reeves never 行方不明になるd putting a 弾丸 権利 where he 手配中の，お尋ね者 it, any more than he 行方不明になるd his mouth when he 解除するd a hot 薄焼きパン／素焼陶器 up to bite it? Couldn't 非難する Babe for thinking the kid 発射 wild; not then. Now, Babe shoah would know better than to buy in to any of Tiger 注目する，もくろむ's 狙撃.
There were things the kid would like to ask Babe about the valley. That ranch out a ways from the 縁, not in the coulee but tucked 負かす／撃墜する behind a low 山の尾根, where the long streak of cottonwoods showed there was a creek—the kid would like to know the 指名する of the folks that lived there. But he couldn't ask, or Babe might kinda 疑惑 it was the girl, Nellie, that the kid 手配中の，お尋ね者 to know about.
Babe would want to know a lot of things the kid had no 意向 of telling. About Nellie's old pap getting 傷つける, and the kid helping him and Nellie get away from Pete Gorham. Reckon if Babe knew about that time, he might think Tiger 注目する，もくろむ had more トラックで運ぶ with nesters than he should have, 存在 a Poole man and all.
The kid 焦点（を合わせる）d his field glasses on the 山の尾根, but he couldn't see anything but a 盗品故買者 running up along the 味方する. The ranch was over behind, about where the line of cottonwoods やめる. Old pappy wasn't feeling 権利 good the other day; seemed like he oughta ride 負かす／撃墜する there and see how the old feller was getting along, anyway. Take it 負かす／撃墜する that draw running out from the （法廷の）裁判, and he could get plumb over to the lower end of the 山の尾根 without showing himself. Plumb foolish to follow the 追跡するs, but 負かす／撃墜する that draw—shucks! Wouldn't take but a minute to ride 負かす／撃墜する and see how her old pappy was feeling. Babe never need to know a thing about it.
So the kid went 負かす／撃墜する into the valley where the nesters would shoot a Poole rider like a coyote. Babe had told him to ride across the （法廷の）裁判 to the river and scout around there for any 調印する of branding 解雇する／砲火／射撃s or cattle held within corrals hidden in the thickets. Babe said the kid could 嘘（をつく） up on the 縁 激しく揺する with his glasses and find out more about what was going on in the valley than a dozen men riding through the bottomland could do, and the kid was to take a lunch and stay till sundown or after. Babe was going around the other way, so the two would spend the day scanning the river 底（に届く） from opposite 味方するs of the valley. They せねばならない get a pretty fair idea of what was going on 負かす／撃墜する there, taking both 味方するs like that.
The kid felt pretty 有罪の and mean, going off like this on a 味方する trip of his own, but he didn't feel 有罪の enough or mean enough to turn 支援する from the 追求（する），探索（する） of Nellie's home and Nellie's last 指名する. Bothered him so he couldn't get her out of his mind—like a song when you know part of the tune and can't think of the 残り／休憩（する） of it. He wouldn't have known her first 指名する, even, if her old pappy hadn't called her by it. Reckon he had a 権利 to know what her 指名する was, seeing he had saved her old pappy's life. Hers, too—but the kid shut that thought out of his mind, it swept him into so deadly a 激怒（する） against Pete Gorham.
It was さらに先に to the 山の尾根 than it had looked through the field glasses. The kid kept to the 底（に届く） of the draw, which was rough with 激しく揺するs sluiced 負かす／撃墜する in spring freshets. These Pecos 避けるd with dainty steps and a disdainful 匂いをかぐ or two at the worst places. The kid did not hurry him. Pecos knew his 商売／仕事 better than most men. He went along, taking plenty of time on the bad stretches and making up for it with a smooth, swift trot when he reached grassy turf as the draw 広げるd.
By the time he reached the lower end of the 山の尾根 the kid realized that he was 長，率いる and shoulders above the level of the valley. But the 山の尾根 was friendly and 保護物，者d him from 見解（をとる） to the south, and the brushy undergrowth along the creek gave 保護 there. He felt 安全な enough to give his 十分な attention to the ranch he was approaching.
This was where Nellie lived. Yes, sir, she lived 権利 up this road a piece. The kid's heart 強くたたくd so he could feel it, until it occurred to him that she might be away somewhere, when it stopped dead still for a minute. But the heart of 青年 is a resilient 組織／臓器. The kid 棒 今後 and unhooked the gate, swinging it open as Pecos sidled through. The horse turned skillfully, 押し進めるing the gate shut with his shoulder as he went up to the 地位，任命する and stopped. The kid had taught Pecos that and he was consciously proud of the trick. His heart was normal when he started on, but it began to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 二塁打 time again when he （機の）カム in sight of the stable and corral and the house sitting 支援する out of the way against the 山の尾根.
The kid was ちらりと見ることing this way and that, to the garden patch, the grove, the corral, the house, looking for a girl with yellow hair so 厚い the braid was as big around as his wrist 権利 where his shirt sleeve buttoned, and so long the braid hung 負かす／撃墜する to her waist. Wonderful hair! The kid never could forget how it looked 飛行機で行くing loose, when she ran from Pete Gorham. Like a 旗，新聞一面トップの大見出し／大々的に報道する of gold whipping in the sun. It made a funny 肉親，親類d of lump in his throat now, just to think of the way she looked with all that hair 飛行機で行くing loose. Like an angel in a gingham dress, kinda.
THE sharp, venomous 割れ目 of a ライフル銃／探して盗む up on the 山の尾根 behind the house struck away those thoughts. The kid did not dodge, for he knew the 弾丸 had sped on its way seconds ahead of the sound. He wheeled Pecos off the road and in behind a half-破壊するd haystack and 停止（させる）d him there, listening. Thinking too, with the thoughts flashing clean and true from his brain trained in the hard school of a 殺し屋 father. No 弾丸 coming this way, or he'd have heard it. 狙撃 in another direction—
And then he heard the piercing shriek of a woman. The kid knew that sound 激しく 井戸／弁護士席 and a hot crimple went up his spine. His mother had 叫び声をあげるd like that, when Brother Ben fell dead in the 前線 yard. With one savage 解除する of his 刺激（する）s he jumped Pecos out from behind the stack and went 雷鳴ing up the road. No need to 恐れる a 弾丸 now from that ライフル銃／探して盗む. 殺し屋s don't wait, when a woman raises the death 叫び声をあげる. 殺し屋s run for their horse and get away from there quick.
Wailing now, and swift, jumbled words breaking oddly on the high トンs.
"Nellie! Come quick! They've got him—They've killed him—Oh, my God! Come and help get him in—They've killed him—Oh, he's dead—"
Too 井戸／弁護士席 the kid knew that 悲劇の litany. His mother, his sisters—so had they keened their dead in the old house by the Brazos. His lips 圧力（をかける）d their soft curves into a thin line. His twinkling blue 注目する，もくろむ half の近くにd to let the tiger look through that yellow 権利 注目する，もくろむ of his. He stepped limberly 負かす／撃墜する from the saddle and ran and knelt on one 膝 beside the wailing woman, 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるing to her breast the lolling old 長，率いる of her man, her shaking fingers threading distractedly through his hair that was no whiter than her 直面する.
"Ma'am, take away yoh ahms, till I こども him inside."
She looked up at him blankly, her 注目する，もくろむs too 十分な of her 悲劇 to see aught else. And she cried that they had killed him, cried it again and again.
"I reckon so, Ma'am," the kid said gently. "If yo'all would leave go till I can get holt—"
Then Nellie （機の）カム running from somewhere up along the base of the 山の尾根. She had a 売春婦 in one 手渡す, in the other a bucket half filled with yellow kernels of corn. Her checked gingham sunbonnet was hanging on her shoulders, her 厚い braid of yellow hair was pulled 今後 over her breast. Even at that 悲劇の moment when she stopped to 星／主役にする unbelievingly, the kid noticed how nearly her hair matched the kernels of corn in the rusty lard bucket.
"You! What've you done? What'd you do it for? Ma—oh, Mother, don't!"
Pity tore at the kid's heart as he looked at the two of them cowering together, the girl clutching her mother as if by the 軍隊 of her young 武器 she would 持つ／拘留する her 支援する from the grief there before them. But his 発言する／表明する was gently insistent.
"If yo'all would get her away so I can こども him inside—"
"Come, Mother." Obediently the girl began pulling and 説得するing. "We must get him in—You go 直す／買収する，八百長をする the bed, Mother—"
"Yes—yes, I'll go spread up the bed—"
Like his own mother, when they こどもd Pap into the house. Leave off her 叫び声をあげるing to go smooth the bedcovers and pat the pillow for the dead that could not feel or thank her for it. Spread up the bed, lay the pillows just so—Nate Wheeler's wife had done that too. A 殺し屋 crooks his finger on the 誘発する／引き起こす, and some woman must go pat a pillow for her dead to lay his 長，率いる upon for the last time. Fight over the brand on a cow or calf, 解除する a gun and pull the 誘発する／引き起こす. Yo'all can take the life out of a man 平易な enough—but yo'all can't never put it 支援する again. Lump of lead no bigger than the end of yoah finger 発射 into a big strong man—and some woman walks the 床に打ち倒す nights, crying and moaning for her dead.
The kid ground his teeth together till they ached, and in his heart he 悪口を言う／悪態d all 殺し屋s. Let them wait until they were able to put the life 支援する into a man before they 発射 it out of him. Like what the preacher read out of the Bible at all funerals in the Reeves family—funerals enough to imprint the solemn words indelibly on the memory of the kid. "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away—" 殺し屋s 行為／法令／行動するd like they had more 権利 than the Lord had. They'd take away life, but they couldn't give it.
With the limp, bony old man sagging a dead 負わせる in his young 武器, the kid went into the house, ducking his 長，率いる in the doorway so his 弾丸-bored hat 栄冠を与える could pass in 解放する／自由な. They built their doors higher 負かす／撃墜する home, but that was because 殺し屋 Reeves bred tall sons like himself and they must have 長，率いる room as they （機の）カム and went.
Little, short, old man, this one had been. こども him in 平易な as a kid asleep. Lay him on the smoothed bed, put his 長，率いる on the patted pillow, tuck a 倍のd sheet under his shoulders where the 血 seeped out. No use to look at the 負傷させる, no use to 乱す the 冷気／寒がらせるing 団体／死体. Little old pappy had been 発射 in the 支援する when he walked out into the yard. 殺し屋's work. 乾燥した，日照りの-gulched, they called it up here. 殺し屋 waiting behind a 激しく揺する with ライフル銃／探して盗む ready till his man （機の）カム along. Then pull the 誘発する／引き起こす a time or two, look to see if the 弾丸s went straight—and then run for a horse tied somewhere outa sight in the bushes.
The kid's 直面する was 荒涼とした and old when he turned from the bed and Nellie's mother ひさまづくing beside it, her 武器 thrown out and clutching her dead with the tensity of despair. Nellie was 持つ／拘留するing herself 静める in spite of her horror. Somebody had to, and the girl's わずかな／ほっそりした shoulders had straightened to the 負担 of 責任／義務. The kid saw her in the kitchen, dipping water into the washbasin on the （法廷の）裁判 beside the 支援する door. But as he went out to wash her father's life 血 from his 手渡すs, he remembered her words and 停止（させる）d, looking at her strangely.
"What call have yoh got to think I done it?" he 需要・要求するd. "I'd do anything I could foh yo'all. Shoah wouldn't hahm yoh pappy. He was 発射 in the 支援する, from somewheah up awn the hill. I was awn the road coming along by the old stack. Yo'all can go look at the hawse 跡をつけるs and see foh yohse'f."
"I don't have to. I don't know what made me say that, Mr.—I know you didn't do it."
"Reeves," said the kid, 紅潮／摘発するing a little. "（頭が）ひょいと動く Reeves is my 指名する, 行方不明になる—"
"Murray," said the girl, and put up a 手渡す to smooth her hair. "What shall we do?" She bit her lips, fighting 支援する 涙／ほころびs, and the color crept into her cheeks as she met the kid's 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な look.
"I'll stay heah, 行方不明になる Murray, while yo'all go foh help. I'd go myse'f, but I couldn't do no good. Some nestah would try and shoot me foh a Poole ridah, I reckon. If theah's a hawse yo'all can ride—"
"I could ride Prince, but he's up in the pasture, and he's awful mean to catch."
The kid nodded, wiping his 手渡すs on a clean towel neatly patched in the middle.
"I reckon I can get 'im. My hawse is plumb foolish ovah any ridah but me, or I'd let yo'all take him."
"No, you'll have to be ready to go before any one gets here. Prince is the sorrel with one white 注目する，もくろむ. Oh, hurry!"
No need to hurry now, though the kid did not tell her so. He 棒 into the pasture and roped the sorrel with the white 注目する，もくろむ, 設立する a sidesaddle and put it on with meticulous care. A 紅潮／摘発する 燃やすd his tan cheeks when he held 負かす／撃墜する his 手渡す and she placed her foot in his palm and went up light as a feather 解除するd on a 微風. He gave her the reins and his quirt that he had braided in the bunkhouse 負かす／撃墜する on the Brazos. She slipped the rawhide 宙返り飛行 over her wrist and then she remembered something and pulled it off again.
"No, you'll have to go before I get 支援する and you'll need this," she said.
"Yo'all can keep it," said the kid, the blush darkening under her gaze. "I got anotha one in （軍の）野営地，陣営. Made it myse'f," he 追加するd hesitatingly.
The girl looked at him, ちらりと見ることd toward the cabin where her mother was weeping in 広大な／多数の／重要な, 激しい, heartbreaking sobs.
"I'm—we're much 強いるd, Mr. Reeves. You—you always come when I—when we need help. 約束 you won't stay till they come 支援する with me. And—and tell Mother not to tell any one you've been here. The—the neighbors hate Poole riders. They've swore they'll shoot any Poole man on sight if they catch him in the valley. You be careful, won't you, Mr. Reeves?"
"Shoah will," murmured the kid.
"It'll take about an hour. Do you live over at the Poole? You better go 権利 now. They'd kill you, sure, if they caught you here. Mother'll be all 権利. 約束 you'll go!"
"I'm staying with Babe 獲得する at 冷淡な Spring. I 約束 to go—but I kain't 約束 I won't come 支援する."
He watched her ride off at a gallop, her gingham skirt whipping out beside the sorrel's 側面に位置するs, her yellow braid swinging in the 微風. She shoah was 勇敢な, 持つ／拘留するing 支援する her 涙／ほころびs for her old pappy that-a-way. The kid thought she was the pluckiest and the prettiest girl he ever had seen. His 注目する，もくろむs shone and his mouth relaxed into a softer curve of the lips as he watched her out of sight.
His ちらりと見ること fell then to the trampled dirt under his feet, and the 荒涼とした look returned to his 直面する. Her old pappy had fallen 権利 there, where the kid was standing. There was the imprint of his 団体／死体 in the dust, the grim significance of the stained earth, the blurred 示すs where the woman had knelt. He turned and scanned the 山の尾根. Its 味方する was mostly brushy and with a stunted tree growing here and there, but at the 最高の，を越す there was a rough outcropping of brown sandstone with 激しく揺する 厚板s 攻撃するd this way and that. His 注目する，もくろむs went to that point with unerring precision. A man always wants a 激しく揺する or two in 前線 of him when he's 直す／買収する，八百長をするing to bushwhack somebody. Reckon that's because he's a coward. Bushes are 罰金 to hide in, but bushes don't stop 弾丸s, and a coward won't take a chance. Don't 目的（とする） to give a feller a chance to shoot 支援する; but all the same, he wants a 激しく揺する up in 前線 of him just in 事例／患者.
The kid was sure the 殺し屋 had waited behind those 激しく揺するs; just as sure as if he had seen him there. But he didn't go up 権利 then to 証明する it. 権利 smart of a climb up through the 小衝突. No use 急ぐing up there now, after it was all over. He went into the house instead and stood with his hat in his 手渡す, looking 負かす／撃墜する at the dead man and at the woman 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd on the 床に打ち倒す beside the bed. Quieter now, the first 嵐／襲撃する of grief 広範囲にわたる on to leave her dulled and apathetic.
The kid tiptoed over to the far 味方する of the room and brought a 激しく揺するing-議長，司会を務める, 始める，決める it 負かす／撃墜する beside the bed and 解除するd her and put her in the 議長，司会を務める. Nellie's mother: yellow hair turned gray, blue 注目する，もくろむs blurred, flour on her wrists. Mixing pie crust, maybe, or bread, when Death （機の）カム to her door.
The kid stood looking 負かす／撃墜する at her for a minute, then tiptoed to the big old bureau and pulled a 最高の，を越す drawer open. Texas or Montana, it didn't make much difference to a woman. Kept her handkerchiefs and best towels in the 最高の，を越す drawer just the same. It seemed to the kid as if he were getting a handkerchief for his mother—or a clean sheet to pull over the family's dead.
Her fingers opened to take the handkerchief but she did not look up at him. Her 注目する，もくろむs followed the careful shrouding of the still form on the bed. She watched him tiptoe into the kitchen, open the oven door and take out two berry pies and 始める，決める them on the clean scrubbed （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. No use letting things 燃やす in the oven just because the man they were made for lies dead in the next room. The kid's mother had taught her boys to be thoughtful of little things in the house.
He took the two tin water buckets and followed a path from the 支援する door to a spring, and brought 支援する fresh water, setting the buckets 支援する on the （法廷の）裁判 without 流出／こぼすing a 減少（する）. He took a 激しい goblet from the dish cupboard, filled it with 冷静な／正味の water and brought it in to Nellie's mother. She looked at him then; looked at him long before she took the glass and drank.
"You're a good boy," she said. "Where you from?"
"Brazos," said the kid, hoping she would not ask too much.
Evidently she thought Brazos was the 指名する of a town, for she let the word pass unchallenged.
"They 発射 my Ed—that was last month. He laid out all night before he was 設立する. Now they've killed my husband. I hope they're 満足させるd. If there's a God in heaven, may He punish the Poole as they deserve! If there is a God!" she 追加するd 激しく.
"I reckon theah is, Ma'am, only I reckon folks ain't moah impawtent to Him than a bird in a bush." The kid looked out of the window, considering a 事柄 which always stirred him ばく然と. "Folks calls theahselves impawtent," he said gently. "But I reckon a motha bird's heart aches too, when a snake eats its little ones."
"You're a good boy. Where's Nellie?" She 星／主役にするd around her.
The kid told her. She did not seem to listen, but returned to her weeping. The kid wished she wouldn't cry like that; she sounded so much like his mother when Pap lay on the bed under a sheet. 殺し屋s oughta be made to sit and listen to the 未亡人s of the men they shoot in the 支援する. That 殺し屋 waiting up there behind the 激しく揺するs—if he could take the 苦しむing he 手渡すd out to other folks, and if he had to 耐える it all himself—but 殺し屋s don't care. A 殺し屋 has got no heart. Only Pap, he had a heart big as an ox. Folks just kept on making Pap kill. He didn't want to. After the first fight, when he killed his first man, somebody was always trying to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 Pap to the draw. He had to go on 殺人，大当り to save himself.
This was different. This was more like 足緒 Markel's work, only 足緒 wouldn't do any more bushwhacking from behind 激しく揺するs. Time 足緒' knuckles got 井戸／弁護士席, he wouldn't be able to pull a 誘発する／引き起こす. Like he told Babe, the kid still thought it would be a heap better if you could 破産した／（警察が）手入れする the gun 手渡す of every 殺し屋. Nellie's old pappy wouldn't be laying in there now under a sheet if some one had 発射 the 誘発する／引き起こす finger off the skunk that laid up behind the 激しく揺する. Nellie's brother would be alive too, if it wasn't for some こそこそ動くing coward that was able to 扱う a gun.
The kid turned on the doorstep and leaned his 長，率いる in at the doorway.
"Good-by, Ma'am," he called softly. "Reckon I'll have to be goin' now."
"Good-by," she answered brokenly. "Look out them Poole 殺し屋s don't get you!"
"Shoah will," said the kid. 約束d Nellie he'd go. Somehow it made a 社債 between them which the kid would never break. He was going because Nellie made him 約束. And he was going to 追跡（する） 負かす／撃墜する the 殺し屋, because it was Nellie's old pappy he had 発射. Nellie knew he would. Never told her so—but there are some things yo'all don't have to tell. She knew it just 同様に as if he had made the 約束 in words.
The kid 棒 along the 山の尾根 to a point where the slope was いっそう少なく 法外な and sent Pecos 緊急発進するing up through the 小衝突 to the 最高の，を越す.
INSOLENCE leered up at the kid from every boot 示す behind the 攻撃するd 厚板s of 激しく揺する. The 殺し屋 had not even tried to scuff out his 跡をつけるs with a sidewise drag of the foot. Like waiting to get a standing 発射 at a deer—or a rabbit, more like. Wait for the rabbit to hop out of its burrow, then pop him over. No need to be 脅すd of leaving a 跡をつける or two, 狙撃 a rabbit at its burrow. No need to be 脅すd of 跡をつけるs when you're 狙撃 a nester before his own door, either. Ride 支援する to the Poole and draw your 給料 and clean yoah ライフル銃／探して盗む for the next 職業. 殺し屋 don't care if a nester comes prowling around, looking for 調印する. Let him come over to the Poole and look. These 跡をつけるs could be matched up over there, more'n likely.
But that don't put the life 支援する in Nellie's old gray-長，率いるd pappy. Matching 跡をつけるs can't put the life 支援する in a man, but it shoah might help to keep life in the next one. 粉砕する this 殺し屋's knuckles with a 弾丸, and he won't tramp around behind another bunch of 激しく揺するs so 解放する／自由な and careless, waiting to shoot some old man that stepped outside his door.
The kid's 注目する，もくろむs went 捜し出すing here and there. 殺し屋 as careless as this—and as sure of Poole 保護—'pears like he might leave some 調印する more than boot 跡をつけるs. 'Pears like he might give himself away, so a feller'd know who to go looking for over at the Poole. All those men waiting under the cottonwood—the kid wished now that he had paid more attention to their feet that day. Wasn't boots he was watching from the tail of his 注目する，もくろむ, though. 直面するs and gun 手渡すs—they were what he had 手配中の，お尋ね者 to kinda keep an 注目する，もくろむ on. Wasn't a 直面する there or a 発言する／表明する that he wouldn't know five years from now, but the feet and the 跡をつけるs they made—that was another 事柄.
Been smoking up here too. The kid stopped and 選ぶd up a cigarette stub, 星／主役にするd at it frowningly and threw it away. Any man in the country might have made that cigarette for himself. The kid himself might have, so far as that went. He took a step or two and 選ぶd up something else; a cartridge—30-30 Winchester. That didn't tell much, either. All Poole riders こどもd Winchester ライフル銃／探して盗むs, and so far as the kid had noticed they were all the same caliber. His was. So was Babe's. So was the gun Nate Wheeler had in his saddle scabbard. Reckon two thirds of the ライフル銃／探して盗むs in the country were 30-30 Winchesters. Made it safer in yoah 殺人，大当りs, having a gun like all the 残り／休憩（する）.
Not much time left for prowling around—nesters would be coming along pretty quick, and some of them would shoah hurry up here to take a look at the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where the 殺し屋 had waited for his chance. Not much 伸び（る）d by coming, either. Boot 跡をつけるs any man could make, 爆撃する out of a ライフル銃／探して盗む any man might carry. Reckon there'd be horse 跡をつけるs too, 負かす／撃墜する off the 山の尾根 somewhere の近くに by. Reckon it would be plumb crazy like to stay and see Nellie when she （機の）カム riding 支援する that-a-way. Shoah was a pretty rider—
The kid's thoughts 停止（させる）d as 突然の as his 団体／死体. Even his heart stopped dead still in his chest; or at least it felt as if it had. The 血 froze in his veins so that his 直面する had a pinched, old look. He bent stiffly with a slow 不本意, utterly unlike himself, and 選ぶd up something here, over here another something, and he stood up, looking at them in the palm of his 手渡す.
Two pieces of broken match! Two pieces fitting together—match snapped in the fingers and dropped. Babe! Babe, a Poole 殺し屋, 穴を開けるd up over in 冷淡な Spring cabin, making out like he was just riding line; keeping 事例／患者s on the nesters to see they didn't pull off any dirty work. Making out like he was just watching the 縁—making out—hell!
Bushwhacking nesters from behind 激しく揺するs; that's what he was doing. Playing the kid for a sucker. Lay on the bunk, pretending he was reading storybooks all evening—hell! Lay there planning how he'd go out next morning and 乾燥した，日照りの-gulch some poah devil of a nester, that's what!
Nice and 融通するing—"How'll you have yore aigs this mornin', Tiger 注目する，もくろむ?" Smiling—"Take care uh yoreself, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ!" Babe! Up here, （武器などの）隠匿場所d behind these 激しく揺するs, smoking a cigarette and waiting for Nellie's old gray-長，率いるd pappy to come limping out of his door. Draw a bead on that little old man's 支援する and pull the 誘発する／引き起こす, and watch him kick his last—then ride off bold as you please. Ride 支援する to （軍の）野営地，陣営 a-smiling—
"What kinda day yuh have, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ? Anybody jump yuh or anything?" Fry potatoes and onions and cuss because the onions made his 注目する，もくろむs water, and laugh because it looked like he was crying. No 涙／ほころびs for Nellie's old pappy, though. "注ぐ your coffee now, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ?—Come and git it, Kid, while it's hot!" Hell and damnation—Babe!
Pecos had to use his horse sense and take the 十分な 責任／義務 of getting 支援する up on Big （法廷の）裁判, for the kid just climbed into the saddle—his foot fumbling like a drunken man's for the stirrup—and 棒 unseeingly away from that hellish 位置／汚点／見つけ出す, where he had seen the fair 直面する of friendship blacken and 縮む to a grinning death's-長，率いる before him.
He せねばならない have known, that first day. He せねばならない have seen that Babe 獲得する had 解雇する／砲火／射撃d that ライフル銃／探して盗む 発射 not to save the kid's life, but because he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to make 確かな Nate Wheeler was dead. Because he had meant to kill Wheeler, had waited behind some 激しく揺する there on the sidehill until Wheeler （機の）カム along. Plumb simple. The kid must be losing all the sense he was born with, not to have seen it. Went and thanked Babe for saving his life—loved him for it—like a damn' fool. Babe laughed up his sleeve and took the thanks, and never explained he was only making shoah of the 職業.
Up on the （法廷の）裁判 there the other day, riding over to talk to 足緒 Markel. Babe lied and the kid knew he lied—and then had to go and swallow what Babe told him about that talk. Babe more'n likely told 足緒 all about Tiger 注目する，もくろむ Reeves, and helped 足緒 計画（する） how he could get him. Damn' fool—let Babe 嘘（をつく） him blind. A 冷淡な-血d 殺し屋 like that!
Kill the kid some of these days, more'n likely. Shoah would, if the Poole ever took a notion it would be 価値（がある） their while to 支払う／賃金 Babe for the 職業. "Have another cup of coffee, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ?"—in that damnable, lying, friendly intonation of the 発言する／表明する that would make a feller think he'd go through hell and high water for yo'all!
"Better come to bed, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ; we got t' roll out 早期に in the mornin',"—and wait till he got to sleep before he put a 弾丸 through his 長，率いる—and ride over and collect from the Poole! Or wait till the kid started off to the spring for a bucket of water, and こそこそ動く along behind and get him in the 支援する with his ライフル銃／探して盗む, and make the （人命などを）奪う，主張する some nester come up there bushwhacking Poole riders. Babe was that 肉親，親類d of a skunk. Babe!
If 青年 has 高さs of 忠義 and love and blind hero worship, 青年 also has depths of disillusionment and implacable judgments not to be plumbed by one who has lived and 苦しむd and learned the lesson of 寛容. The kid's 団体／死体 held the rhythm of the leisurely pace which Pecos always took when his master was 深い in his daydreaming; his 団体／死体 held the old rhythm, but his soul tore at its breast and gazed in horror at the 荒廃 wrought by two pieces of broken match. He carried them clenched in his left 手渡す, and twice on that ride he 解除するd his fingers and looked at the telltale fragments. Once, in a 殺到する of sudden and 圧倒的な incredulity which 冷気／寒がらせるd again to 有罪の判決. Again, when he remembered the look on Babe's 直面する as he stood outside the Poole mess house, watching 足緒 Markel go by with his 包帯d 手渡すs.
Babe had lighted a cigarette. He snapped the match in two—like these pieces, here in the kid's palm—and looked at the kid and said he'd rather be dead than 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd like that. And—the kid swallowed a lump in his throat that was still aching there just the same afterwards—and the kid had told Babe he wasn't a 殺し屋. And all the while Babe was the lowest 肉親，親類d of a damnable 殺し屋, and that's why he had shivered when he looked at 足緒' 手渡すs. Babe was a 殺し屋 for the money there was in it, and if his 手渡すs were 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd, he'd lose his 職業 of bushwhacking nesters.
Babe shoah would hate it, having his 手渡すs 破産した／（警察が）手入れするd with 弾丸s. Babe would rather be dead than have that happen to him. The kid's clenched 手渡す 残り／休憩（する）d on the saddle horn and his 長，率いる was 屈服するd, his cleft chin 残り／休憩（する）ing on the soft 倍のs of his silk neckerchief. His 注目する，もくろむs were 星／主役にするing at the grass and flowers and the little 有望な pebbles and patches of sand where Pecos would 始める，決める his 審議する／熟考する, daintily 保証するd feet, but what he saw was Babe, in a new and terrible guise.
He was seeing Babe standing by the kitchen （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, looking 負かす／撃墜する at his 粉々にするd knuckles, and he was 審理，公聴会 Babe say, "Put a 弾丸 through my damn' brain, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ! I'd rather be dead than like this." He was seeing Babe crumpled 負かす／撃墜する between the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する and the stove, lying on his 味方する, kinda, because he had tried to hang の上に the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する and so had fallen slantwise. He was seeing a 弾丸 穴を開ける turn bluish in Babe's forehead, just about where the lock of hair always fell, that he kept 押し進めるing 支援する with a swipe of his 手渡す when he talked; his left 手渡す—the kid had always noticed that Babe never 押し進めるd 支援する that lock with his 権利 手渡す.
Always rolled a cigarette with his left 手渡す too. One-手渡すd roll. Not many men bothered to learn it. 殺し屋's tricks. Damn' fool that he hadn't guessed it before. Come all the way up from Texas to get away from 殺し屋s and from the 差し迫った necessity of 殺人，大当り—and here he was, baching with the lowest snake of them all. Eating and washing dishes and playing cards and sleeping in the same bed with one.
The kid laughed with a 厳しい abruptness that made Pecos snort and duck sidewise, squatting under the saddle as if something had fallen on him from the clouds.
THE kid started and looked around like one suddenly awakened from a nightmare. He was on the last slope of the 山の尾根 running up to the tiny 塀で囲むd-in 水盤／入り江 where Babe's cabin stood snugly 避難所d against a 分裂（する） 頂点（に達する）, a spring at one 味方する, a stable and corral on beyond. Beyond the corral, the pasture where extra horses might be left to graze.
As if he had never seen the place before, the kid 星／主役にするd at the snug 退却／保養地. The cabin, with its stovepipe を締めるd four ways with hay wire, the 最高の，を越す 共同の standing at a rakish 攻撃する where a gust of 勝利，勝つd had left off shaking it. Smoke 追跡するing a blue-gray 略章 that kinked in the 微風. Babe was home, getting supper ready for the kid when he （機の）カム. （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 it on ahead—took some short 削減（する） which he knew. The kid had not seen him—but then, the kid had not seen anything on that ride.
He gave himself a little shake, snapped 支援する to （疑いを）晴らす and pitiless thinking. He 解除するd his 長，率いる, pursed his 強化するd lips and whistled the signal of all Poole riders. Babe pulled open the door and stood there grinning as the kid 棒 up. The kid grinned 支援する at Babe, but his 注目する，もくろむs gave their 警告. His blue left 注目する，もくろむ was squinting and the amber 権利 注目する，もくろむ was opened 十分な and had the baleful 星／主役にする of a tiger stalking his kill.
"井戸／弁護士席, yuh made it ahead of the 嵐／襲撃する," Babe called cheerfully, as the kid swung 負かす／撃墜する at the door. "'Fraid yuh might get caught out, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ. Goin' to be a 引き裂く-snorter, when it gets here."
The kid turned and looked where a greenish-黒人／ボイコット cloud 集まり （機の）カム coiling up from the 南西. Plumb strange that he hadn't noticed that 嵐／襲撃する a-coming. Hadn't heard the growl and mutter of 雷鳴, either. Didn't know anything but just that Babe was a paid 殺し屋 for the Poole and had 発射 Nellie's little gray-長，率いるd old pappy in the 支援する.
"Shoah 権利 smaht of a 嵐／襲撃する, Babe." And he walked to the door.
"Better pull the saddle while I dish up, hadn't yuh? I'll make the gravy."
The kid 小衝突d past him and went inside, turning to 直面する Babe.
"What's the 事柄, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ? Anything happen?"
"Yes, suh. 権利 smaht happened, Babe."
"You look sick. Had a run-in with the nesters?"
"A nestah got killed."
Babe's 冷淡な gray 注目する，もくろむs scrutinized the kid. He の近くにd the door against a puff of 勝利，勝つd, leaned his 支援する against it, his thumbs 麻薬中毒の inside his cartridge belt. The kid's vivid picture of him 改訂するd itself in 確かな 詳細（に述べる）s with pitiless 正確. Babe would not 落ちる between the stove and （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する. He would 倒れる over toward the bunk, more'n likely.
"Yuh don't want to let that get yuh, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ. Yuh done 権利. They've got it in for Poole riders, and he'd 'a' got yuh if—"
"No, he wouldn't, Babe."
"Who was it, d'yuh know? Or maybe yuh ain't tellin'."
"I know—and I'm tellin' yo'all. It was old Pappy Murray."
"Old Mur—" Babe's 注目する，もくろむs flicked open while he 星／主役にするd at the kid.
"Old Pappy Murray, 発射 in the 支援する."
"Hunh. 井戸／弁護士席—" Babe hesitated "—he's a nester and a cow どろぼう. He had it comin', Tiger 注目する，もくろむ."
"He nevah had it comin' in 前線 of his own doah. The killah （武器などの）隠匿場所d himse'f behind a ledge up awn the hill. Left his boot 跡をつけるs theah—and a ライフル銃／探して盗む 爆撃する."
"Yeah? 井戸／弁護士席—"
"Left anotha 調印する, Babe." The kid's 発言する／表明する was soft, but にもかかわらず it sounded implacable.
"Yeah? What 調印する's that?"
"Left this, Babe." He opened his palm.
Babe looked, 解除するd his ちらりと見ること to the 荒涼とした 直面する of the kid, and to that tiger 星／主役にする of the yellow 権利 注目する，もくろむ. Babe's teeth caught at his underlip. His fingers quivered—but they did not go for his gun. They did not dare.
Interruption （機の）カム. The shrill, whistled signal all Poole riders knew. Babe's 注目する，もくろむs searched the kid's 直面する. He turned his 支援する, pulled open the door, answered the call.
"Supper ready, Babe?" The Poole foreman owned that 発言する／表明する. He swung 負かす／撃墜する at the door, laughing that he had ridden hell out of his horse to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 the 嵐／襲撃する to 冷淡な Spring. Beginning to ぱらぱら雨; five minutes and she'd be on 最高の，を越す of them, howling like a wolf.
"I'll go put up the hawse, Babe, while yo'all make the gravy." The kid spoke at Babe's shoulder and Babe jumped as if he had been struck.
The kid saw and his lip curled as he 棒 to the corral. Babe would shoot him in the 支援する, more'n likely—but not while the foreman was there. Foreman seemed a straight, honest man—too straight and honest for the Poole, he thought savagely. Nothing would happen while he was there. 旗 of 一時休戦.
Babe was stirring gravy in the frying pan when the kid （機の）カム into the cabin again—stirring with his 権利 手渡す. Shore, why not? Cards lay as they fell till the foreman left again. Meant to go, all 権利. Didn't unsaddle his horse—meant to ride on to the Poole soon as he had his supper and the 嵐／襲撃する was over. Straight, honest man, 指名する of Joe Hale. No 殺し屋 look about him; his mind went to cattle and calf 一致する and 出荷／船積みs of beef. Asked about the nesters, about the cattle over this way, and whether they gave much trouble wanting to drift into the valley. Said he was trying to get the Old Man (that was Walter Bell) to have the company try and buy up all the ranches 負かす／撃墜する in the valley. That would stop the trouble, he thought. Buy out the nesters and have all the valley for the Poole. Make 広大な／多数の／重要な winter 範囲.
The foreman talked while he ate 大部分は of the supper Babe had cooked. Babe talked too, but not very much. He let the foreman have the 床に打ち倒す. Babe didn't eat much, either. Seemed to have lost his appetite. Kept his 注目する，もくろむs 負かす／撃墜する, most of the time. Looked at his plate, but kept sending sidelong ちらりと見ることs at the kid. Reckon he thought Tiger 注目する，もくろむ wouldn't see and read the meaning. Knew damn' 井戸／弁護士席 he was 罠にかける. Knew he'd have to 直面する it, soon as Joe Hale was gone. Shoah 嵐／襲撃するing. So dark inside the kid got up and lighted the lamp.
Afterwards he stood there, looking 負かす／撃墜する at the two who still sat at the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する; Joe talking away, Babe pretending to listen but poignantly aware of every move the kid made, almost of every breath he drew. The kid knew it. Knew it as a tiger knows what quivers the flesh of the trembling buck as he pounces; knew as a cat knows what palpitates the 味方するs of the mouse between its paws.
It was not the kid's doing, this interval of waiting. He didn't like it. He listened to the receding reverberations of the 雷鳴, saw the 雷 削減（する） the sky, through the window, knew that the late sun would be out in a little while. Then the foreman would go loping across the drenched prairie and he and Babe would have their 解決／入植地.
The foreman emptied his third cup of coffee, wiped his mustache with his handkerchief, hitched the box seat two インチs 支援する, and drew his タバコ and papers from his pocket. Soon as he had his smoke going, he would get up and leave. Already he was sending toward the window a calculating ちらりと見ること, mentally 公式文書，認めるing how the 安定した downpour had suddenly 少なくなるd to a thin 霧雨 made 向こうずねing by the sun's rays. Now he was 精査するing タバコ into the tiny white 気圧の谷, now he was rolling it. He would get up in a minute and reach for his hat.
The kid 支援するd to the bunk and stood leaning against the 塀で囲む at its 長，率いる. Babe wasn't smoking, 権利 then. The kid reckoned Babe must know it would be his last smoke on earth, and he wasn't hankering for it.
The foreman reached thumb and finger into the watch pocket of his vest, groped there, taking his time. Talking about a bog 穴を開ける that had caught one of the Poole's best bulls and held him 苦境に陥るd 夜通し. Didn't know but what they'd lose him, after all, because he seemed to have wrenched his 支援する somehow when the boys sank their 宙返り飛行s on him and 麻薬 him out. Couldn't get up. Had to be tailed up, and then soon as he laid 負かす／撃墜する, he was helpless again.
The kid listened mechanically, watching the unlighted cigarette wabbling between the foreman's hairy lips. Hell, wouldn't he ever get going? Was he 目的（とする）ing to 始める，決める there all night and gab about 苦境に陥るd bulls? That was like Babe. Babe was 苦境に陥るd too; 苦境に陥るd in his own 殺人，大当りs. 負かす／撃墜する and helpless, and he knew it. And suddenly the kid knew what he was going to do, because he had loved Babe and believed in him. He was going to let Babe draw. He'd give him that much of a start.
Maybe they'd both go together. The kid wouldn't care if they did. Babe didn't know it and he was chewing his lips 権利 now, thinking the kid was going to kill him. He'd feel better if he knew he was going to have his chance to shoot.
The foreman finally drew a match from his pocket, looked at it, used it with little stabbing 動議s in the 空気／公表する to point his meaning while he talked to Babe. Gosh, did he always talk that-a-way? It seemed to the kid that half an hour passed before the cigarette was finally lighted. The foreman absently blew out the match, snapped it in two, dropped the pieces on the 床に打ち倒す and got up, reaching for his hat.
Babe 解除するd his 長，率いる and looked 十分な at the kid. He saw the kid's lips 緩和する, saw them quiver as the kid's 注目する，もくろむs met his with shamed understanding.
The kid sat 負かす／撃墜する on the bunk, his 武器 残り／休憩（する）ing on his 膝s and his 直面する bent to the 床に打ち倒す. Babe! He would have 発射 Babe just on the strength of a broken match! If the foreman hadn't come 権利 when he did, he'd have killed Babe 獲得する—the best friend he ever had in his life.
The foreman spoke to him, got a mumbled reply and went out. Babe went over and took 負かす／撃墜する the dishpan and 始める，決める it on the stove, dipping water into it from the bucket standing on the （法廷の）裁判. He opened the firebox, thrust in a stick of 支持を得ようと努めるd, 押し進めるd the door shut with his foot. Babe! （疑いを）晴らすing the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, 捨てるing the plates just as if nothing had happened. Stopping now to make himself a cigarette while the kid watched him from under his long eyelashes.
"That feller that 発射 old Murray 負かす／撃墜する in the valley; yuh say he left broken match stubs where he waited, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ? Can't go much by that. Lots of fellers in a grass country break their match stubs in two before they throw 'em away. いっそう少なく danger of 解雇する／砲火／射撃."
"Shoah seems a 権利 ありふれた habit, Babe." The kid got up and went to the door, fumbling for the latch.
"Say, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ, 料金d my horse too, will yuh?"
"Shoah will, Babe." The kid's 発言する／表明する was husky with unshed 涙／ほころびs as he went out.
WITH his big gray hat far 支援する on his 長，率いる and his high-heeled boots 麻薬中毒の over the 辛勝する／優位 of the neatly 小衝突d stove hearth, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ Reeves sat very still, 製図／抽選 his mouth 組織／臓器 absently across his sober young lips. He was thinking of the 殺人 and of Babe, wondering just where Babe stood and how much Babe knew about it, and how tricky a thing 状況証拠 may be.
On the bunk over in the far corner Babe lay with his 長，率いる high and his six-gun beside him where his 権利 手渡す would 減少（する） to it easily, and turned a leaf now and then of a dog-eared 調書をとる／予約する he called いっそう少なく Mizzerbles. What thoughts went 往復（する）ing through Babe's brain would never be tattled by his lips; nor by his 注目する，もくろむs, that slid away from a sidelong ちらりと見ること toward the stove just as the kid lowered the mouth 組織／臓器 from his lips and turned his 直面する to the bunk.
"Yo'all plumb shoah ole Pappy Murray was a cow どろぼう, Babe?"
"Shore he was! Why, hell, I told yuh a thousand times, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ, there ain't an honest man in the 船体 valley. Not a one. Like huntin' coyotes—you know damn' 井戸／弁護士席 you don't have to 選ぶ and choose the ones that'll pull 負かす／撃墜する a calf if they git a chance. Any coyote's a calf 殺し屋. Same with them nesters 負かす／撃墜する there. They're a damn' bunch of 無法者s and yuh can't go amiss. Old Murray—Say, how'd you come to know he was 発射, if you was off over on the river 味方する of the （法廷の）裁判 where I sent yuh?"
"Nevah did ride awn to the river, Babe." The kid's 発言する／表明する was soft and slow, but it held no 陳謝 for failing to do what Babe had told him to do. "Got 権利 curious about something in the valley, so I taken a jog 負かす／撃墜する off the （法廷の）裁判 to see foh m'se'f."
"Yeah? What was that?"
"Kain't say foh shoah, Babe."
"Had your field glasses, didn't yuh?"
"Field glasses kain't show yo'all what's awn the otha 味方する of a 激しく揺する 山の尾根, Babe."
"Poole riders'll be 発射 on sight 負かす／撃墜する there. I told yuh that, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ. You was takin' too big a chance."
"No biggah chance than some otha Poole ridah taken, going 負かす／撃墜する to kill ole Pappy Murray."
"How'd yuh know it was a Poole rider? You didn't see 'im, did yuh?"
"No, suh, I nevah did see him."
The kid went 支援する to his playing and his thinking. "Way 負かす／撃墜する upon the Suanee River, far, far away-y—" that was the creek fringed with cottonwoods, running through the Murray ranch. He seemed to be riding again along the wagon-rutted road through the 辛勝する／優位 of the grove, his heart 強くたたくing because this was the 追跡する that led to the house where Nellie lived. "All the world am sad an' dreary—" He was 審理，公聴会 Nellie's mother wailing and crying beside the bony old man lying dead in his own dooryard with a 弾丸 穴を開ける in his 支援する. "Far from the old folks at home—" meant the kid's own mother weeping beside his dead father, away 負かす／撃墜する in Texas.
"How'd you know it was a Poole rider, then?"
Babe flung 負かす／撃墜する his 調書をとる／予約する and sat up, 注目する，もくろむing the kid はっきりと while he pulled タバコ and papers from his pocket. "Nesters ain't above 乾燥した，日照りの-gulchin' each other if they've got a grudge, and layin' it to the Poole."
"Nestah wouldn't 攻撃する，衝突する out foh the （法廷の）裁判, aftah he done his 殺人，大当り."
"Which way'd he go when he 攻撃する，衝突する the 縁?" Babe held his 調書をとる／予約する of cigarette papers in his 手渡す, unconsciously riffling the leaves without taking one out. His 注目する，もくろむs, the color of steel on a frosty morning, were boring into the 支援する of the kid's 長，率いる.
"Kain't say, Babe. Plumb rocky along the 縁."
Babe 熟考する／考慮するd the kid for another ten seconds and gave a grunt that seemed to 解放（する） a 緊張 within his mind. He pulled out a cigarette paper and creased it into a 気圧の谷, into which he 精査するd a little タバコ from a small cloth 捕らえる、獲得する.
"You come into （軍の）野営地，陣営 here, actin' like you thought I done it," he 明言する／公表するd calmly, lighting a match with his thumb-nail and deliberately breaking the stub in two while the kid watched him with an unblinking steadiness in the 星／主役にする of his yellow 権利 注目する，もくろむ. Babe met that 星／主役にする for the space of one heartbeat and looked away.
"Shoah would hate to think that, Babe." The kid wiped his mouth 組織／臓器 on his sleeve, but he did not raise it again to his lips.
"Shore hate to have yuh, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ. Hate to see yuh throw in with the nesters too." Babe scowled at the smoke spiraling up from his cigarette. "Might 同様に git this thing （疑いを）晴らすd up 権利 here, Kid, and be done with it. I don't like the idea of you thinkin' I'm the kinda 殺し屋 that would lay behind a 激しく揺する and shoot anybody in the 支援する. 'Nless I had darn good 推論する／理由 for it," he 追加するd, as an afterthought.
The kid sat whistling a whispery little tune between his teeth while he looked at the 塀で囲む where the dishpan hung behind the stove. He wished Babe wouldn't take just that トン. Babe knew he wasn't throwing in with any nesters. 'Peared like Babe was trying to make an argument.
"You thought I done it, because you 設立する them pieces of match behind that 激しく揺する, and I've got a habit of breakin' my matches in two. Plenty of men break their match stubs. What made you think I was 負かす／撃墜する there?"
"Nevah said I thought it, Babe."
"You looked it, when yuh come to （軍の）野営地，陣営."
"Kain't tell a thing by my looks, Babe. This yallah 注目する，もくろむ of 地雷 is plumb deceiving, いつかs."
"What gets me, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ, is how you come to take it to heart the way you do. Ain't a bigger cow どろぼう in the country than old Murray. He was bound to get his, sooner or later. 'Nless he was a p'ticular friend of yourn—"
"Nevah was no friend of 地雷, Babe."
"井戸／弁護士席—they say he's got a good-lookin' girl. You seen her?"
"Wasn't no girl theah, Babe, when I 棒 along to the house. Heard a woman 叫び声をあげるing and a-crying like my own mammy cried when Pap was bushwhacked. Killahs don't think about the woman's 味方する of the mattah, I reckon. 権利 nice little ole lady, making pies for her man. I taken him in an' laid him awn the baid, and I taken two pies outa the oven befoh they got burnt. Killahs don't think of the women, 'pears like."
"井戸／弁護士席, neither do the cow thieves think of the women. They know what'll happen. They know, and they take their chance. Same as we do. Hell, a nester wouldn't think of the women if he got a chance to 乾燥した，日照りの-gulch a Poole rider. Don't think there wouldn't be women cryin' around if a Poole rider was to get 発射. Joe Hale, he's got a wife and two kids. He breaks his match stubs in two, same as I do—but yuh don't think Joe was 負かす／撃墜する there, layin' for old Murray, do yuh?"
"No, Babe, I don't think that."
"And as far as the women are 関心d—" Babe rose from the bunk, hitching up his trousers' belt as he sauntered over to the water bucket and 解除するd the dipper with a jangle of tin. "Far as the women are 関心d," he repeated, 持つ／拘留するing the 十分な dipper 均衡を保った while he looked 負かす／撃墜する at the kid, "they got to take their chance same as the men. There's always women cryin' over some man. There always will be, as long as there's a man to cry over. What yuh goin' to do about it? A man can't 始める，決める and roll his thumbs all his life, just so his woman won't have 原因（となる） for 涙／ほころびs. They bawl a lot—but they git over it."
"Reckon yo're 権利, Babe." The kid slipped his mouth 組織／臓器 into his pocket and stood up, his tawny hair six インチs nearer the 政治家 roof than was Babe's sleek 黒人／ボイコット 長，率いる.
"Darn 権利, I'm 権利. Course, you're young yet, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ, and comin' 権利 from home and losin' yore dad like yuh done, I can see where it would kinda rile you up, happenin' along 権利 at the time when old lady Murray was takin' on. It ain't pleasant for nobody. This is war, and war's what Sherman said it was. But you've been so growed up and 安定した, far as I've seen, I shore never 推定する／予想するd you'd git chicken-hearted over a nester all at once. Course, if it was the old lady and her pies that kinda stirred you up, I can understand that, all 権利. It's too damn' bad. But I can't see as there's anything we can do about it."
"If every killah was 直す／買収する，八百長をするd so he couldn't shoot a gun, theah wouldn't be no moah 殺人，大当り, Babe."
Babe finished his drink and jangled the dipper into the bucket. He walked to the stove, 解除するd the lid, looked in and の近くにd the 開始 again.
"I'd rather be dead than have my 手渡すs 粉砕するd the way you 粉砕するd 足緒 Markel's. So would any man that was a man."
"If it was a nestah, Babe—"
"Oh, hell, a nester's different! 破産した／（警察が）手入れする a nester's knuckles with a 弾丸 any time you feel like it, Kid! But me, I'm liable to need my gun 手渡す some of these days."
"I said killahs, Babe."
"井戸／弁護士席, Poole riders have to kill, if they git （人が）群がるd too hard. You know that, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ. Didn't you bump off a nester yourself a few days 支援する, when he was tryin' to git a マリファナ 発射 at yuh over on the 縁?"
The kid looked 負かす／撃墜する at Babe and a slow smile straightened the curve of his lips.
"No, suh, I nevah did kill that nestah," he drawled. "But I shoah did taken the shoot outa him, Babe."
Babe shivered as if a 冷淡な 勝利，勝つd had struck his 明らかにする flesh, but he didn't say again that he would rather be dead than 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd. The kid knew he thought it, though. Plumb strange Babe would be so 脅すd of having his knuckles 強化するd so he couldn't pull a 誘発する／引き起こす. Babe seemed to think the kid was cruel to do that to a 殺し屋. Seemed to think it was all 権利 to shoot the life out of a man, though. Never said a word about that 存在 cruel. The kid's eyebrows （機の）カム together in a puzzled frown while he 熟考する／考慮するd Babe at the window, peering out into the faint moonlight.
"She's bankin' up again in the west," Babe said, turning restlessly, his 発言する／表明する deliberately cheerful and casual. "I'll go turn the horses in the stable. It's liable to rain all night, by the looks."
"Reckon so, Babe." The kid turned and 選ぶd up the two water buckets.
Ten feet from the cabin door they separated, the kid going to the spring just beyond the house, Babe walking on to the corral. The kid listened to Babe's footsteps, a wistful ache in his breast. Babe was the only friend he had in this new world into which he had ridden so blithely to find life so bitter with 殺人 and hate. Couldn't call Nellie Murray a friend, 正確に／まさに. Didn't want to, either. Yo'all can't feel friendship for a girl like that. It's got to be something more than friendship, if it's anything at all.
Different with a man. The kid had counted on Babe's friendship and on his 存在 square so a fellow could 信用 him. But if Babe had waited like a coyote の中で the 激しく揺するs and had 発射 Nellie's old pappy in the 支援する, he was just a mean, lowdown 殺し屋 and nobody could 信用 him. A man like that would shoot his best friend in the 支援する if he took a notion.
The kid would have to be mighty 確かな it was Babe, though, before he would believe it. He'd want stronger proof than that broken match had been. It made him shiver to think how の近くに he had come to 狙撃 Babe just on the strength of a broken match. Now, he didn't believe it—but he couldn't put it out of his mind, either, and the vague 不信 傷つける like physical 苦痛.
He stopped and dipped a bucket into the 深い little pool of 冷淡な Spring and watched the 隠すd moonlight glisten on the wavering ripples it made. Nellie's hair was almost the color of that 向こうずね in the water; more of a gold color, but shiny and wavy like that. And her old pappy was dead 負かす／撃墜する there in the valley, and her brother was dead, and even if they had been cow thieves like Babe （人命などを）奪う，主張するd they were, it was mighty hard on Nellie and her mother.
The kid 解除するd the 十分な bucket out and 始める，決める it on the ground, reached behind him for the other and 攻撃するd it slowly into the broken, gleaming water. It darkened 突然の and he ちらりと見ることd up to see the thin 辛勝する／優位 of the moon dive 深い into the 開始するing cloud bank. Reckon Nellie was feeling pretty bad, 権利 now. Trying to hush her own 涙／ほころびs and 慰安 her mother, and take all the 負担 on her own shoulders. Nesters 群れているing all over the ranch by now, most likely. If he should saddle up and ride 支援する 負かす／撃墜する there, they'd shoah kill him if they could. Make more trouble for Nellie, that would. No sense in that. He'd do more good if he stayed away and 設立する out who the 殺し屋 was.
He 解除するd the second bucket out with a heave and went up into the path and so to the cabin. Babe （機の）カム in, bringing an armful of 支持を得ようと努めるd which he 押し進めるd under the stove to 乾燥した，日照りの.
"Yuh don't want to let old lady Murray's cryin' worry yuh, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ," Babe said 突然の, when they were pulling off their boots. "It's too damn' bad, but it can't be helped. We all got t' go some time."
"I know that, Babe."
"Best not to waste sympathy on a nester. They don't deserve no sympathy; man or woman, they're all tarred with the same stick."
"Who d'yuh reckon done it, Babe?" The kid spoke softly into the 不明瞭, as Babe settled his long length in the 一面に覆う／毛布s.
"Damfino."
"Murray's boy was 発射 awhile 支援する, too, wasn't he, Babe?"
"Yeah, believe he was. How'd you find out so much, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ? That was before you come into the country."
"Fellow can heah 権利 smaht if he lays low and listens."
"Uh-huh. Been puttin' your ear to a 割れ目, hunh? Yuh wanta watch out, Kid. That's damn' dangerous, sneakin' 負かす／撃墜する amongst 'em. You stay up on the 縁 and use your field glasses more. It ain't what that bunch says, it's what they do that the Poole's 利益／興味d in."
"Nevah taken much of a 危険, Babe."
"You keep out of the valley, just the same. '一区切り／（ボクシングなどの）試合 as 安全な 負かす／撃墜する there as a rattlesnake den. You hear me, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ!"
"I heahs yo'all."
"井戸／弁護士席, you 注意する me too. Ever let 'em git the upper 手渡す, and hell'll be poppin' around here."
"'Peahs like hell's been doin' a 権利 smaht of poppin' already, Babe."
"They ain't got the best of the Poole yet. They're 脅すd. We shoot too 急速な／放蕩な and too straight to 控訴 'em. And you're the quickest man with a gun that's ever come into the North, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ. Honest, I ain't never seen yore equal—and I've saw some pretty gun work in my time. You're goin' to be 価値のある to the Poole, once you git over that sympathy of yourn for nester women. You got to 削減（する） that out or yuh won't never git nowhere."
The kid did not answer that, and presently Babe's breath fell into the slow rhythm of sleep.
THE kid's mind jarred 支援する from 深い dreaming and he opened one 注目する，もくろむ to see a yellow streak of sunlight on the cabin 塀で囲む, high in a far corner behind the stove. By that he knew he had slept late. Usually they were ready to ride out along the 縁 when the sun showed above the mountains. Babe's 味方する of the bed was empty, but there was no breakfast smell in the cabin and no crackling of 解雇する／砲火／射撃 in the stove. Gone to look after the horses, probably. Babe must have slept late, himself. Must have been Babe shutting the door that woke him.
The kid pulled himself up in bed, knuckling his 注目する，もくろむs like a child. He wished he could bring his dream out into the real 味方する of life with him and live that, instead of the lonely 決まりきった仕事 that made up his day. Wiping the dishes for Nellie Murray—that's what he dreamed he was doing. They had been having a 広大な／多数の／重要な time together, talking and laughing, her long yellow braid swinging on her shoulders when she laughed or moved suddenly, and her 注目する，もくろむs 向こうずねing blue with little crinkles of fun at the corners. It was something of a 揺さぶる to come 支援する to this スピードを出す／記録につける-塀で囲むd room, with its one window and the 天然のまま 一時しのぎの物，策 慰安s of a line （軍の）野営地，陣営.
But this was reality, and the other was just a dream. The kid swung his feet to the 床に打ち倒す and reached for his 着せる／賦与するs. Babe would 推定する／予想する breakfast to be ready when he （機の）カム 支援する. Reckon Babe sort of knew he had lain 星／主役にするing up at the roof till the coyotes were yapping for 夜明け, and that was why he didn't say a word when it was time to get up—just はうd out and went on to 料金d the horses. 殺し屋 or no 殺し屋, Babe was 権利 肉親，親類d and thoughtful that-a-way.
The kid started a 解雇する／砲火／射撃 in the stove, 始める，決める a kettle of water over the 炎, and washed his 直面する and neck and ears in the tin 水盤／入り江 on the （法廷の）裁判. He leaned before the crooked little mirror and 徹底的に捜すd his hair that すぐに returned to its unruly waves when the 徹底的に捜す had passed. He 押すd another stick of 支持を得ようと努めるd into the stove, 選ぶd up the 水盤／入り江 and pulled the door open, to fling the water out upon the ground.
The 水盤／入り江 jerked spitefully in his 手渡す, a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する 穴を開ける 削減（する） through its upper 味方する where the water spurted through. From a clump of bushes over by the corral the bark of a ライフル銃／探して盗む tardily followed the 弾丸. The kid let go the 水盤／入り江 and dropped to his 膝s, then fell 今後 on his 直面する and lay there with his 武器 stretched out in 前線 of him. From across the 狭くする, high-塀で囲むd slope, the echo of the 発射 （機の）カム, sweetened and 軟化するd by the distance, and then the morning was still and sunny again, with a meadow lark singing untroubled 負かす／撃墜する by the spring.
The kid's fingers stretched slowly to their slender length, relaxed a little, stretched again, moved this way and that, until they 遭遇（する）d something which they clasped so 堅固に the knuckles turned white. Babe's foot, Babe, lying there on his 直面する, within a few feet of the door, 発射 負かす／撃墜する while the kid lay dreaming that he was wiping dishes for Nellie Murray who had laughed into his 注目する，もくろむs. It wasn't the shutting of the door—it was the ライフル銃／探して盗む 発射 that woke the kid. Babe, 発射 in 前線 of his door, just as Nellie's old pappy had been 発射. Even at that moment, while the kid was taking a firmer 支配する of that limp foot, he wondered if Babe was only getting 支援する what he gave old Murray.
The man with the ライフル銃／探して盗む was keeping himself mighty 静かな. The kid 解除するd his 長，率いる an インチ and looked out from under his eyebrows to where the smoke still hung in a thin 煙霧 before the clump of service-berry bushes. The 殺し屋 would have to make a run for it across open ground if he left there. The kid reckoned he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to wait awhile and see if the cabin 避難所d any one else. こそこそ動くd up there before 夜明け, and now he couldn't leave till his work was finished.
Woodpile out there was 権利 handy. Unless the shooter stood up and looked over the bushes, he couldn't see what was on the ground in 前線 of the door. Chopping 封鎖する in the way, and a scatter of dead 支店s. Couldn't see if a 団体／死体 moved an インチ or two. Plumb lucky, that woodpile was.
The kid squirmed backward, dragging Babe by his foot. Slow. 支援する an インチ or two, and wait a minute. Injuns couldn't はう any slower. Babe groaned at the third pull, and the kid's heart gave a flop and then raced for joy. Babe was alive yet. Something to pull for, now. Babe groaned again, not loud, but 肉親，親類d of slow and drawn out, as if his 悲惨 was the dull, wearing 肉親，親類d without any sharp 苦痛 to call a man's 発言する／表明する between his teeth. Seemed to hate the pulling. The kid gave the foot a little shake sidewise.
"I'm draggin' yo'all inside the doah, Babe," he muttered, in a トン that would not carry beyond the woodpile. "I'm playin' daid and creepin' slow. Just keep still and he'p a little when I pull, and I'll get yo'all inside 直接／まっすぐに."
Babe did not answer except with another groan, but he 圧力（をかける）d one 手渡す hard on the ground and 押し進めるd backward when the kid pulled again, so the kid knew Babe heard and understood all 権利. The kid hurried after that. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 his 団体／死体 all inside the door as soon as possible, and with a last wriggle his tousled damp hair went in past the door jamb. Like a cat he was on his feet then and had Babe inside with one 広大な／多数の／重要な yank and slammed the door shut.
A 弾丸 削減（する） a splintery path for itself in the 厚い 厚板s, but the kid did not care for that. He was あわてて pumping a cartridge into the 議会 of his ライフル銃／探して盗む when that happened, and he sent a 発射 through the window and into the clump of service-berry bushes by the corral. He did not 推定する／予想する to 攻撃する，衝突する anything but the bushes, for there was a 激しく揺する pile 支援する of the thicket. But he served notice that he was getting into 活動／戦闘, and the fellow out there had better 嘘（をつく） low. Then he turned, 選ぶd Babe up in his 武器 and laid him on the bed.
"Got me in the 味方する," Babe muttered in a husky トン, やめる unlike his natural 発言する／表明する. "Stop the bleedin', can't yuh?"
"Shoah will, Babe." The kid's 発言する／表明する was soft and 安心させるing but his 注目する，もくろむs and his mouth were grim. "They taken a 発射 at me, too, but they nevah touched me. I 目的（とする） to get 権利 busy with my ライフル銃／探して盗む-gun when I get yo'all 直す／買収する，八百長をするd up."
"Damn' coyotes—got me when I stepped outside."
"That's what a killah always 目的（とする）s to do," the kid 観察するd drily. "Always 目的（とする）s to 負かす／撃墜する a man at his own doah."
Whether Babe caught the significance of that 発言／述べる or not, he made no answer to it.
The kettle was boiling on the stove and the kid brought 水盤／入り江 and clean dish towels and a 瓶／封じ込める of carbolic 酸性の and 始める，決める them on a box beside the bunk, moving with a sureness and a swiftness as if he had done this thing before and knew 正確に／まさに how to go about it. He pulled off Babe's shirt and 熟考する／考慮するd the 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, purplish 穴を開ける on Babe's 権利 味方する just under the curve of his ribs. He slid his 手渡す under Babe's 団体／死体 and felt his 支援する. He uncorked the 瓶／封じ込める of carbolic 酸性の, 注ぐd sparingly into the 水盤／入り江 of hot water, watched the milkiness spread and stirred the water with his fingers before he dipped in a cloth.
"Ole Pappy Murray wasn't as lucky as yo'all," he mused aloud. "Killah got him in the 支援する, and the 弾丸 went awn through his 肺s. Reckon he didn't live a minute."
Babe didn't say anything to that, either. He fainted, which left the kid 解放する／自由な and unhampered in his 天然のまま 外科.
"I taken out the 弾丸, Babe," he said calmly, when Babe （機の）カム 支援する to consciousness. "Wasn't moah'n two—three インチs 深い. Kain't 人物／姿／数字 it, 少なくなる it come from ovah across the field. Nevah did come from the berry bushes, or it'd gone awn through. Two men out theah, I reckon."
Babe's fingers moved gently to the 包帯. The room reeked of carbolic 酸性の, oddly mingled with the smell of coffee boiling. The kid brought a cup, 解除するd Babe's 長，率いる while he drank.
"Two, yuh say?"
"Two and likely moah. Shoah was a spent 弾丸 got yo'all 負かす／撃墜する. Hombre in the bushes 発射 at me; I saw the smoke."
"And me 負かす／撃墜する! They'll git us, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ."
"In a pig's 注目する，もくろむ."
"Git my ライフル銃／探して盗む and—help me on my feet."
"Yo'all lay 静かな. I taken 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 to-day, Babe." The kid was 負担ing Babe's ライフル銃／探して盗む, and now he placed it on the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, 押し進めるing aside the jelly glass of tin spoons and a can of syrup to give plenty of room. The sun was still slanting a beam in through a 割れ目 over the door, but it fell now on the 支援する 塀で囲む instead of the roof. He peered out through the window toward the opposite 味方する of the shallow 水盤／入り江 in the faint hope of seeing there the man who had 発射 Babe. But the low rocky 山の尾根 could have 隠すd half the men in the 郡. He gave up looking and turned his ライフル銃／探して盗む upon the clump of bushes over by the corral.
Three 発射s carefully spaced brought a spiteful ボレー in reply. Babe glowered at two 一連の会議、交渉／完成する 穴を開けるs in a スピードを出す／記録につける over the foot of the bunk and then 新たな展開d his 長，率いる to look at the kid.
"Git 支援する away from that window! Want to get yore 長，率いる 破産した／（警察が）手入れするd with a 弾丸?"
"Ain't cravin' it. Call a few 弾丸s in heah, and he might reckon one laid me low. I'm playing possum from now awn, Babe."
"Yore playin' hell," fretted Babe. "What you doin' now?"
"目的（とする） to cook breakfast now while theah's a chance," the kid replied tranquilly. "Smoke's going up the 麻薬を吸う now. When it やめるs, theah won't be any moah to-day. 目的（とする） to have it lookin' plumb daid around heah later awn."
"It'll look dead enough, all 権利," Babe muttered.
The kid 追加するd more water and more coffee to the big マリファナ, stirred the 解雇する／砲火／射撃 and 始める，決める the マリファナ in upon the coals where it would boil quickly. This was something more than a こそこそ動くing, sunrise 試みる／企てる to 殺人 them as they left the house. His three 発射s through the window 証明するd that. The cabin was still under 解雇する／砲火／射撃 and there would be no let-up now. Strong 黒人／ボイコット coffee would come in handy, even if it had to be drunk 冷淡な.
"'Peah's like the nestahs are 目的（とする）ing to take theah 復讐 foh ole Pappy Murray," he 発言／述べるd, while he turned a hotcake expertly in the frying pan.
Babe started 断言するing and 追跡するd off into a groan. Later, as the tides of 苦痛 swept in upon him, he did a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 more 断言するing and groaning. Twice he tried to get off the bunk, but the kid 軍隊d him 支援する again and returned to his 仕事.
Playing possum had so far failed to have any 影響. A 公正に／かなり 安定した stream of 弾丸s （機の）カム spatting viciously into the cabin, and the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する was littered with glass from the window. It worried Babe, who was beginning to talk feverishly.
"What they doin' out there? Sounds like a whole damn' army."
The kid was digging （法などの）抜け穴s between the スピードを出す／記録につけるs, wherever the chinking 招待するd such 成果／努力, and he had every 推論する／理由 in the world to believe they were going to be needed before the day was out.
"Five ライフル銃／探して盗む-guns speakin' out theah," he replied equably, while he gouged at the last 穴を開ける, which would overlook the path to the spring. "One ovah by the corral's the closest. I'll be ready to say howdy to them hombres 直接／まっすぐに, Babe."
"Shoot to kill when yuh start in," Babe 勧めるd. "Ain't goin' to try bustin' knuckles now, I hope."
"Kain't see any knuckles to 破産した／（警察が）手入れする, Babe."
The kid's 直面する clouded as he 押し進めるd his ライフル銃／探して盗む バーレル／樽 through the 穴を開ける between two スピードを出す／記録につけるs, but his yellow 権利 was as unblinking as a tiger's when it looked 負かす／撃墜する along the sights. He caught a glimpse of gray hat 栄冠を与える の中で the bushes beyond the spring. He didn't want to kill. Hat 栄冠を与える, 長，率いる, shoulders below—The kid couldn't see the man he 速く 見通しd, but he 目的（とする）d where a shoulder should be and pulled the 誘発する／引き起こす. There was a sudden and violent agitation of the bushes and a man went streaking it 支援する toward his more 控えめの companions. The kid's finger bent again deliberately and the man's swinging 権利 arm jerked 上向き and went limp at his 味方する. The kid made sure of that before he withdrew the ライフル銃／探して盗む from the 穴を開ける and crossed the room to another.
"Git anybody?"
The kid did not answer at once. He was squinting toward the little 山の尾根, whence most of the 解雇する／砲火／射撃ing had come. The besiegers had a （疑いを）晴らす 見解（をとる） of the cabin and their line of 退却／保養地 lay open behind them 負かす／撃墜する to the valley. They had the hearts of real 殺し屋s, the kid thought with a curl of his lips. They weren't taking any chance whatever.
"Taken the shoot outa one, Babe," he said at last.
"'J kill 'im?"
"Reckon not. 発射 his ahm 負かす／撃墜する, 'peahs like."
"F'r God's sake don't go and git chicken-hearted, Kid! They won't show no mercy to you. Never mind any nester women bawlin' around—they shore as hell wouldn't bawl if you was killed."
"Don't reckon they would, Babe." The kid was 目的（とする）ing at a shiny 位置／汚点／見つけ出す out there on the 山の尾根, where the sun struck a ライフル銃／探して盗む バーレル／樽. 支援する of that 向こうずね there crouched a man. The kid couldn't see him, but again he formed a mental picture of the man and sent a 弾丸 across to say howdy to a shoulder—or to the 激しく揺する that 避難所d it from 傷つける.
"'J git anybody?"
"Kain't say foh shoah, Babe." The kid 選ぶd out more chinking and brought the field glasses to 耐える upon the place. "'Peahs like he's 権利 oneasy, Babe." He swept the glasses slowly along the crest of the 山の尾根, glimpsed other betraying 調印するs and laid the glasses 負かす／撃墜する that he might 選ぶ up the ライフル銃／探して盗む again.
"Shoot t' kill, why don't yuh?" Babe's 発言する／表明する was high and querulous. When he turned a 緊張するd look upon the kid, his 注目する，もくろむs were glassy and had an anxious 星／主役にする wholly unlike Babe 獲得する. "Damn their 武器 and shoulders! You can kill if you want to—anybody that can whirl and 破産した／（警察が）手入れする knuckles the way you 破産した／（警察が）手入れするd 足緒 Markel's can put a 弾丸 through a man's heart, if he wants to."
"Reckon I could, Babe."
"井戸／弁護士席, damn it, do it, then! When yuh draw a bead on a nester, git 'im 権利. There ain't no come-支援する from a dead man."
"Every man that's killed has got folks that （問題を）取り上げる the fight," the kid said 根気よく. "Take that Murray killin', Babe. 負かす／撃墜する on the Brazos—"
"We ain't 負かす／撃墜する on the Brazos. The Murrays is 直す／買収する，八百長をするd 権利, I tell yuh. Nobody left but the old woman and the girl, and if they git flossy about it, they're liable to be served the same way."
The kid's 直面する paled and 常習的な. "Shootin' women—that's not the way of Texas killahs, Babe."
"The hell it ain't! All the 殺し屋s ain't from Texas, lemme tell yuh. There's just as good men in little old Montana as ever come up the Chisholm 追跡する. A nester's a nester. Man or woman, they're goin' to be cleaned out before the Poole's done with it. Old Murray and that damned cow どろぼう of an Ed, they're just the beginnin'." And then Babe gave a crazily 無謀な laugh and pointed a finger admonishingly at the kid.
"You got 'em out there before yuh, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ; any 陪審／陪審員団 in the world would make it self-defence. Yuh don't have to worry a damned bit. Now's your chance—git 'em, kid! Damn it, don't yuh know there's a bounty on nesters? You can collect five hundred apiece for 'em, and no questions asked!"
"That the price on ole Pappy Murray, Babe?"
"Hell, it's the price on any damn nester! Didn't the Old Man tell yuh so?"
"Nevah did tell me that, Babe. Mistah Bell taken my 指名する and wheah I'm from and all, and asked 権利 smaht questions. Nevah did tell me anything, 'cepting I was to get my o'dahs from yo'all."
"Damn 権利, you git your orders from me! I order yuh 権利 now to lay 'em 冷淡な! Kill every damn' nester you can draw a bead on, out there! Save goin' after 'em in the valley. Hell, they're out to kill you, ain't they? You and me both! Git 'em, or they'll git you. Git the damned—" Babe 追跡するd off into a meaningless mumble.
Crazy with fever and fretting because he couldn't stand up and fight, that's what ailed him. That 弾丸 穴を開ける was deeper than the kid had said, and though he had really taken out the 弾丸, he had got it from the 支援する, where it was 宿泊するd under the 肌.
No use telling Babe he was 発射 through. A man's mind can take 持つ／拘留する of a fact like that and 二塁打 the danger with worry. No use telling him. No use arguing with him, either. Babe was out of his 長，率いる. Anything he said now was just fever talk—things he had heard and things he had thought mixed together and expounded as fact. A man was liable to say most anything when he was out of his 長，率いる that-a-way. Yo'all couldn't believe a thing Babe said.
The kid sighed and gouged at the 乾燥した，日照りのd mud and tried to think of something else.
FOUR 弾丸s zipping in 早い succession through door and window raised an invisible 最終期限 between the bunk where Babe lay and the （法などの）抜け穴 over by the stove, where the kid stood watching through the field glasses and 位置を示すing each ライフル銃／探して盗む that spoke over on a low, bowlder-strewn 山の尾根 across the 狭くする pasture. A faint puff of smoke, a glint of sunlight, a hat 栄冠を与える ducking out of sight behind a 激しく揺する.
"Why, dammit, you come here with the dead 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） in your pocket!" Babe cried suddenly from the bunk, his sick brain 掴むing もう一度 upon his grievance. "I knowed you was lyin' when you said you 設立する that 地図／計画する where the 勝利，勝つd had blowed it into a bush. You was headin' straight for the nesters with that dead 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる）, and you knowed what you had to do.
"You made a slip-up with me when you said you was goin' to Wheeler's place because Nate Wheeler come first on the 地図／計画する. I like yuh, Kid, and I've let yuh make out like you're a nice little lad that wouldn't kill a m'skeeter. I ain't never asked no questions, but I ain't a damn' fool. You had the dead 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） and that was all I needed to know. A man ain't 推定する／予想するd to go around shootin' off his mouth about what he's doin'. Nobody wants yuh to advertise yourself.
"But, damn it, you've 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd one of the best 発射s the Poole has got, and you've been runnin' on me about beefin' old Murray, and yuh （人命などを）奪う，主張する you won't kill a nester yourself for love er money. Looks pretty damn' scaley to me, Kid—damned if it don't. Looks like they've got you workin' for 'em. Damn' 秘かに調査する, for all I know."
"Yo'all's just talkin' now, Babe. I kain't 支払う／賃金 no mind to fevah talk. Yo'all lay still and 静める yohse'f 負かす／撃墜する, Babe."
"静める myself 負かす／撃墜する! Yeah, like hell I'll 静める myself 負かす／撃墜する! I knowed what yuh 注ぐd into that 弾丸 穴を開ける to eat the 船体 damned insides outa me. 注ぐd in half a 瓶／封じ込める of carbolic, that's what. Eatin' a 穴を開ける I could 押し通す my 握りこぶし in. Et into my stomach now; I can taste the damn' stuff."
"That's just the soreness of the 傷つける, Babe. Why, I wouldn't do that to yo'all, nohow." The kid turned and looked at Babe, the field glasses dangling in his left 手渡す. Crazy, that's what ailed Babe. 弾丸 負傷させる a-傷つけるing him and the fever coming up.
"Oh, no—you wouldn't do a thing to me!" Babe's 激しい sarcasm 負わせるd the words with venom. "毒（薬） me, that's all. でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる it with your damned nester friends to come and shoot me for yuh. I knowed it when they dropped me outside the door."
Once more the kid tried not to listen. In one ear and out the other—that was the only way to do with fever talk. Plumb foolish, Babe thinking he would 注ぐ carbolic 酸性の into a 弾丸 負傷させる. That 証明するd the 残り／休憩（する） was crazy talk too—about the dead 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） and all. Babe was shoah a sick man, all 権利.
He took up Babe's ライフル銃／探して盗む and sent a 発射 over to where the little blue smoke clouds betrayed the position of the nesters. It wasn't much of a 的; whether he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 攻撃する，衝突する a man or not, it was unsatisfactory 狙撃. He liked to know 正確に／まさに where a 弾丸 would strike before he pulled the 誘発する／引き起こす. It worried him now to have to shoot at a puff of smoke which the 勝利，勝つd was whipping up away from the 激しく揺するs.
"How yuh comin', Kid?" Babe's 発言する／表明する sounded strangely 合理的な／理性的な after a long silence, as if the fever cloud was 解除するing from his brain. "Don't let 'em こそこそ動く up on yuh, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ."
"Theah keeping ovah awn the little 激しく揺する 山の尾根, Babe. They won't come out in the open, 'peahs like."
"Herdin' us in here till dark. They'll こそこそ動く up on us then. You can't 推定する／予想する to stand 'em off after dark. Gimme a drink, will yuh, Kid?"
"Shoah will, Babe." The kid laid 負かす／撃墜する the ライフル銃／探して盗む, 選ぶd up the two buckets and ducked crouching across the cabin. "Reckon I'll make me a （法などの）抜け穴 awn this 味方する the doah," he drawled. "How yo'all feeling now, Babe?"
"Like hell. Like a red-hot アイロンをかける runnin' through me."
The kid slipped an arm under Babe's neck and raised his 長，率いる so that he could drink. Babe looked up at him with shamed 尋問.
"Guess I was throwin' it into yuh kinda 解放する／自由な and promiscuous, awhile ago, wasn't I, Kid? Never had anything knock me out the way this damn' 弾丸 穴を開ける has done. Shore you got the 弾丸 out?"
"Shoah did, Babe. This heah's it." The kid 選ぶd it up and rolled it in his palm, while Babe regarded it curiously as a boy would gaze upon a pulled tooth.
"Hunh. Never flattened itself 非，不，無. Thirty-thirty. Wonder it didn't kill me."
"権利 smaht distance ovah to the hill, Babe. Seems 権利 strange to me they don't （人が）群がる up."
"Foxy, that's why. Herdin' us in here till dark, I tell yuh. They're playin' 安全な, that's all."
"Man that built this cabin shoah made a pow'ful big mistake," mused the kid. "Window and doah 直面するing out ovah the 水盤／入り江, and no 支援する doah whatevah."
"Facin' south to make it warmer in winter. Wasn't a damn' nester in the 船体 valley when this cabin was built; that's why there ain't no 支援する door."
"Reckon we all bettah 削減（する） anotha doah when this fight's ovah, Babe."
"When this fight's over, we won't need no other door," Babe retorted grimly.
"My old pap always said no fight's ovah till the daid are counted. Kain't count you and me の中で the daid yet, Babe."
"They will, if something don't break damn' soon. How's the water holdin' out?"
That meant Babe 手配中の，お尋ね者 another drink. The kid filled the tin dipper, hoping Babe would not notice how he had to 捨てる the 底（に届く） of the bucket to do so. He hadn't thought of the water problem, but it ぼんやり現れるd rather large now. Couldn't get to the spring while the daylight held, and Babe's かわき was growing. If the nesters stayed where they were, they had him 罠にかける.
About noon, now. Seven hours and more till dark. The horses were tied in the stable. They 手配中の，お尋ね者 water too. The kid's mouth 強化するd at the swift mental picture he had of Pecos standing tied to the スピードを出す／記録につける manger, disconsolately nosing at the coarse 少しのd and stubs he had discarded before. Babe's brown horse too. Barney and Babe's other saddle horse were in the pasture and all 権利, but those two tied in the stable couldn't eat or drink till he got to them. And the one door and the window were letting in 弾丸s like a sieve. Plenty buried in the cabin 塀で囲むs too, the kid reckoned. Couldn't bore through the 堅い old スピードを出す／記録につけるs, at that distance, though they might, if the nesters got closer.
"Plumb lucky foh us, Babe, we've got open ground cleah ovah to that 激しく揺する 山の尾根," he 観察するd, with more cheerfulness than he felt. "They kain't come up on us, long as I'm 狙撃."
"You wait till it comes dark!"
"Why, shucks, Babe! Yo'all talk as if I'm goin' to 始める，決める heah and wait till they come poking theah haids in the doah!" The kid stood up and began feeling along the 後部 塀で囲む just under the roof. "Covah up yoh haid, 少なくなる yo'all want yoh 注目する，もくろむs plumb 十分な of dirt."
"Think you can git out through the roof?" Babe tried to 支え（る） himself on one 肘 and watch, but the 苦痛 turned him dizzy and sick, and he lay panting and 悪口を言う／悪態ing his helplessness.
"Shoah going to try," said the kid grimly.
"They'll shoot yuh like a rabbit!"
The kid shook his 長，率いる and stepped up on the foot of the bunk where he could bring his 十分な strength into 活動／戦闘, 調査するing and 押し進めるing at the dirt-covered 政治家s of the roof.
Had the 山の尾根 beyond the little flat been higher, the nesters over there would have seen him when, at last, with a final 雪崩／（抗議などの）殺到 of clods and dust on the bunk, his 長，率いる poked through into the sunlight. But the cabin stood on a little 山の尾根 of its own and only from the bluff opposite could one look upon the さらに先に slope of the roof. The kid made sure of that before he went any さらに先に.
"Kain't see me nohow, 少なくなる I stand up," he called guardedly 負かす／撃墜する to Babe. "Bunched ovah theah in the 激しく揺するs, 'peahs like."
"Dunno what good it'll do yuh," Babe muttered. "Mebby when they 破産した／（警察が）手入れする in to-night you can 減少（する） 負かす／撃墜する outside and make a run for it—but I can't. It's all day with me, anyhow. God, I'm 乾燥した，日照りの! Gimme a drink before yuh go, will yuh, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ?"
"Shoah will, Babe. I'll get a bucket of watah 直接／まっすぐに."
"You stay inside. They'll fill yuh with lead, Kid."
"Nevah will see me, Babe. Gully 支援する of the cabin goes to the spring and beyond."
"That's 権利. But look out fer snakes, Kid. Rattlers 負かす／撃墜する there. Might better be 発射 than bit."
"Lawsee, Babe, nevah did see any old woman worry like yo'all!"
The kid laughed and 選ぶd up a ライフル銃／探して盗む, thrust it through the nearest （法などの）抜け穴 and 解雇する／砲火／射撃d three 発射s, 目的（とする）ing at the likeliest looking 退却／保養地s over on the 山の尾根. That would keep them minding their manners over there for awhile. No use giving them any 激励 to leave the 山の尾根 and creep closer—at least, not just now, when he was going to be 権利 busy somewhere else.
He 注ぐd all the water into one bucket and 始める，決める it on a box の近くに to the bunk where Babe could reach the dipper if he had to. Yo'all couldn't tell what might happen in the next hour or so—and it wasn't snake bite the kid was thinking of, either. Glad Babe had reminded him, though. Never would have thought of snakes, with all the other 事柄s on his mind. He could 直す／買収する，八百長をする that, 平易な enough. Pull on the old wolfskin chaps and let the rattlers try their teeth on the 堅い hide and long matted hair. Take mighty long teeth to go through that.
Another thing. That tin water bucket might 向こうずね or 動揺させる to 警告する a nester with sharp 注目する，もくろむs and ears. No hurry. Time to make all 安全な. Whole afternoon to work in.
The kid 設立する a gunny 解雇（する） under the bunk and covered the bucket with that. He also 設立する a tie rope and fastened it to the pail.
Babe lay with his 注目する，もくろむs の近くにd, dozing or in a stupor that was 掴むing him more often since the heat of the day began. The kid had meant to send a few 発射s over to the 山の尾根 before he 投機・賭けるd 前へ／外へ, but he hated to waken Babe with the noise, so he kindled a small 解雇する／砲火／射撃 in the stove instead, and let the smoke advertise a live man's presence. An old trick, but so natural a one that so far as he knew it always worked.
発射s from the 山の尾根 answered that challenge. The kid waited until the 解雇する／砲火／射撃ing 中止するd, then took his bucket and はうd out through the roof, dropping noiselessly to the ground and 事情に応じて変わる at once into the brushy little gully that separated the cabin from the bluff behind it.
From the cabin to the spring was no more than fifty yards, straight across the open ground as the path went. By way of the gully it was twice that distance, because of a brushy point that jutted out toward the bluff. The kid was tempted to 緊急発進する up over the point to where the spring lay just beyond, but the thicket would have made rough going and any 動かす amongst the bushes might attract attention from the 山の尾根. He kept to the gully, going as 静かに as he could の中で the loose 激しく揺するs.
It was 平易な to understand why this gully lay 未使用の and 事実上 unknown. A fringe of wild rosebushes 絡まるd with wild hop vines grew along the 最高の，を越す, the bank was 法外な and gravelly and the 底（に届く） was rough. Not even a cow path dignified it as a passable 大勝する to the spring.
The kid did not feel that he was taking any 危険, but all his life he had been 演習d in 警告を与える, so he went こそこそ動くing along, keeping の近くに under the bank and stopping every few feet to listen and peer ahead. He could not see any one, and it was so 静かな that he could hear a 孤独な mosquito humming over his 長，率いる. Yet he felt a human presence 近づく him. He stood still and waited two minutes, and his quick 注目する，もくろむs caught a quiver in a drooping 支店. Some one was hiding in the bushes just above the spring, lying の近くに under cover and watching the cabin and the open flat beyond.
"YO'ALL bettah はう 支援する outa that 小衝突." The kid spoke with an ominous 肉親，親類d of 静める. "Come damn' careful, 少なくなる yoah hungry foh lead."
すぐに the bushes shook as if swept by a sudden 強風. A pair of 脚s with blue 全体にわたるs tucked into worn riding boots （機の）カム squirming backward into 見解（をとる）. The kid reached out and grabbed one and gave it a vicious yank, and the form it belonged to （機の）カム 事情に応じて変わる 負かす／撃墜する and landed pretty much in a heap at the 辛勝する／優位 of the pool. The kid stepped 支援する, his gun sagging at his 味方する and his other 手渡す going up mechanically to claw at his hat.
"Ah—excuse me, 行方不明になる Murray," he blurted, crimson to his collar.
Nellie Murray, in her father's 着せる／賦与するs, and with her father's gray Stetson 攻撃するd over one 注目する，もくろむ at a most rakish angle, 星／主役にするd up at him with astonished blue 注目する，もくろむs.
"Ah—good evenin'," the kid stammered again. "I hope yo'all will excuse me—"
"I never even heard you!" gasped Nellie. "I thought you were in the cabin. Wasn't it you 狙撃?"
"Yes'm, I reckon it was." The kid was trying not to look at her. He had never before seen a girl dressed up in a man's 着せる／賦与するs and he thought she must feel mighty bashful without her long skirts. Shoah did look 削減（する）, though. He dared one swift ちらりと見ること from under his hat brim and looked away, 有罪の but 入り口d.
But Nellie Murray was not thinking of her 外見. She got to her feet and stood looking at the kid doubtfully.
"How'd you get here?" she 需要・要求するd, a puzzling frown wrinkling her forehead. "They said if they covered the door and window, they'd have you 瓶／封じ込めるd up, unless they could get you first 発射, as you （機の）カム out. I heard them talking at the ranch. I couldn't slip away till things settled 負かす／撃墜する and they'd gone."
While she was talking, the 攻撃するd hat 解除するd in a small gust of 勝利，勝つd and her 厚い yellow braid （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する off the 最高の，を越す of her 長，率いる. The kid caught the hat and held it while she coiled her hair again and reached for the hat. It wouldn't go on, with all that hair. She must recoil the braid, tighter and higher on her 長，率いる.
The kid took off his own hat, compared the two and saw that his was かなり larger. He blushed redder than before when he held it out to her.
"Reckon 地雷 is some biggah," he said shyly.
Nellie looked at her old hat and her 注目する，もくろむs filled until her 攻撃するs were wet.
"Ed wore it—and then my father. Both gone. I wouldn't want you to wear it, Mr. Reeves. It—seems to be unlucky."
"I shoah would rather take the bad luck than have you do it."
She let him have it then, and she took his hat and wore it. The kid's heart went jumpy as she stood there, so わずかな／ほっそりした and straight in her old pappy's 全体にわたるs, tucking soft, yellow 立ち往生させるs of her hair under his hat. Just standing there so 近づく her brought a lump into his throat.
"I had to dress this way so they wouldn't know who it was, if they saw me," she said, with the first hint of an 陳謝 she had given.
"Yo'all should've stayed at home," he told her gently.
"I had to come and 警告する you if I could. I know you didn't shoot my father, but they'd kill you just the same. They're out to kill any Poole man they can find. And we 借りがあるd you a 好意. So I tried to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 them over here to tell you they were coming, but I almost ran into them on the lower 追跡する and had to ride away around and come 負かす／撃墜する the hill 進行中で. My horse is 支援する up there, tied to a 激しく揺する. I never thought it would be so hard to come 負かす／撃墜する off the 縁 in the dark. I just got this far when the 狙撃 started, and I knew I was too late. I can't get 支援する, either, till dark. They'd see me, sure."
"It shoah was 肉親，親類d of yo'all, but I wish yoh hadn't come, 行方不明になる Murray." The kid's 直面する was 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な, his 注目する，もくろむs more tender than he guessed. "Babe's 発射, and I'm aimin' to get him outa heah to-night. I was awn my way to the stable to get the hawses."
"I'll help. I'll go crazy if I don't have something to do."
The kid tried to 説得する her to stay under the bank by the spring, but he was 内密に glad she wouldn't do it. There wasn't any danger at all, so far as he could see. The stable was off to one 味方する, 完全に out of the 範囲 of 解雇する／砲火／射撃ing. To reach it from the 山の尾根 the nesters would have to cross an open stretch of level ground where one man had already come to grief. The kid did not believe they would try it again before dark.
From the spring to the stable there was a 井戸／弁護士席-beaten 追跡する through a chokecherry thicket, and the kid led the way, thrilling to the sound of Nellie Murray's footsteps behind him. The stable door was 避難所d from 見解（をとる） of the 山の尾根 by the small haystack and by the clump of service-berry bushes where the nester had hidden that morning. There really was no danger of 存在 seen at the stable. The kid went 静かに to work saddling the horses, while Nellie stood and watched. It was all so simple that the kid almost forgot the ライフル銃／探して盗むs over on the 山の尾根. But while the horses were drinking thirstily from the pool, the crackle of more 狙撃 reminded him that the 戦う／戦い was still going on.
"Reckon I bettah get 支援する to the cabin and answer those 発射s with a few of my own," he said uneasily to Nellie. "I'll take the watah bucket. If yo'all would follow along with Babe's hawse I'd be much 強いるd, 行方不明になる Murray."
"You aren't going to try and get away 負かす／撃墜する the 追跡する, I hope. You never would make it alive. They're watching for that. They wouldn't like anything better than to have you try it."
The kid only smiled at her ばく然と as he led the way 負かす／撃墜する the gully, with a bucket of water in one 手渡す, Pecos' lead rope in the other, old pappy Murray's dingy gray hat riding precariously on the 最高の，を越す of his 長，率いる, and his 注目する，もくろむs and ears 警報 for rattlesnakes の中で the 激しく揺するs. He walked 急速な／放蕩な, but his thoughts went faster.
Nellie, coming along behind him, with never a whimper of 恐れる for herself, filled him with a 広大な／多数の／重要な wonder. Made a fellow feel like he could stand up and fight the whole world. Made him feel cheap and no-account, even while he was all happy inside. Made him feel sorry he couldn't be more 価値（がある） the trouble she was taking.
Shoah 複雑にするd 事柄s too, having her along. Going to be bad enough, making a run for it, with Babe. Never planned on having any one else to look after—Nellie Murray, least of all. They'd need another horse, and they'd need somebody that could shoot and 持つ／拘留する 支援する the nesters. The kid didn't see how he was going to make it, but it never occurred to him to change his 計画（する）. There wasn't any other 計画（する） to change to; not unless he just 棒 off with Nellie and left Babe—
"Reckon yo'all bettah wait 負かす／撃墜する heah with the hawses." The kid turned and 始める，決める 負かす／撃墜する the water bucket. "I'll こども Babe out and put him awn his hawse."
"Through the roof? You can't do it alone. I'll have to help."
The kid looked 負かす／撃墜する at her with a 炎上 in his 注目する，もくろむs which she must have mistaken for 怒り／怒る, for she caught him by the arm and stamped her foot at him.
"I hate a man that thinks a woman can't do anything but faint and cry when there's danger to 会合，会う! Do you suppose I thought I was going to a Sunday-school picnic when I started over here to keep that bunch of boneheads from 殺人ing you? I did it to stop all this 殺人，大当り. I don't care who it is, 殺人 doesn't wipe out 殺人. But you can't talk to those darned fools and make them see it. They're after Poole 血, and all Mother and I could say didn't do a bit of good. They just think we're soft!"
She was talking so 急速な／放蕩な the kid could only stand and look at her and wonder at her courage and her beauty and the incredible fact of her 存在 there at all.
"You've got to have help, and you may 同様に own it first as last." She must have thought his silence was plain stubbornness, for she gave his arm an impatient shake. "You can't do it without me."
"Yo'all can't go in, 行方不明になる Murray. They keep awn shootin' at the cabin. 弾丸s come th'ough the doah and window like bees into a 蜂の巣 in a plum thicket."
"I wouldn't get 攻撃する，衝突する any quicker than you would." But she let her fingers slip from his arm. "井戸／弁護士席, all 権利—you go on and 上げる him through, and I'll stay outside and 緩和する him 負かす／撃墜する to the ground. But do be careful, won't you—（頭が）ひょいと動く?"
"Shoah will—Nellie. I kain't say what I want to say," murmured the kid helplessly. "I nevah did see a girl like yo'all—"
He turned 突然の away from her and climbed the 法外な bank of the gully, his 注目する，もくろむs swimming with moisture, so that he could scarcely see where to put his feet.
BABE lay with his 注目する，もくろむs shut and his 直面する twitching with the 苦痛 of his 負傷させる, and he did not 支払う／賃金 any attention to the clods of dirt that 動揺させるd 負かす／撃墜する on the 一面に覆う／毛布s. The kid 選ぶd up one of the ライフル銃／探して盗むs and began 狙撃 at the 山の尾根, 急ぐing from one （法などの）抜け穴 to another to make it look as if two men were 扱うing the guns.
He even 達成するd what might be called 肯定的な 証拠 of that fact, by tying a string to one 誘発する／引き起こす and with the ライフル銃／探して盗む を締めるd in a （法などの）抜け穴 解雇する／砲火／射撃ing that gun with his own. Several times he did that, cunningly spacing the 発射s so の近くに together that the nesters would believe it impossible for one man to 扱う both guns. Once he 達成するd the fact of 狙撃 both at 正確に／まさに the same instant. He was so proud of that he wished Nellie was there to see; or that Babe was awake so he could tell him. They'd think Babe wasn't 傷つける so bad he couldn't fight, and they'd 持つ／拘留する off till dark, maybe longer, before they tried to 急ぐ the cabin.
The 空気／公表する was 厚い and acrid with 砕く smoke. The kid looked at his old silver watch and saw that the afternoon was half gone. No use moving Babe yet. He'd die on the horse before they could get him out of the gully. It would have to be dark when they made it.
Nellie, out there—she must be hungry, hiding in the 小衝突 since 夜明け. Mighty hungry himself, now he got to thinking about grub. The kid reckoned it would be 安全な to have a little picnic out 支援する of the cabin in the shade, just him and Nellie. Babe was all 権利. Nothing to do for him but let him 嘘（をつく） 静かな as long as possible. Asleep, by the look of him. Sleep shoah is a 慈悲の thing when a man's 傷つける. Better than 存在 awake and talking crazy. Looking at Babe lying there so 静かな, the kid could not believe he was a 冷淡な-血d 殺し屋. Not the 肉親，親類d of a 殺し屋 that would shoot an old man in the 支援する. Babe was too big-hearted for that.
The kid wrung out a 倍のd towel in 冷淡な water and laid it across Babe's forehead before he はうd out through the roof with a picnic lunch for Nellie. The men on the 山の尾根 would have been astonished to see the two sitting there with their 支援するs to the 塀で囲む of the beleaguered cabin, feasting contentedly on 冷淡な sourdough 薄焼きパン／素焼陶器s, 冷淡な bacon and 乾燥した，日照りのd blackberry sauce.
Once in awhile the kid would remember his 責任／義務s and would はう reluctantly into the cabin to take a look at Babe and send a few 発射s across to the 山の尾根. Then he would はう 熱望して out again, and the low murmur of 発言する／表明するs and stifled laughter would go on, oblivious to danger and the passing hours.
The kid was 持つ／拘留するing his mouth 組織／臓器 between his cupped 手渡すs, watching Nellie from the corner of his 注目する，もくろむs. He played "The Mocking Bird" softly, with more trills and chirps and warbles than he had ever 試みる／企てるd before in his life, and his booted feet kept time with noiseless （電話線からの）盗聴s on the ground. The 水盤／入り江 was very 静かな, the 影をつくる／尾行するs were stretching long and lean to the eastward. Nellie sat curling the end of her yellow braid absently around her fingers, her 注目する，もくろむs downcast and her lips half smiling.
Listen to the mocking bird, listen to the mocking bird!
The mocking bird is singing all the day—
"Dammit, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ, why don't yuh shoot to kill? What yuh so damn' chicken-hearted for? Damn' cow thieves—"
"Babe's woke up." The kid lowered the mouth 組織／臓器 from his lips, heaving a big sigh as he wiped it on his sleeve and slid it into his pocket. "Plumb outa his haid again. Reckon it's time to be moving, Nellie. Shoah do hate to see this evenin' end. I shoah do."
He sighed again as he rose, hitched up his gun belt and looked 厳粛に 負かす／撃墜する at her.
"We all could get outa heah 平易な if it was just us two. But I kain't leave Babe. He's been pow'ful good to me, Babe has—"
"Of course, we can't leave him. They'd kill him sure, and there's been too much 殺人，大当り already. We'll make it somehow. I—you can just do anything, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ!"
"Shoah feel like I could, from now awn," said the kid, looking at her with shy meaning, and started to climb. "We'll make it," he called softly 負かす／撃墜する to her. "We've plumb got to make it!"
They did make it. 負かす／撃墜する the gully, with Babe tied on his horse, insensible to 苦痛 or 動議. Fifty yards, a hundred, with the ライフル銃／探して盗むs on the 山の尾根 barking foolishly at the empty cabin. Rough going の中で the 小衝突 and 激しく揺するs. The kid walked ahead, 主要な Babe's horse and 安定したing Babe's limp 団体／死体 all he could. Nellie つまずくd along behind, with the kid's brown horse, Pecos, carrying the water that might save Babe's life. Slow work. There were places where the kid must move 激しく揺するs before the horses could go on.
The sun went 負かす／撃墜する behind the 縁, the daylight was 合併するing into dusk when the kid 軍隊d the horses up the 法外な bank and turned them toward the Big （法廷の）裁判. Nellie's horse was tied to a 激しく揺する up there. They couldn't go off and leave her horse, even if she didn't need him to ride. The kid knew that, but his heart was growing leaden at the thought of how their 追跡するs must part. And who knew when or how they would 会合，会う again?
"Say, where do you think you're goin', Tiger 注目する，もくろむ?" Babe roused suddenly to consciousness and speech when they stopped beside Nellie's horse, circling the 激しく揺する anxiously in the starlight.
"Reckon we'll go awn ovah to the Poole, Babe." It was the only thing to do, but the kid's heart was not in it. The 追跡する separated here. Nellie Murray never would ride to the Poole ranch and Babe could not go to the valley.
"What you goin' to the Poole all of a sudden for?" Babe's 発言する／表明する sharpened. "Think you'll （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 me to the bounty? You've got another think comin', Kid. I'll do the collectin' on this one."
"Don't know what yo'all talking about, Babe." The kid ちらりと見ることd uneasily toward Nellie. "I'm totin' yo'all ovah to the Poole, account of that 弾丸 穴を開ける in yoh 味方する."
"You're a damned liar!" Babe's 発言する／表明する was abnormally loud and 際立った. Nellie, 開始するing her horse, reined の近くに to listen. "You're goin' to try and gyp me outa my money for old Murray. You can have the 支払う／賃金 for gettin' Ed Murray, if you want to be on the 得る，とらえる, but I'll be damned if you're going to collect for the old man!"
"Oh, you—you fiend!" Nellie 軍隊d the words out through her clenched teeth. "Paid 殺し屋s, both of you!"
"Ain't paid yet, but I'm sure as hell goin' to be. Damn' 権利!" The febrile strength that had upheld Babe for a minute began to ebb. He swayed in the saddle. "Dirty work—and it's money 会談, in this neck uh the 支持を得ようと努めるd. Damn 権利 I'll be paid! Tiger 注目する，もくろむ ain't goin' to get the best—the best of me—he can't—" His 長，率いる lolled on his chest then, as his 団体／死体 sagged against the ropes that held him in the saddle.
"You 殺し屋!" Nellie jumped her horse toward the kid, whose 手渡す went up mechanically to catch the bridle before he was trampled.
"Yo'all kain't believe that, Nellie. Babe's plumb crazy in the haid, to talk that-a-way."
"Crazy—yes! Crazy enough to let out the truth! A Texas 殺し屋! Just a lowdown—こそこそ動くing—heartless—殺し屋!"
She had pulled her quirt from the saddle horn, and she struck him across the 直面する; swift, 削除するing blows which the kid never felt at all, save in the heart of him. He just stood there in the starlight and held the 脅すd horse 静かな, while the quirt he had given her left its 示す on neck and shoulder and cheek.
"And I 信用d you like a fool—and thought you were good!" With one final blow her arm fell to her 味方する as if in despair at ever wreaking vengeance upon him. "Shoot me now, why don't you? I'll turn my 支援する!"
"Yo'all's crazy as Babe." The soft drawl of his 発言する／表明する had a 冷気／寒がらせる. "Yoh brothah was 発射 befo' I evah （機の）カム into the country. I nevah did kill a man in my life—but I'm plumb tempted to 権利 now, 少なくなる he's daid a'ready."
"Why? Because he gave you away?" Her 発言する／表明する shook with stubborn 激怒（する）.
"Yo'all knows bettah than that, 行方不明になる Murray. Yo'all knows in yoh own mind I nevah hahmed a livin' soul." He leaned 今後, 星／主役にするing up into her 直面する with a 冷淡な intensity that thrilled her with something like 恐れる. "But that ain't sayin' what I will do f'om now awn," he 追加するd 厳しく.
"（頭が）ひょいと動く! If you didn't—if I knew—"
"Evenin', Ma'am. Yo'all knows the way home."
He loosed the bridle and struck her horse on the 残余 with the flat of his 手渡す and watched her go, and the thud of hoofbeats on the prairies fell like blows upon his heart. When no sound （機の）カム 支援する to him, the kid 機動力のある Pecos, took Babe's bridle reins in his 手渡す and 棒 away into the night.
THE kid was pulling out, but he was taking his time about it and he was not leaving anything he owned behind him. With his gray hat 始める，決める low over the utter 悲惨 in his 注目する，もくろむs, he stood in the middle of the cabin at 冷淡な Spring and his lowering ちらりと見ること moved slowly around the room, just to make sure that he had not 行方不明になるd any of his 所有／入手s. It was not a cheerful looking place. The glass from the one window lay in 後援d fragments on the oilcloth （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する cover, and a few 早期に 飛行機で行くs buzzed in and out through the 粉々にするd panes, where ライフル銃／探して盗む 弾丸s had buzzed in yesterday. The スピードを出す／記録につける 塀で囲むs were scarred with the thin leaden あられ／賞賛する that had beaten 断続的に against the cabin.
In spite of the broken window and the 穴を開ける through the sod roof, the 空気／公表する in the room reeked with the stench of stale gun smoke. Empty cartridges lay scattered on the 床に打ち倒す, the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する, the bunk. Had he been curious about it, the kid could have gathered them up and counted to see just how many 発射s he had 解雇する／砲火／射撃d at the low 山の尾根 over across the flat little 水盤／入り江. More than he had 解雇する／砲火／射撃d before in a year without hitting anything, he knew without counting.
Hadn't 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 攻撃する，衝突する anything. Just 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 持つ／拘留する off the nesters from （人が）群がるing up too の近くに. Just keep them off, not knowing how long he would be able to do it or what minute one of those leaden hornets would lay him out dead on the 床に打ち倒す—or 負傷させるd maybe, the way Babe 獲得する had been.
The kid swung toward the bunk and looked at the pillow still nested to the 形態／調整 of Babe's sleek 黒人／ボイコット 長，率いる. The muscles 強化するd along his jaw. Babe wouldn't have liked the look in the kid's 注目する，もくろむs just then. Crazy as he had been from fever, Babe would have sensed the deadly 質 in the kid's 逮捕（する）d ちらりと見ること, the tiger 注目する，もくろむ 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and 星／主役にするing.
He walked to the bunk, leaning over the 味方する where Babe had lain all these nights, and the loafing times when he lounged at 緩和する there reading "いっそう少なく Mizzerbles," and listening to the kid playing his mouth 組織／臓器 over by the stove, his booted foot （電話線からの）盗聴 the time on the 小衝突d hearth. Those times were gone—blown out in gun smoke by Babe's own betraying lips.
He got his own pillow and tucked it savagely under his arm. The nights when he had lain his 長，率いる 負かす／撃墜する beside Babe's in contented comradeship 公正に／かなり slapped him in the 直面する now with a bitter contempt for his blind 約束. He took another look around, retrieved half a 解雇（する） of Bull Durham and a 調書をとる／予約する of papers from the shelf where Babe kept his paper-bound novels, flipped up the 一面に覆う／毛布s at the foot of the bunk to make sure 非，不，無 of his was mixed up with Babe's bedding, and went outside, slamming the 弾丸-scarred door behind him. He was shutting the door on a lot more than an empty line （軍の）野営地，陣営, but he wouldn't think of it now.
井戸／弁護士席, it had been やめる a 戦う／戦い while it lasted. Plenty of 砕く and lead wasted during the day, but nobody killed. One nester 発射 through shoulder and arm, and Babe 演習d through the middle. Nobody dead. Nothing killed but friendship and the kid's 約束 in men.
In the beaten path before the door, the kid's two horses stood waiting; Pecos with his reins dropped to the ground, empty saddle and empty stirrups waiting for their master; Barney, knowing he must not move while the pack rope hung loose and the all-enveloping tarp still lay on the ground. The kid finished his packing, 強化するd the one-man diamond hitch with a foot を締めるd against Barney's paunch for てこ入れ／借入資本, tucked the rope end under and stepped 支援する, dropping his 手渡すs in an unconscious gesture of finality.
As he had done inside the cabin, he stood for a minute or two looking all around him: across to the little rocky 山の尾根 where the five nesters lay yesterday, hoping to kill him; 負かす／撃墜する to the 権利, where the stable stood empty, corral 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s flung 負かす／撃墜する beside the yawning gateway.
Plumb strange, how a place begins to look 砂漠d 権利 away after the folks that have lived there move out. Looked already like ghosts would walk in the 影をつくる／尾行するs 直接／まっすぐに it （機の）カム night. Ghost of Babe 獲得する, the kid reckoned—if Babe died from that 弾丸 穴を開ける through his 肝臓. Babe better die! The lowdown, lay-behind-a-激しく揺する 殺し屋! Babe better die, unless he was willing to 直面する the kid and shoot it out when he got 井戸／弁護士席.
The kid had loved Babe. But when the man you think is honest and a square shooter turns out to be the 肉親，親類d of a 殺し屋 that will hide behind a 激しく揺する and shoot an old man in the 支援する, just for the money there is in it and because the Poole has put a bounty on nesters, all the friendship you ever felt for him can turn to hate in the wink of an eyelash.
And when he 会談 like you're the one that did the 殺人，大当り—when he 会談 like that 権利 before Nellie, and makes her so crazy mad she starts in quirting you over the 長，率いる and calling you a 殺し屋, just because she's only a girl and can't shoot you 負かす／撃墜する like a dog, it's something worse than hate you feel toward him. Babe had brains 詐欺師 than any old he-wolf, but his brains sure weren't working last night, when he made that talk up there on the （法廷の）裁判.
Most men would have 発射 Babe 権利 then and there. They wouldn't have cared a damn about his 存在 演習d through the middle and plumb out of his 長，率いる. But even with the welts of Nellie Murray's quirt on his cheek and the 攻撃する of her contempt searing his heart, the kid couldn't pull his gun and send a 弾丸 into Babe 獲得する, 負傷させるd and sagging against the rope that held him tied on his horse. That would be putting himself 負かす／撃墜する on a level with Babe, 殺人，大当り a man that hasn't any chance to shoot 支援する. Had to go on and take Babe to the Poole ranch, same as if he were a friend.
The kid rolled himself a cigarette, lighted it with a match held 安定した in his fingers, 選ぶd up his ライフル銃／探して盗む where it stood leaning against the cabin beside the door, slid it into the scabbard on his saddle and 機動力のある. Where he was going, he did not know or care.
In the 十分な light of 早期に morning he reined in his horse upon the 縁 of Big （法廷の）裁判 and 星／主役にするd long into the valley. But mostly he looked at the 山の尾根 and the 最高の，を越すs of the cottonwood trees along the creek that ran through the Murray ranch. For a long while he glowered 負かす／撃墜する at where Babe 獲得する lay, waiting till he could shoot Nellie's little old pappy in the 支援する.
"Yo' shoah get what yo'all give," the kid muttered, with the corners of his mouth pulled 負かす／撃墜する so that his whole 直面する looked hard and unboyish, and new lines of bitterness carved themselves in the smooth brown 肌. "Babe shoah got his needin's and got 'em quick. Nestah's 弾丸s what he plumb called foh—"
His 手渡す went up suddenly to a livid welt across his cheek. The 支配する didn't seem to work in his own 事例／患者, though. He hadn't earned that 削減（する） of Nellie's quirt. His quirt, if you （機の）カム 権利 負かす／撃墜する to it. Braided in pride and high hopes 負かす／撃墜する on the Brazos last winter, before Pap and Ben were 発射. Never did think that quirt he had braided would be laid across his own cheek with all the strength there was in a girl's arm. Another half インチ and it would have lost him that yellow tiger 注目する，もくろむ of his—and that, too, would have been something he hadn't earned.
Nellie was sorry for it, though. Sorry the next minute and ready to take it all 支援する, if he had only said the word. But the kid wouldn't say it. Not to save his life would he truckle to anybody; not even to Nellie Murray—
"She nevah will call me a paid killah no moah," he told himself savagely. "She'll heah things about Tiger 注目する，もくろむ Reeves that will shoah 証明する I'm death on killahs. Poole or nestah, it's all the same to me from now awn. She'll know—and she'll know why!"
Awhile longer he sat there on his horse, making his bitter 計画（する）s while he scowled 負かす／撃墜する at the 山の尾根 that hid her home. She had called him a 殺し屋. She had quirted him like a chicken-殺人，大当り dog. That she half repented of it afterwards only 追加するd to the slow 激怒（する） of the kid. 井戸／弁護士席, all 権利, he'd 証明する that he wasn't a 殺し屋, and he'd 大打撃を与える it home to her that it wasn't because he couldn't kill if he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to. He'd show her he was a better man than any of them. Poole 殺し屋s or valley nesters, he'd herd them and brand them and tame them, till they'd shiver when they heard the 指名する of Tiger 注目する，もくろむ!
She'd shiver too. He'd have her eating crow before the summer was over. She'd be ready to go 負かす／撃墜する on her 膝s to him. He'd show her he wasn't called Tiger 注目する，もくろむ for nothing. He'd shoah make that 指名する mean something more than just the color of his 注目する，もくろむ. They'd remember that old 殺し屋 Reeves 負かす／撃墜する on the Brazos was his pap, and they'd say the father wasn't a patch to the son. Yes, sir, they all better 追跡（する） their 穴を開けるs now, Poole 殺し屋s and nesters! They'd 押し進めるd him too far. A shoah-enough tiger was loose on the 範囲, and every man was his meat!
A dash of rain in his 直面する brought the kid out of his vengeful ecstasy. Already the valley was misty with the 嵐／襲撃する creeping in from the river away to the east. Rain from the east—that meant a long 包囲 of it. Sodden prairie, swollen streams, wet 支持を得ようと努めるd for campfires, 激しい, water-soaked tarp, clammy 一面に覆う／毛布s that made you shiver through the nights. Even tigers have to 追跡（する） a 乾燥した，日照りの lair when the 冷淡な rains come. The kid realized with a 低迷 that he couldn't stand there all day in the rain, gawping at Nellie Murray's ranch and making his brag of what he was going to do. Tiger or not, he had to 追跡（する） himself a （軍の）野営地，陣営 where he could be 安全な 同様に as 乾燥した，日照りの, and 人物／姿／数字 out his 計画（する）.
He pulled his hat 負かす／撃墜する over his eyebrows and reined away from the valley 縁. To the north there rose a 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集める of 木材／素質d buttes with 深い-始める，決める canyons between. Ten miles, no more, from the valley; twelve or fifteen from the （警察，軍隊などの）本部 ranch of the Poole. There should be some sequestered little nook in there where he could make his lair.
The kid's fingers 解除するd again to that welt slanting 負かす／撃墜する across his cheek. One last glimpse he had of the low 山の尾根 and the line of cottonwoods 負かす／撃墜する there in the valley, and then the rain blotted the place from his sight.
A WOUNDED animal はうs 深い into the most impenetrable thicket he can find, and there tends his 傷つけるs in 用心深い silence, lest his enemy find him while he is helpless and cannot fight 支援する. The kid 棒 straight to the 木材／素質d hills called Wolf Buttes, and all that day he 負傷させる in and out and around の中で gulches and canyons and across hidden little valleys, looking for the place he had pictured in his mind as the lair of this particular 範囲 tiger.
Water, grass for his horses, not too remote from his 追跡（する）ing ground, yet 安全な・保証する, 安全な from any danger that might 脅す. The rain streamed from his yellow slicker, ran in little rivulets 負かす／撃墜する the neck and hips of his horse. Behind him the 安定した pluck, pluck of his pack-horse sounded a monotone of patience and 忠義 that heartened the kid and somehow 安定したd his 目的.
Before dark he （軍の）野営地，陣営d in a 厚い grove of young spruces that grew beside a natural meadow, and that night he heard the snarl of a mountain lion and knew that Pecos and Barney were 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd の近くに to （軍の）野営地，陣営, afraid to graze out even the length of a picket rope. But it was the season of young things, and he knew the lions walked 十分な fed and only mildly querulous toward strange neighbors. He slept, his quirt-scarred cheek cuddled in the crook of his arm—and dreamed of making love to Nellie Murray. Dreamed that she was going to marry him, and they planned the homestead they would take in Wolfe Buttes somewhere, and how they would build themselves a ranch with honeysuckle vines all over the cabin. He dreamed of the 甘い softness of her lips—and woke to find his mouth 圧力（をかける）d against the 支援する of his own 手渡す.
A shamed 誓い escaped him and he drew 支援する his 手渡す as if a snake had struck at it. It was morning and it was raining with a 冷淡な, 安定した drip on the spruce boughs that 避難所d him like a thatched roof. A tiny pool of yellowish rain water lay in the hollow of the tarp that covered his 一面に覆う／毛布s. Pecos and Barney stood 支援するd up against a rain-攻撃するd thicket, 残余s to the east 勝利，勝つd that whipped their dripping tails between their 脚s. Their 長，率いるs drooped while they dozed, too 哀れな to 嘘（をつく） 負かす／撃墜する and with no 乾燥した，日照りの 位置／汚点／見つけ出す to put their 団体／死体s if they had 手配中の，お尋ね者 to.
No happy planning with Nellie Murray, this. Another day of 追跡（する）ing a den for the tiger that would be a 天罰（を下す） to all 殺し屋s. The kid fished blindly under the 一面に覆う／毛布s for his hat, 設立する it and put it on as he sat up. Day before yesterday, Nellie had worn it flirtatiously over her piled-up, yellow hair that made a braid as 厚い as his wrist. The kid had thrilled to the look in her 注目する，もくろむs,—shy yet half daring him to （人命などを）奪う，主張する the 刑罰，罰則 custom says a girl must 支払う／賃金 for wearing a man's hat. Hot crimples had gone up his spine, hot 血 had 殺到するd into his cheeks.
But he hadn't kissed her. He was afraid she wouldn't like it. He 欠如（する）d the 神経 to put her to the 実験（する）. He wouldn't want her to think he couldn't behave like a gentleman—and so she had whipped him like a yellow cur.
He はうd out of his 一面に覆う／毛布s, buckling his gun belt around him with vicious 強く引っ張るs of the ひもで縛る. All that foolishness was past and gone. There wouldn't be any more of it, ever. 負かす／撃墜する on the Brazos there was that girl who had called him Tiger 注目する，もくろむ with her lip 解除するd at one corner. If she had been a man, he'd have slapped her 負かす／撃墜する for the intonation of her 発言する／表明する. Didn't take him long to 解除する his hat and ride off away from her—ride so far he never stopped till he 攻撃する，衝突する Montana. Now it was Nellie Murray, cutting his cheek with the quirt he'd been tickled to death to give her. Served him damn' 権利. 'Peahs like a man always gets the 二塁打 cross when he puts any 約束 in any girl. Oughta have known it before, but he reckoned he knew it now.
At twenty and two months past, the kid could give a 冷笑的な 解除する of the shoulders and say he was through with women—never would mean a thing to him 今後. Tip his hat and ride on past, and never look 支援する over his shoulder.
He stood up tall and 十分な of pride in the man who wouldn't kill because he didn't want to kill. The man who would be 恐れるd from the Musselshell to the Canada line. Didn't have to kill to make men afraid of him. They'd look over their shoulder when they spoke his 指名する, and when any one について言及するd the Brazos they'd look at each other, thinking that was where Tiger 注目する，もくろむ （機の）カム from.
Over and over again the kid pictured himself as a 天罰（を下す） of the 範囲—a tiger who would not kill. He did it until he had やめる forgotten how he had wakened with his lips 圧力（をかける）d against his own 手渡す, thinking it was a girl's mouth he was kissing, and that it kissed 支援する.
All that day it rained in 風の強い gusts, with periods of 静かな 霧雨 between, like his mother's slow 涙／ほころびs dripping 負かす／撃墜する over her cheeks when she thought upon her dead. Weeping for him now, he reckoned. She hadn't cried when he left, though. Just hid her 直面する against his neck, while one 手渡す （機の）カム up to pat him on the shoulder, and then a simple kiss and a moment of watching from the doorway while he 棒 away.
He seemed to see himself through his mother's 墓／厳粛／彫る／重大な 注目する，もくろむs now—the long-legged kid in the big gray hat, six-gun sagging on his 権利 hip, reining Pecos through the wide gateway and giving a yank on the lead rope to bring Barney along. Big pack swaying as Barney ducked and shied at a white chicken that flew out of the 少しのd beside the 地位，任命する, and the tall kid grinning 支援する at his mother, standing there in the doorway watching him go. The upflung 手渡す with the supple turn of the wrist as if he were flinging a 宙返り飛行 out ahead—"lassing his luck," the kid called that gesture of 別れの（言葉，会）. Last and youngest of old 殺し屋 Reeves' tribe of long-legged sons, hitting out for the North because he wouldn't kill men as his old pap had done.
"An' I shoah kain't be 軍隊d into killin' now," he said, at that point in his musings. "They'll be wishin' I did," he 追加するd in grim satisfaction.
That afternoon he （機の）カム upon the place he was hoping to find. A 黒人／ボイコット 耐える 板材ing out of a の近くに-growing thicket brought his ちらりと見ること that way, or even his keen 注目する，もくろむs would have 行方不明になるd it. As it was, he 棒 支援する and left his horses hidden behind 激しく揺するs and like a 追跡（する）ing Indian he stole 今後 進行中で to 検査／視察する the place before he would 投機・賭ける 近づく.
A 激しく揺する cabin built of fragments of the cliff it hugged の近くに. Half the roof had fallen in, and a wild currant bush thrust fruit-laden 支店s out through the open doorway to 証明する how long it had been since any man （人命などを）奪う，主張するd it for a dwelling. It was the upended ridgepole with a corner of the roof 大（公）使館員d and showing above the bushes that had caught the kid's attention when he looked that way. Except for that telltale fragment, the cabin was 絶対 hidden in the thicket. When he looked beyond, he saw where there had been a corral and a stable, all built of 激しく揺する cunningly piled for strength and concealment. There had to be a spring too, of course. He 設立する it, ice 冷淡な and 水晶 （疑いを）晴らす, in a niche of the cliff that was a part of the 支援する 塀で囲む of the cabin.
With his wet slicker slapping against his 脚s, the kid waded through high grass and 小衝突 growth and 設立する other things. A 激しく揺する-塀で囲むd meadow swelling out like a 広大な／多数の／重要な fat jug below its 狭くする neck of a pass not wide enough to let a hayrack through without 捨てるing the 塀で囲む on either 味方する. Ten thousand years ago it must have been a 噴火口，クレーター, by the look of it, but now it grew grass belly 深い to a horse. The kid climbed upon a bowlder and for five minutes he gazed out over this lost 楽園. Lost from the world, to be 設立する by him when he needed it most. And as he looked, his 注目する，もくろむs grew to have the exulting 向こうずね of a boy who has 設立する a secret 洞穴 where he can play 著作権侵害者 to his heart's content.
He waded 支援する to the cabin and 検査／視察するd it with a new feeling of 所有／入手, ruthlessly trampling 負かす／撃墜する the young currant bush to get inside. After awhile he went 負かす／撃墜する and led up the horses.
It took the kid nearly a week to make the place habitable, though he worked furiously from sunrise until it was too dark to see what he was doing. It took him two days to find his way out of the intricate 網状組織 of canyons to the open 範囲 beyond. And then he made the amazing 発見 that by に引き続いて a 確かな 乾燥した，日照りの watercourse for half a mile, climbing a filled-in place and turning a sharp corner into another 狭くする canyon that was plugged with an old 地滑り before it reached the open country, he could reach his （軍の）野営地，陣営 in いっそう少なく than three miles of riding from the wooded north bank of Cotton Creek.
Like a she-wolf making 確かな that her new den will be 安全な for her litter of pups, the kid nosed out the blind 追跡するs to his secret lair. He 棒 first Barney, then Pecos, teaching them all the devious turns and 新たな展開s to reach that 塀で囲むd canyon from the open country beyond. He 棒 it in daylight and he 棒 it at night, letting the horses 選ぶ their own 追跡する. He made a grim, boyish game of it, pretending that Poole riders or nesters were after him and （人が）群がるing him の近くに, and he must throw them off his 追跡する and 消える in the hills. They would be, some of these days, when the 範囲 tiger went on the prowl. Couldn't bank on making his get-away every time without somebody seeing him and taking in after him. And in his heart, the kid knew he wouldn't want it too 平易な.
An older man would have gone straight about his （選挙などの）運動をする of vengeance and 信用d to luck for making a 安全な 退却／保養地, but the kid was only twenty and all his life he had played Injun in the hills along the Brazos, in between the 取調べ／厳しく尋問するing practice his old pap had given him with ライフル銃／探して盗む and six-gun. Pap had always told him to be mighty sure of what was behind him 同様に as what was out 前線. Pap said only a 非難するd fool would go ahead till he knew the 追跡する behind him was open.
So the kid 演習d himself and his horses in the 新たな展開d canyons of Wolf Buttes, and let the sword of 司法（官） dangle awhile over the unsuspecting 長，率いるs of the paid 殺し屋s of the Poole. Let Nellie wonder awhile what had become of him, too. He reckoned it wouldn't 傷つける her to wonder and guess. Bound to guess plumb wrong, and he'd 証明する it to her, when he got good and ready.
While he 棒, he practiced the 雷 moves his old pap had taught him. Draw and shoot in the wink of an 注目する，もくろむ, and put the 弾丸 where it was 目的（とする）d. Only, he emptied the cartridge from his gun for the work when he knew he was 絶対 安全な. Didn't need to shoot 弾丸s, unless he had something to 攻撃する，衝突する. Keep his wrist supple, keep 手渡す and 注目する，もくろむ working quick and sure as his mind. Draw and pull the 誘発する／引き起こす on an empty 爆撃する and know the 弾丸 would have gone straight as the 注目する，もくろむ could look. Draw and pull, a hundred times a day, a thousand times a day. 範囲 tiger dassent let teeth and claws grow dull. Keep 'em both sharp and ready for work.
His grub was getting low. Now, before men knew they had him to 恐れる and to kill if they could, he 棒 into Badger with his tarp roped over an empty pack saddle. The kid was not a gambler, but he had the knack of cards and of guessing what the other fellow was going to do, and he 手配中の，お尋ね者 more money than he had in his pocket. Wouldn't be working for 給料 now for awhile, and grub costs money.
So he sat one night in a poker game with three cowboys from over toward the Rosebud and a lucky prospector just in from the 黒人／ボイコット Hills. Afterwards, they might remember the tall kid with the 赤みを帯びた hair lying in a 激しい wave on his 寺 when he 押し進めるd 支援する his big hat, and the 権利 注目する，もくろむ that was yellow and had the queer, 安定した 星／主役にする of a tiger. Luck of a fiend, that kid had. Walked out at daylight with his pants bulging at the 味方するs like a pocket gopher packing grass to its burrow. Honest player, though. Never caught him in any funny 商売／仕事. Plain lucky, that kid with the one yellow 注目する，もくろむ.
He 棒 out of town at noon, Barney taking careful, nippy steps to balance the big and bulging pack on his 支援する. Pecos, too, carried more than his master that day. タバコ and five 続けざまに猛撃するs of candy and a songbook and two cartons of cartridges wrapped in the kid's slicker and tied behind the cantle. The kid's pockets sagged with six new mouth 組織／臓器s, 重要なs C and D, in 有望な red pasteboard boxes.
The kid was almost ready now to show Nellie Murray he was neither a 殺し屋 nor a cur to take a licking and はう off under the 小衝突 and whimper over his 傷つけるs. He was just about ready to start in taming the 殺し屋s. 権利 soon, now, the 指名する of Tiger 注目する，もくろむ would send men's ちらりと見ることs 支援する over their shoulders and make a prickle go up into the roots of their hair. The 範囲 tiger was going on the prowl.
THE kid yawned and 緩和するd himself into a more comfortable position on the 激しく揺する where he was perched. The 範囲 tiger was on the prowl, but he was finding the 追跡（する）ing so poor that it was hard to keep his mind 直す／買収する，八百長をするd upon the 追求（する），探索（する） and nothing else. With the field glasses which he had taken from 冷淡な Spring cabin when he left—borrowed, he 厳粛に 規定するd to himself, whenever he 扱うd them; borrowed, to be returned when he had ended the war between nesters and the Poole—he had scanned the valley since an hour after sunrise. He had seen the first upflung 略章 of gray-blue smoke rise over the low 山の尾根 that hid the Murray house, and he had caught himself wondering just what would happen if he should ride 負かす／撃墜する there. If he should get off his horse in the dooryard and walk 権利 up and knock on the 審査する door—
No, he'd be darned and dawgoned if he would! Though the red welt had 傷をいやす／和解させるd on his cheek so that the 肌 felt smooth to his touch, it hadn't 傷をいやす／和解させるd in his memory. He wouldn't go riding up to her door, not in a thousand years. She might look for him to come, but she'd look a good long time. She could look her 注目する，もくろむs out, for all he cared.
But in spite of his 最高の 無関心／冷淡 to Nellie Murray and all her 関心s, he saw when the smoke died 負かす／撃墜する after awhile, and he knew breakfast must be over and the dishes washed. What he did not know was that his 注目する，もくろむs had a lonesome look when he took 負かす／撃墜する the glasses for a minute to 残り／休憩（する） his 武器 while he 調査するd his 即座の 近隣 and chose another 位置／汚点／見つけ出す for his 査察.
空気／公表する shoah was （疑いを）晴らす, this morning. The whole valley was like a picture with the paint so fresh it would rub off on your finger. Even without the glasses the kid could have counted the 地位，任命するs in a pasture 盗品故買者 a mile away, if he had 手配中の，お尋ね者 to take the time and trouble. Men began to 運動 out into the fields, to work at one thing and another. In one place they were putting up hay, and the kid could almost hear the strident song of a mower which he watched for a long time as it went 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and 一連の会議、交渉／完成する a long （土地などの）細長い一片 of meadow beside a creek. He wouldn't have minded 運動ing a mower himself, for awhile. Never did work in a hayfield but one summer, but he liked it 罰金. He liked the hot 日光 and the unforgettable odor of new hay, and he loved the song of the sickle creeping through the nodding grass.
His gaze followed somewhat wistfully a boy raking hay over in another 盗品故買者d field. For long minutes he watched the long curved teeth gather the hay into a big loose roll and he waited expectantly for the boy to pull the lever and 捨てる the hay into the stubble. Lazy cuss. His pappy'd shoah cuff his ears for him if he （機の）カム along and caught him forgetting to yank that 捨てる lever. He'd shoah hear about that kinda raking when the hay shovelers got to work there. You could 料金d a critter all winter on what hay that shiftless little cuss was wasting with the rake.
Shoah looked 平和的な 負かす／撃墜する there, with everybody working along and minding their own 商売／仕事. Looked like a good country to （問題を）取り上げる a ranch and live in. Not much like a place where men 棒 with ライフル銃／探して盗むs laid across their （競技場の）トラック一周s, ready to shoot the first stranger they met in the road. The men 負かす／撃墜する there in the hay fields didn't look like they'd はう up to a cabin before daylight and shoot 負かす／撃墜する the first man that stuck his 長，率いる out of the door. They didn't look like it, but you shoah couldn't go by the looks, as the kid knew by experience. Nate Wheeler and Pete Gorham had 証明するd that to him. And if anybody thought those 農業者s 負かす／撃墜する there wouldn't take a day off and make a 商売／仕事 of 殺人，大当り cowboys, they oughta take a look at 冷淡な Spring cabin.
Nothing doing 負かす／撃墜する there to-day, though. The kid swept his borrowed glasses slowly from ranch to ranch, then 押すd them disgustedly into their 事例／患者. If he hung around on the 縁 much longer, he'd be watching the Murray ranch like a darned fool and forgetting what he'd got up before daylight for. He walked over and gave Pecos a rub or two on the nose, 選ぶd up the reins and 解除するd his left foot to the stirrup. He went up into the saddle as unconsciously and as easily as he would step into his own doorway, and wheeled the horse in his 跡をつけるs.
But he couldn't keep his 注目する，もくろむs from sending one last look 負かす／撃墜する into the valley, and he couldn't keep that look from turning toward a 確かな line of cottonwoods growing along the far 味方する of a little 山の尾根 a mile away. Like a compass needle they swung straight to their 磁石の 政治家 and clung there, until the kid yanked his hat brim 負かす／撃墜する, pretending it was the sun that bothered him. Nothing 負かす／撃墜する there to look at. Nobody 負かす／撃墜する there he'd give two whoops for. As long as they stuck to their hay forks and minded their own 商売／仕事 and didn't go gunning after him, he didn't need to give a thought to a dawgoned person 負かす／撃墜する there. '特に Nellie Murray.
Might be something doing over toward the Poole （警察，軍隊などの）本部. Might ride over to the ranch and see what he could find out. If he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to, he could ride 権利 up to the corral and turn his horse inside and hang around for dinner. They'd think he had been away somewhere and was just coming 支援する to see if he could have his 職業 again. Might 選ぶ up some 価値のある （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） that way. Might get a line on Babe. Find out whether Babe was dead or alive, anyway. He'd either be dead or just about 井戸／弁護士席 by this time. 発射 pretty bad—but shucks! He was too mean and ornery to die. Take an ax to kill Babe 獲得する!
The kid did not hurry, for it was still 早期に and he didn't want anybody at the Poole to think he had spent the night within 平易な riding distance of the ranch. Best let them think he had ridden a long ways to get there. Show up about noon, when the riders would be 精査するing in off the 範囲, and they'd think he 棒 out from town.
But then he remembered something. If he 棒 straight across the level （法廷の）裁判, the Poole 警戒／見張り would see him. He'd be spotted before he got halfway across. Couldn't tell who it was, this far off, but they'd shoah have the glasses on him every foot of the way, and somebody'd be riding out to 会合，会う him and ask his 商売／仕事. So he kept の近くに to the 縁 and swung off to the west, toward Cotton Creek that he knew so 井戸／弁護士席 he could keep his bearings on the darkest night.
When he struck the road to Badger he turned into it and 棒 負かす／撃墜する off Big （法廷の）裁判 and さらに先に along toward town until he （機の）カム into a rocky draw where hoof 跡をつけるs did not show. He went up this draw for a ４半期/4分の1 of a mile to where it crossed a brushy gulch, and there he turned はっきりと toward Wolf Buttes. No use riding 支援する to the Poole for two or three hours yet. Might as 井戸／弁護士席 範囲 along in the 山のふもとの丘s and come 負かす／撃墜する on the Poole ranch from the opposite direction. Might run の上に something. Had a hunch ever since he woke up that something was going to happen to-day—something mighty important and 利益／興味ing.
Another willow-thicketed gulch showed at his left, and the kid reined into it. Pecos was good at bucking 小衝突 by now, and he went at it like a bull moose, with his ears laid flat to his skull and his nose thrust straight out ahead to open a way for his 団体／死体 to follow, 押し進めるing the tall pliant willows this way and that, and threading his way sinuously along where the growth was thinnest. The kid leaned 今後 along the horse's neck and let Pecos make his own 追跡する. It didn't 事柄 much where they went, since he was just prowling around 殺人，大当り time and に引き続いて a hunch that was really only a vague hope.
It was hot 負かす／撃墜する in that willow growth. Buffalo gnats 群れているd in before his 直面する with a malevolent 決意 to get in his 注目する，もくろむs. Twice, Pecos stopped to 残り／休憩（する） and take 広大な／多数の／重要な rib-拡大するing breaths before he went on. They （機の）カム out finally against a barbed-wire 盗品故買者, built straight across through the thicket. Good stout 地位，任命するs that looked solid as the teeth in the kid's mouth. Four wires strung so tight they hummed like a tuning fork when the kid leaned over and gave one a jerk. No fooling with that 盗品故買者. Cattle proof and 嵐／襲撃する proof, like the 盗品故買者s the 鉄道／強行採決するs built along their 権利-of-way.
Pecos turned a deliberately 問い合わせing look 支援する upon his master and 解除するd a hind foot to kick a biting horsefly off his belly. Willow thickets and blind 追跡するs he was perfectly willing to 対処する with alone, but barbed-wire 盗品故買者s were out of his line. The kid would have to take 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 now and what did he 推定する／予想する a faithful and sweating brown cayuse to do?
The kid did a little 予選 cussing. Plumb strange to find a 盗品故買者 like that over in this part of the country. This wasn't Poole land, and he never heard of any nesters over in this direction. No 追跡するs coming up this way, no nothing. Shoah was mysterious.
He neck-reined Pecos to the 権利, and they followed the 盗品故買者 for half an hour of 安定した plodding along the 狭くする 小道／航路 削減（する） by the 盗品故買者 建設業者s. They （機の）カム 非難する up against a sandstone ledge where the last 地位，任命する stood in a 穴を開ける 演習d into solid 激しく揺する and was 始める，決める there with 固く結び付ける. And that was plumb strange too. Nothing to do about it, though. Couldn't even ride 支援する along the 辛勝する／優位 of the willows because it was just a mess of broken 激しく揺する and がれき from the 法外な slope that evidently stood above the ledge.
Once more the kid turned Pecos short around, and 棒 支援する along the 盗品故買者. He crossed a creek bed covered with hot sun-bleached cobblestones with 沈滞した pools in the hollows. There the 盗品故買者 became a 小衝突 and wire 障壁 higher than the kid's 長，率いる. No animal bigger than a rabbit could wriggle through there. He 棒 another half mile or two before he （機の）カム to the 辛勝する／優位 of the 盗品故買者 and 設立する it 錨，総合司会者d to the other arm of the sandstone ledge.
He went 支援する and 設立する the place where he had first struck the 盗品故買者 and once more Pecos fought his way cannily through the ジャングル and out into the gulch not far from where he had first entered the willows. He looked a tired and somewhat disgusted horse, but this last excursion was no worse than many others his master had taken in the last month.
An hour or more later he stopped on the crest of a long 山の尾根 and stood with を締めるd 脚s, 完全に winded after the 法外な climb, though the kid had been considerate enough to come up on his own feet.
He had plenty of time to 残り／休憩（する） and doze while the 勝利，勝つd pleasantly 乾燥した，日照りのd his sweaty hide, for the kid sat 負かす／撃墜する with his 膝s hunched up to を締める his 肘s, and through the glasses very carefully 診察するd this strange conglomeration of hills and hollows and wild crooked canyons. He had never ridden this far north along Wolf Buttes before, but had kept to the Poole 範囲 along Cotton Creek, to where it emptied into a rocky gorge; but now, with that mysterious 盗品故買者 nagging at his curiosity, he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to know who lived over in this ungodly country. Dinner at the Poole could wait.
He saw some cattle grazing in little detached groups in the canyon 底（に届く）s. He saw a herd of horses—wild broomtails—loafing beside a marshy pool. While he was watching them, they took fright at something and 殺到d up a 狭くする ravine.
The kid moved his glasses a little and saw a horseman just riding out of sight behind a chokecherry thicket. He seemed to be coming 負かす／撃墜する the canyon—at least, the wild horses seemed to think so. The man must have seen the horse herd 雷鳴ing up that ravine, yet he had not swerved in that direction. The kid could not see plainly through the scattered grove but he could tell that much.
Field glasses are very good for getting the 詳細（に述べる）s of a scene, but they are 事実上 useless for 計器ing distances and the general topography of a country. The kid lowered the glasses and 星／主役にするd 負かす／撃墜する into the canyon until the rider had passed the place where the horse herd had turned aside. When he （機の）カム straight on, the kid 選ぶd up the bridle reins and led Pecos 支援する 負かす／撃墜する the long 山の尾根, keeping 井戸／弁護士席 to the north slope out of sight. The 範囲 tiger was on the prowl.
THE kid 棒 slowly along the canyon 底（に届く）, playing his mouth 組織／臓器 as he went, and letting his long 脚s sway to the rhythm of the tune. He did not seem to have anything much on his mind, but his gun hung loose in its holster and his 注目する，もくろむs kept ちらりと見ることing ahead に向かって a 狭くする pass in the rocky canyon, where the man must presently appear unless he had turned 支援する.
Pecos 攻撃するd his ears 今後 and 手配中の，お尋ね者 to walk faster, but the kid's 解放する／自由な 手渡す dropped to the reins and held him 支援する. Some one was riding 負かす／撃墜する through the pass with a 動揺させる of 石／投石するs and a creak of saddle leather as he （機の）カム. The kid's 注目する，もくろむs lightened with a peculiar gleam but the tune he was playing never 行方不明になるd a 公式文書，認める, until a 黒人／ボイコット horse and rider （機の）カム into 見解（をとる）. The kid gave one startled look and the music 中止するd with a squawk.
Nellie Murray, dressed in her dead brother's 全体にわたるs and blue gingham shirt, with her 厚い braid of yellow hair 広範囲にわたる the cantle of her saddle as she 棒! She carried her dad's ライフル銃／探して盗む in the crook of her arm, as if she meant to 会合，会う danger a little more than halfway, and as the two horses stopped of their own （許可，名誉などを）与える, she 解除するd the ライフル銃／探して盗む 中途の to her shoulder, then let it 負かす／撃墜する again.
The kid looked at her with that curious, 安定した 星／主役にする of his yellow 権利 注目する，もくろむ, and his 直面する had the expressionless look of a trained gambler. 冷淡な and 敵意を持った and ready for war he looked, but he didn't feel that way. Hot crimples went chasing up his spine, and the 支援する of his neck had a queer 強化するd feeling, as he 星／主役にするd at her. He would have wheeled Pecos and galloped away 負かす／撃墜する the canyon, only he couldn't run away and give her the 権利 to think he was 脅すd of her. What was she doing, away off here by herself? If she thought he'd be over here and so （機の）カム gunning for him, she shoah was playing in luck to find him. She still had his quirt hanging on her saddle horn—the quirt he had braided last winter, 負かす／撃墜する home on the Brazos. But she wasn't 目的（とする）ing to use it this time. Meant to use that ライフル銃／探して盗む, he reckoned.
"井戸／弁護士席! I've 設立する one of you, anyway!" she exclaimed, in a トン that was worse than another 削減（する） of the quirt. "Where are the cattle?"
"What cattle?"
The kid was conscious of a faint pride that his 発言する／表明する sounded so 静める, when his heart was 続けざまに猛撃するing like a trip 大打撃を与える in his chest.
"Our cattle that you Poole men stole out of our pasture last night. Every hoof we own! I'm going to get them 支援する, if I have to fight every Texas 殺し屋 in the country."
"Shoah wish yo'all luck, 行方不明になる Murray." The kid drew his mouth 組織／臓器 across his lips to stop their quivering. Couldn't let her see how it made him feel to 会合，会う her like this and hear her talk once more. He wished she'd take a different トン, though, and not look at him like that. "Texas killahs is mean hombres to fight," he told her in his soft, drawling 発言する／表明する. "This 肉親，親類d up heah wouldn't give yo'all much chance to fight. They most 一般に don't 会合，会う folks if they can help it."
"井戸／弁護士席, I've met you," she pointed out grimly.
"I'm a Texas man, all 権利, but I'm no killah. Told yo'all that befo'."
"井戸／弁護士席, that remains to be seen. You're a Poole man, anyway. You must know where our cattle are."
"Shoah wish I did. The Poole's fighting nestahs, I know that. But they don't steal cattle, 行方不明になる Murray."
"Oh, don't they? Walter Bell せねばならない raise your 給料 for 説 that!"
"He kain't. I'm not working for the Poole."
"No? How long since?"
"Since that night we got Babe outa 冷淡な Spring cabin." The kid could not keep a tenseness out of his 発言する／表明する, but his 注目する，もくろむs did not waver before her disbelieving 星／主役にする.
"I suppose the Poole 解雇する／砲火／射撃d you for poor 狙撃!"
Her short scornful laugh turned the kid's ears red as if she had slapped them, but he made no answer to the taunt. What was the use? She knew 井戸／弁護士席 enough why he had been so careful not to kill any one that day when they were 罠にかける at 冷淡な Spring. The kid remembered how they had talked about this very thing all through that long afternoon when they sat in the shade behind the cabin, with Babe lying in a stupor on the bunk inside and the nesters 解雇する／砲火／射撃ing at the place from a rocky little 山の尾根 over across the small 水盤／入り江.
She remembered it too, he bet. Shoah, she did. Just talking now to keep her mad up. Talking that-a-way because she wouldn't own up she was sorry she quirted him and called him a 殺し屋 when Babe went crazy and began 狙撃 off his 直面する about him 殺人，大当り her pappy and about Tiger 注目する，もくろむ 殺人，大当り her brother Ed. She knew it was a 嘘（をつく）. Shoah, she did! She was mad because he wouldn't let her わびる that night, but had 攻撃する，衝突する her horse a lick and started him off home at a high lope, 手配中の，お尋ね者 to make him say something about it now, but she could take it out in wanting. Any 説 on that 支配する would have to come from her. There was plenty she needed to say, if she ever 手配中の，お尋ね者 to square herself.
So the kid wrapped the bridle reins around the saddle horn and began to roll a cigarette, taking plenty of time and 存在 mighty particular to have the タバコ 嘘（をつく） smooth in its little white 気圧の谷. A man could do a heap of thinking over a cigarette without giving himself away. He could wait till the 権利 words （機の）カム before he spoke. He could make the other fellow tip his 手渡す—unless the other fellow was a smoker too and reached for the makings. Then it was liable to be a tie. But Nellie Murray didn't smoke, and the kid felt that he had all the best of it.
"You must know the Poole ran off with our cattle!"
The kid painstakingly moistened the loose 辛勝する／優位 of his cigarette with the tip of his tongue.
"No, kain't say I do."
"井戸／弁護士席, they did."
"Yo'all 権利 shoah it was the Poole?"
"I wouldn't say it if I wasn't sure," she retorted はっきりと. "非，不，無 of our neighbors would do it, and besides, I 追跡するd them up on the （法廷の）裁判 and over this way. The Poole wants to run us out of the country. You know why, don't you?"
"Kain't say I do, 少なくなる it's because yoah a nestah."
"Oh, of course all the nesters are 存在 made the goats for Walter Bell! He's got to lay the 非難する somewhere for his stealings. But he's 脅すd to death of us Murrays and he means to 運動 us out. He's got Ed and Father out of the way, but he's afraid of Mother and me too. You know why, don't you?"
The kid was 持つ／拘留するing a match 炎上 to his cigarette, and he permitted her a 簡潔な／要約する look at his 注目する，もくろむs—the blue left one squinted half shut, the yellow 権利 注目する，もくろむ wide and inscrutable.
"Kain't 非難する 'em foh that," he said drily.
Nellie 紅潮／摘発するd and looked 負かす／撃墜する at the ライフル銃／探して盗む sagging in her しっかり掴む.
"It's because old Walt Bell is afraid Mother and I know what Ed 設立する out about the Poole. Ed caught the Poole cowboys stealing Poole cattle, that's why! Some of them—that stand in の近くに with Walter Bell. Joe Hale for one, and 足緒 Markel for another. He caught them running a wildcat brand on Poole calves, over this way somewhere. He 設立する out a lot, and then he wrote 支援する to the 長，率いる moguls in New York and told them what was going on." She bit her lip. "That was away last March, and they 港／避難所't done a thing about it, though Mother says Ed sent enough proof to put the whole outfit in the pen."
"Shoah had 神経, that boy." The cigarette was lighted but the kid forgot to smoke it. His mind went 往復（する）ing 支援する and 前へ／外へ, weaving Nellie's story into 確かな puzzling fragments of （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） he had never been able to make anything of. "Shoah did," he repeated, under his breath.
"Of course he had 神経! Too much. He 手配中の，お尋ね者 to get the goods on that bunch without dragging the neighbors into it. He never told them what he was doing, but he told Father."
"Plumb strange yo'all nevah について言及するd it, when we talked these things ovah at the cabin. 'Peahs like I wasn't 信用d at no time." The kid pulled Pecos away from a friendly nose-rubbing with Nellie's horse.
"I didn't know it then. Mother knew, but they were afraid to talk about it, much. She only told me 早期に this morning, when we 設立する out our cattle were gone. I 棒 負かす／撃墜する to the pasture to bring up the cows and there wasn't a hoof in sight. I saw where they'd been driven off, and then when I went to tell Mother, she told me the whole story."
The kid's 注目する，もくろむs had the 用心深い look of a half-broken horse that is ready to bolt at the first alarm. She needn't think he was going to forget what she had done to him—not unless she （機の）カム 権利 out and said she was sorry and asked his forgiveness. Even then, he was not 権利 確かな he would 許す her for that quirting. Didn't know as he could ever 許す a thing like that.
But this cattle stealing—no man that was even half a man would ride off and let two women lose every hoof of 在庫／株 they owned. 'Peahed like he was plumb 強いるd to turn in and help her find those cattle. He'd do that much for her mother. 権利 nice little woman, all alone in the world now, except for Nellie—and it shoah wasn't the mother's fault if she had a daughter with a mean temper. He'd get those cattle for Nellie's mother, and he'd make Nellie so dawgoned ashamed of herself she never would be able to 直面する him again without blushing.
The kid let Pecos 辛勝する／優位 closer to Nellie's horse again and pretended to be 熟考する／考慮するing the problem and not to notice what his horse was up to. Had a funny 強くたたくing in the 味方する of his neck, kinda like he was 脅すd. Nothing to do with Nellie Murray though, unless it was just because it made him so mad to see her go on like she hadn't done a darn thing to be ashamed of. Reckon she thought he'd say something about it, but she shoah had another think coming. He wouldn't even be speaking to her if it wasn't for her mother and the 直す／買収する，八百長をする she was in about the 在庫／株.
"Shoah would like to know what yoh mothah said," he 観察するd, in what would have been a 冷淡な and formal トン, except that the kid's soft Texas 発言する／表明する made a pleasing melody whenever he spoke.
"Mother told me Ed was always trying to 人物／姿／数字 out why the Poole had it in for the nesters, after letting them settle in the valley without making a fuss. Ed did a lot of riding outside the valley. The Poole （人命などを）奪う，主張するd he was rustling calves, but that's a 嘘（をつく）. I know how we got every hoof we owned. We only had forty-two 長，率いる. Now we 港／避難所't got any."
"If yoh brothah got proof—"
"He got enough to put the 恐れる of the Lord into Walter Bell," she 宣言するd 激しく. "We don't know whether they saw Ed watching them, or whether the Eastern owners wrote 支援する and told Walt what Ed said about him and his outfit. The Poole certainly must have 設立する out somehow, and it wasn't from any of the valley folks, for they don't know it. The Poole started in—乾燥した，日照りの-gulching, if you know what that means, and I suppose you do, all 権利." She sent him a quick ちらりと見ること and looked away again when the kid failed to 会合，会う her 注目する，もくろむs. "Before, it was just mean 範囲 tricks—hogging the 範囲 and 告発する／非難するing the nesters of rustling calves and 殺人，大当り beef and all that. But all at once they started 殺人，大当り. Ed was one of the first—"
"If yoh'd give me the brands so I'd know yoh mothah's cattle when I find 'em—"
"I'm not asking you to find them. I'm going to get them myself," she said haughtily, stung to 憤慨 by the coldness of his 注目する，もくろむs.
"'Peahs like yoh bettah go awn home. Yoh got a 権利 nice mothah. Reckon she needs yo'all mighty bad. If I knew the brands, I'd find her cattle for her."
"井戸／弁護士席, it's 逆転する E, if you must know. But I couldn't think of troubling you, Mr. Reeves. I ーするつもりである to get those cattle myself."
"How?"
"井戸／弁護士席, how would you?"
"Ride till I 設立する 'em. Might take a week, in heah."
"Don't you suppose I know all that? I （機の）カム 用意が出来ている." She slapped a bulky 一括 behind her cantle. "Mother knows I may be out a couple of days. She knows I won't come 支援する without the cattle."
"It's a man's 職業," the kid said gruffly.
"井戸／弁護士席, I'm the man of the family now, so it's my 職業. So long, Mr. Reeves!" She gathered up the reins and tapped her horse lightly with the quirt—just as if it never had been put to a more 悪意のある use—and 棒 on past the kid with her chin 攻撃するd 上向き and her gaze bent ostentatiously upon a straggling, small herd of cattle feeding over on the さらに先に slope.
"Adios, 行方不明になる Murray!" The kid kicked Pecos into a trot and 棒 on into the rocky pass, playing his mouth 組織／臓器 so loudly he 割れ目d a reed so that the 公式文書，認める buzzed like a bee in a 瓶／封じ込める.
Dawgone that girl! Meanest temper he ever saw in a human! Still-長，率いるd as a mule! Shoah didn't get much satisfaction outa him, going off like that with her nose in the 空気／公表する. Thought he'd foller and say perty please. He'd show her how much he cared for her darned old cattle. Thought she was smart, showing off with that pack on her saddle, trying to make out she was game to stay out till she 設立する her 在庫／株. Let her. She'd go and lose herself so bad she wouldn't know which way was straight up.
Serve her dawgoned 権利 if she did. Just because she had the 神経 to wear her brother's pants she thought she could take the place of a man on the 範囲. こどもing a ライフル銃／探して盗む like a shoah-enough go-getter. She'd go get herself bushwhacked over here, if any of the Poole bunch happened to 位置／汚点／見つけ出す her and didn't get の近くに enough to see she was a girl. If she'd left that yellow braid hanging 負かす／撃墜する her 支援する—a physical 苦痛 gripped the kid's chest when he thought how that yellow braid had looked, 小衝突ing the cantle of her saddle when she moved her 長，率いる.
One nearly new mouth 組織／臓器, 重要な of D, good except for one 緩和するd reed, landed in the middle of a scraggy sagebush thirty feet away. Pecos went with his ears laid flat against his 長，率いる for an hour, in his 怒り／怒る at the way the kid yanked him around in the 追跡する.
SHE had ridden nearly a ４半期/4分の1 of a mile 負かす／撃墜する the canyon and she did not look 支援する when the kid （機の）カム 続けざまに猛撃するing up behind and 始める，決める Pecos on his haunches と一緒に her. Her ライフル銃／探して盗む was balanced across the saddle in 前線 of her. She had hung her hat on the saddle horn and was rebraiding her hair as a 予選 to coiling it on 最高の，を越す of her 長，率いる, and she had fished a lot of hairpins from a pocket and was 持つ／拘留するing them endwise in her mouth, the crimped 脚s bristling out from between her soft, red lips. She gave the kid a sidelong ちらりと見ること and her fingers never 滞るd in their weaving of the 厚い 立ち往生させるs of long hair in and out. The finished part of the braid was 宙返り飛行d over her shoulder and it shone like gold in the sun.
The kid had a sudden and almost uncontrollable 願望（する） to lean over and pull those pins from her mouth with his teeth. The plumb craziness of the idea almost made him 刺激（する） Pecos on 負かす／撃墜する the 追跡する as tight as he could go—only that would be almost as crazy a thing to do as the other. He ground his teeth together until the muscles stood out upon his jaw, and his 注目する，もくろむs glowered straight ahead. And without any 意向 of 説 a word, he 設立する himself 説 a good many.
"I nevah did see a mule as still-長，率いるd as yo'all! Go awn home wheah yoh belong, and I'll go aftah yoah mothah's cattle myse'f. And yoh bettah unbraid that haiah and let it 飛行機で行く loose, so any Poole killah that sees yo'all will know what he's aimin' to shoot. 弾丸s go wheah they're sent, and they don't stop to ask if yoah a man or a woman befo' they 攻撃する，衝突する. You go awn home."
From the corner of his 注目する，もくろむ he watched to see the 影響 of that speech. Nellie continued to braid her hair and she kept those fool hairpins in her mouth. Just an excuse so she couldn't talk, the kid thought savagely. She knew better than to try and put up an argument against him. And he had the satisfaction of calling her a mule, anyway.
He 棒 on ahead of her. Nellie had to 持つ／拘留する her horse 負かす／撃墜する to a walk or やめる fussing with her hair, and she went 権利 on doing it up on 最高の，を越す of her 長，率いる, so she could get her hat over it. Didn't 行為／法令／行動する like she was going home. Didn't try to catch up with him, either. The kid got to worrying about what she meant to do, and finally he pulled in behind a ledge and waited for her to come along, so he could give her another piece of his mind. Yet when she 棒 up she didn't give him a chance.
"If you're bound to 追跡（する） our cattle, I guess we better work together," she said cheerfully. "This is awful rough country."
"Go awn home like I told yo'all."
"Oh, forget it!" she snapped. "I'm not going, and that settles it. If you want to get rid of me so bad, hurry up and find our cattle."
"If it wasn't foh yoah mothah, I wouldn't tuhn my 手渡す ovah foh yo'all!" the kid blurted ひどく.
"井戸／弁護士席, nobody asked you to!" Nellie retorted. "You can 控訴 yourself, you know."
"Shoah 目的（とする） to, 行方不明になる Murray," the kid grimly 保証するd her, and loped off 負かす／撃墜する the canyon without once looking 支援する. He kept telling himself she ought to go 支援する home, and that he couldn't do a thing with her along. But he listened for the hoofbeats of the 黒人／ボイコット horse, and when he failed to hear them he slowed to a trot.
What he meant to do was go 支援する and 調査／捜査する that 盗品故買者 again, and he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to do it alone. Plumb foolish of her to buck all that 小衝突 when he didn't even know that there was anything to find out. No 法律 against some rancher building a pasture 盗品故買者 across a willow flat. Reckon it didn't mean a thing, but he'd go take a look to make sure. Shoah didn't want Nellie Murray along, either—snagging her hair on the 小衝突 and giving him 支援する talk all the time. Nothing she could do but get in the way.
But his ears were 緊張するd, listening for the cluppety-cluppety sound of a galloping horse, and when he didn't hear it, he became suddenly aware of an uncomfortable aching heaviness in his chest. Hungry, he reckoned. By the sun, it was の近くに to noon and he had swallowed a hurried breakfast at 夜明け. Shoah felt empty now—nothing whatever to do with Nellie Murray. He looked 支援する up the canyon and 棒 into the willows.
Pecos went at the 仕事 savagely, wanting to get it over. At the 盗品故買者 the kid turned and 棒 toward the 乾燥した，日照りの creek bed where the ground was rough and humpy, gouged with spring freshets and 土台を崩すd by burrowing small animals. When he 設立する a 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where the 盗品故買者 went up over a small 山の尾根 he dismounted and kicked the wires loose from three 地位，任命するs, 軍隊d them to the ground and 錨，総合司会者d them there with a couple of 激しく揺するs and led his horse across.
From there on he followed the simplest 計画（する） that occurred to him. He kept going straight ahead until the willow growth 中止するd on higher ground and he could see what sort of place it was that had need of a 盗品故買者 like that. And as he 現れるd from the willows, he saw that he was in a 深い, wide coulee such as every ranch in that country seemed to 捜し出す because of the 避難所 and water and the richer 国／地域 to be 設立する within the high encircling 塀で囲むs.
Some one was running cattle in here, all 権利. The 辛勝する／優位 of the thicket was broken and trampled where 在庫／株 had 押し進めるd in for 避難所, and there was cattle 調印する everywhere. Nothing outa the way in that, he reckoned. Some old mossback 農業者 stuck away in the hills, trying to make a living. Doing all 権利 at it too, if that 盗品故買者 was any 調印する. Good grass, when you got beyond the willows. Boggy ground with 黒人／ボイコット 国／地域 and a little pond of water in the middle. That's why there were so many willows 負かす／撃墜する below. Nice place, all 権利, if it wasn't so far from everything. Good place for a hide-out too, if you had stolen cattle on your 手渡すs. Couldn't ask for a better place to work over the brands and let them grow hair.
The kid's 神経s began to tingle a little. Pecos was walking with his 長，率いる up and his ears 攻撃するd 今後, as if he saw or heard something. Cattle bawling! When the kid turned his 長，率いる and listened, he could hear it too. Cows, it sounded like. And as he got nearer, he could distinguish the spasmodic, jerky bellow of a calf when the hot アイロンをかける seared its 味方する.
Shoah would be plumb strange if he 棒 straight to where the rustlers had Nellie's cattle. Might not be the Poole at all. Might be somebody else hanging out in here, stealing from nesters and Poole both, and letting them 非難する each other for it. Let 'em kill each other off while the real どろぼう got rich off his stealings. It could be done 平易な enough, with a place like this.
Shoah would be funny if he was to run 権利 の上に her bunch of cattle. She'd think he had a 手渡す in it, maybe. She might say that was why he tried to send her home. Shoah looked like it, the way he 棒 off and left her and then ducked into the willows. Be better if he'd let her come along, he reckoned. And somehow his spirits rose a little at the perfectly 論理（学）の 推論する／理由 he had just discovered for wanting her with him.
The kid 解除するd his hat and swept the 赤みを帯びた waves of hair 支援する off his forehead, settled his 弾丸-scarred hat at a careless 攻撃する, pulled his holstered gun into position on his thigh and 棒 今後 with an eager gleam in his 注目する，もくろむs. Thoughts of Nellie Murray crept into the 支援する of his mind as the 追跡（する）ing spirit 押し進めるd 今後 and （人命などを）奪う，主張するd him. Once more the 範囲 tiger was on the prowl.
FROM the 政治家 corral 始める，決める 支援する in a thin grove of cottonwood and box alder, a gray dusty cloud rose into the hot 日光 of noon. Within the corral 盗品故買者 a small herd of cattle tramped uneasily 一連の会議、交渉／完成する and 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, swerving and ducking aside when a cowboy's 宙返り飛行 swished out like the vicious flat 長，率いる of a striking rattler.
A man on guard outside unhooked the chain and swung open the gate to let out a rider dragging a husky bull calf with a white curly-haired 直面する and a fat pink tongue waving out from his slavering mouth as he bawled and fought the rope, his sturdy 前線 脚s を締めるd and half 事情に応じて変わる through the tramped sand.
But he （機の）カム out, にもかかわらず, and the gate slammed shut behind him. Fighting every インチ, he made 気が進まない 進歩 over toward the branding 解雇する／砲火／射撃, where two calf レスラーs grabbed and threw him on his 味方する with a 強くたたく.
A man 解除するd a branding アイロンをかける deliberately out of the 炎, looked at it, waved it to and fro in the 空気／公表する, looked at it again and decided that it was about the 権利 heat, and walked over to the calf lying there, with two sweating cowboys を締めるd and 持つ／拘留するing him motionless, one half sprawled across his 長，率いる, the other hanging for dear life to a 脚. The man with the branding アイロンをかける 始める，決める a foot on the calf's ribs and began to draw a pattern with the heated アイロンをかける on the heaving paunch. Where the アイロンをかける limned its 範囲 symbol, a thin 略章 of greenish blue smoke rose and wavered into a little cloud. The outstretched 脚s kicked spasmodically and the sweat streamed 負かす／撃墜する the レスラー's brown cheeks and ran salty as 涙／ほころびs into his grimacing mouth, as he を締めるd himself against the struggle. From under the shirt-sleeved arm of the other cowboy burst a plaintive bawling. The man with the アイロンをかける paused, 攻撃するd his 長，率いる sidewise to 調査する his artistry, spat a brown stream into the sand and touched a line here and there with the 冷静な／正味のing アイロンをかける.
"Aw'righ'," he signalled carelessly, and turned to thrust the アイロンをかける again into the 解雇する／砲火／射撃.
It was at that moment that the three of them and the gate tender discovered that they had a new arrival in their 中央. The kid stood there, hipshot and careless, 新たな展開ing the end of a fresh-rolled cigarette and watching the branding incuriously, as if it were the most commonplace thing in the world.
"井戸／弁護士席, I'm damned!" jarred from the slackened mouth of the man with the branding アイロンをかける, Joe Hale, 範囲 foreman for the Poole.
"Howdy, Joe," said the kid, and felt for a match. He nodded to the calf レスラーs, who were on their feet and mopping their perspiring 直面するs with 国／地域d bandannas. As the man at the gate （機の）カム toward him, the kid's yellow 注目する，もくろむ changed curiously to the 安定した 星／主役にする of a tiger.
Babe 獲得する! Babe with hollowed 注目する，もくろむs and a sallow, indoor tinge to his swarthy 直面する. Babe walking a bit slowly, inclined to 選ぶ his way instead of coming along with the swinging masterful stride the kid knew so 井戸／弁護士席. Babe, with a question in his 冷淡な gray 注目する，もくろむs and a smile on his 直面する, coming over to shake 手渡すs. The lighted match in the kid's fingers flickered and 脅すd to go out, though there was scarcely a 微風 blowing across the flat. The kid turned away his 長，率いる, his two 手渡すs cupped before his 直面する.
"Hell's 厚かましさ／高級将校連 buttons!" cried Babe, 断言するing his very choicest 誓い kept for special occasions. "Where the hell did you 減少（する） 負かす／撃墜する from, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ?"
The calf roper, welcoming any 転換, let himself out of the corral and （機の）カム trotting over, and the moment for 手渡す-shaking passed.
The kid was glad of that. He felt mighty still inside and mighty 冷静な／正味の and 静める, but he didn't believe he could have gone through with any 手渡す-shaking. Not with Babe, anyhow.
"Rain washed me 負かす／撃墜する the canyon, Babe."
"Old Man send yuh over?" Joe Hale tried to make his 発言する／表明する sound casual, but there was an undertone of 強制 which he failed to 支配（する）／統制する.
The kid took three slow pulls at his cigarette. 負かす／撃墜する on the Brazos, men spoke unhurriedly and he had the ways of his people.
"Nevah did see Waltah Bell since that night I こどもd Babe into the ranch."
"Oh." Joe 熟考する／考慮するd on that. "Thought likely you come from the Poole."
"Awn my way to the Poole, but I done changed my mind!"
"Oh. Kinda outa the way, this calf pasture, and I just kinda wondered. Want to see me for anything? Wanta go to work again?"
"Much 強いるd to yo'all. I taken a 職業 of riding, Joe."
"Yeah? Sorry to see yuh やめる the Poole."
Polite. Too dawgoned polite to be natural. 'Peahed like Joe was getting kinda 怪しげな. Babe too. Babe was 辛勝する／優位ing around uneasy like, as if he 手配中の，お尋ね者 to get in 支援する of the bunch of them. Had that 冷淡な look in his 注目する，もくろむs. The kid knew that look now for the 殺し屋 look. Get around behind and send a 弾丸 into a man's 支援する—that was Babe's （土地などの）細長い一片. The kid 転換d his position a little and looked at Babe.
"Shoah did think that 弾丸 穴を開ける would keep yo'all 負かす／撃墜する all summer, Babe," he drawled. "Feelin' 権利 smaht again, 'peahs like."
"Shore played hell with me for awhile, but I'm feelin' purty good now," Babe said, too cheerfully. "Shore 借りがある a lot to you, Tiger 注目する，もくろむ."
"Shucks, Babe! Yo' don't 借りがある me nothing to what I 借りがある yo'all."
"What outfit yuh ridin' for now, Kid?" Joe looked up from kicking a half-burnt ember 支援する into the 解雇する／砲火／射撃.
"Ridin' foh Missus Murray, 負かす／撃墜する in the valley. 未亡人 woman. Old man that was killed and put the nestahs on the fight the time they 発射 Babe, that was her husband. The one Babe got the bounty on."
注目する，もくろむs turned sidewise to 会合，会う other guarded ちらりと見ることs. Babe's shoulders jerked backward as if from a blow on the chest, but no one spoke.
"Lost some cattle last night," the kid continued, in his purring drawl. "I come out aftah them."
The atmosphere of the Poole men froze for a second. Only Babe, knowing the kid of old, went for his gun and dropped it as the kid's pitiless 弾丸 went 衝突，墜落ing through the knuckles of his 手渡す. The 手渡すs of the two calf レスラーs went up as if they had been jerked with pulley and rope. The man on horseback clapped 刺激（する）s to his horse and galloped like mad away from there. Joe Hale knew better than to try a 発射. He remembered too vividly how 足緒 Markel had fared with the kid over at the Poole.
Babe remembered too, and a horror grew in his 直面する as he 星／主役にするd at his numbed and bleeding 手渡す. He'd rather be dead than 手足を不自由にする／（物事を）損なうd—he always had said so—and now his knuckles would be stiff and useless to pull a 誘発する／引き起こす. But when he ちらりと見ることd up and saw the kid looking after the 逃げるing horseman he chanced a 発射 with his left gun. But the kid didn't seem to need his 注目する，もくろむs to tell what was going on. He caught Babe's movement and 解雇する／砲火／射撃d almost without looking.
"Line up with yoah 支援するs this way," said the kid softly to Joe and the two calf レスラーs.
They did so in haste—all but Babe, who had crumpled 負かす／撃墜する limply in the sand, with his bleeding 手渡すs crossed above his 長，率いる and his 直面する hidden in his 武器. The kid pulled their guns from the sagging holsters, emptied them of cartridges and 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd them into the bushes behind him. He went over them carefully for knives, and collected four big jack-knives and a 背信の looking dagger which he took from Joe Hale's boot.
This much was simple, and though the kid never had held up a bunch of men before in his life and taken their guns away from them, he had heard plenty of gun 闘士，戦闘機s talk during fifteen years of eager listening, and he knew how it was best 遂行するd. The 残り／休憩（する） was something more 複雑にするd, but he followed the simplest 計画（する） he could think of at the moment.
The meekest-looking レスラー worked with trembling haste under the 冷淡な 星／主役にする of Tiger 注目する，もくろむ Reeves. When he had tied Joe Hale and the other レスラー to 地位，任命するs ten feet apart and had helped Babe 獲得する into a shady 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where he would be perfectly 安全な with his feet tied together, the kid was going calmly about the 商売／仕事 of tying his assistant to a third 地位，任命する when Nellie arrived.
Her 直面する was streaked with dust and what looked suspiciously like 涙／ほころびs, and her hair had been clawed by the willows until it lay on her shoulders like a streak of 日光. She sat on her 黒人／ボイコット horse and watched the kid, and under her direct gaze he felt his ears and his 直面する 燃やす like 解雇する／砲火／射撃. The kid did not look up, but he knew the exact instant when she turned her 長，率いる to look at the newly branded calf which now wore a blackened and smarting window-sash brand where yesterday had been a tan-colored 逆転する E. She reined her horse over to the corral and stood in the stirrups to look over the 盗品故買者 and 検査／視察する the milling herd.
"井戸／弁護士席, they're all here, I guess," she 発言／述べるd to the kid who, ten feet away, was ひさまづくing beside the calf レスラー and was yanking the last knot tight. "You made やめる a 運ぶ／漁獲高, didn't you, （頭が）ひょいと動く?"
"Might be bettah," the kid owned, with a covert ちらりと見ること from under his hat brim. "One got plumb away."
"井戸／弁護士席, I told you we せねばならない work together. But you kept on trying to 選ぶ a fight with me, you know. Looks like you got all you 手配中の，お尋ね者 of fighting here." She ちらりと見ることd around at the sullen 捕虜s. "I hope you're ready to 収容する／認める now that the Poole outfit are a bunch of cow thieves."
"Shoah am," said the kid, his lips ready to smile the instant he forgot himself and let them go.
"What you going to do now?"
"Reckon I'll go aftah my hawse."
She followed him, riding in silence while the kid went mincing along on his high heels, his 刺激（する）s gouging up the loose 国／地域 at every step.
"I heard you 狙撃 up here, and I ran my horse and the willows just about scalped me," she said, when they were halfway to where Pecos stood under a cottonwood, with his reins dragging and his 長，率いる up, watching them anxiously.
"I was afraid you might be in trouble or something," she said shyly, looking 負かす／撃墜する at the kid's left cheek and biting her lips. "I hurried as 急速な／放蕩な as I could—in 事例／患者 you needed any help."
"Shoah am 強いるd to yo'all."
"There's something I've been wanting to say," she went on hurriedly, "only you just won't give me a chance."
"'Peahs like I nevah do 行為／法令／行動する the way I feel," said the kid. "Always did want to show yo'all I was a friend."
"I know that. I just want to say that I made an awful fool of myself that night when Babe began to shoot off his mouth about the both of you 存在 Poole 殺し屋s," she 自白するd, with a 肉親，親類d of shy 反抗. "But it seems to me I had some excuse, with father killed just the day before. And I hadn't any sleep, remember, trying to get to 冷淡な Spring and 警告する you the neighbors were sending men over to kill you and Babe. And getting 罠にかける that way—and then when Babe said you 発射 my own brother for five hundred dollars, why—I just 簡単に blew up for a minute."
"Shucks! I nevah did think a word moah about it," the kid 宣言するd 真面目に, looking her straight in the 注目する，もくろむs. "Nevah paid it no mind at all. Don't just recollect what yo'all said, anyway. I was feeling 権利 mean myse'f about what Babe was talking—説 権利 out that he killed yoah pappy. Shoah did make me mighty mad to heah that, Nellie."
"井戸／弁護士席, I guess I 攻撃する，衝突する you a time or two—I was so excited!"
"Shoah have to 攻撃する，衝突する harder than that to make a man feel it!" The kid's grin made him look about sixteen.
"井戸／弁護士席, I just want you to know I'm sorry."
"Yo'all needn't to be."
"I am, just the same. You せねばならない know I never did class you with the Poole. It's just this ornery temper of 地雷—"
"Shucks! If yo' call that a tempah, yo'all oughta see 地雷!" The kid gathered up the reins, 機動力のある and swung と一緒に her.
"You? Why, （頭が）ひょいと動く Reeves! You know very 井戸／弁護士席 I'm the meanest thing on earth! After all you've done, to—to do what I did and—and talk the way I've talked to you, it makes me so ashamed—"
"Aw, hush! When yo'all talk that-a-way, yoh make me feel like batting my haid against a 激しく揺する! Yo'all don't know how I felt this last month, thinking I had nothing but hate f'om yo'all—"
"Hate!" cried Nellie Murray, as one who stands aghast before so 厳しい a word. "Why, if you only knew—" And then she stopped and began to blush furiously, so that the crimson flood 急ぐd up to the 禁止（する）d of yellow hair on her 寺s.
The kid turned and looked at her. Looked until the blush faded and left her pale and trembling, 星／主役にするing hard at her horse's 絡まるd mane.
"If I knew it was love, I—I shoah would be mighty happy and proud," he said under his breath.
Pecos jumped as if a bee had stung him when the kid reached out and gathered Nellie Murray into his 武器.
THE kid sat on the ground with his 支援する against a tree and drew his mouth 組織／臓器 across his smiling lips while he tapped the time with his foot.
Come love, come, the boat lies low,
The moon 向こうずねs 有望な on the old bayou.
Come love, come, oh come along with me—
I'll take you 負かす／撃墜する-n-n to Tennessee!
played the kid, over and over again, while his 囚人s sat and listened, and wondered what 肉親，親類d of a man was Tiger 注目する，もくろむ Reeves, who could shoot a man in 冷淡な 血, 逮捕（する） three others who had thought they were 井戸／弁護士席 able to take care of themselves, and then sit all the afternoon playing that darned mouth 組織／臓器 like he hadn't a care in the world.
The kid didn't know or care what they thought about him. The kid was living in a world of his own, where a girl with yellow hair loved him enough to marry him and settle 負かす／撃墜する. Gone into Badger now after help and the 郡保安官, to come and take this bunch with the 証拠 of the cattle 権利 there behind them in the corral. Gone to bring a doctor out to 直す／買収する，八百長をする up Babe's 手渡すs. But she'd be 支援する, all 権利. And when she got here, the kid would take her over to the ranch and they'd tell her mother there was going to be a man in the family that shoah would be 権利 on the 職業.
He played "Listen to the Mocking Bird," with more warbles and trills and low happy 公式文書，認めるs than he ever dreamed of putting into the song. The rather 明らかにする and desolate ranch where Nellie lived he made a 楽園 in his dreams. Honeysuckle oughta grow up here all 権利. He'd send 負かす／撃墜する to his mother and have her get him a pair of mocking birds. Take her and her mother 支援する 負かす／撃墜する to Texas, only Pap's old enemies would want to go on with the 反目，不和 and he'd have to kill somebody. Reckon the 殺人，大当り was about over, up here. Shoah was a nice country, if folks would just settle 負かす／撃墜する and behave.
The afternoon 病弱なd and the Poole men began to 断言する at the 冷気／寒がらせる and the cramp in their 四肢s, but the kid never even heard them, he was so busy making 計画（する）s for the 未来. 不明瞭 （機の）カム. He sat there very still, trying to realize the amazing truth that Nellie Murray was going to marry him. She loved him. She said she did.
He was still sitting there, two hours later, when Nellie （機の）カム with the doctor and the 郡保安官 and half a dozen men, who worried the kid with questions and talk. But that ended, and he was riding away with Nellie, hitting straight for the valley and the ranch his dreams had glorified.
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