"Sho! That's foolishness," he deprecated.
"I suppose they got you to sit for this picture;" and she
indicated the poster with a wave of her hand.
"That ain't a real picture," he explained, and when she smiled
added, "as of course y'u know. No hawss ever pitched that
way--and the saddle ain't right. Fact is, it's all wrong."
"How did it come here? It wasn't here last night."
"I reckon Denver brought it from Slauson's. He was ridin' that
country yesterday, and as the boys was out of smokin' he come
home that way."
"I suppose you'll all go?"
"I reckon."
"And you'll ride?"
"I aim to sit in."
"At the roping, too?"
"No, m'm. I ain't so much with the rope. It takes a Mexican to
snake a rope."
"Then I'll be able to borrow only a thousand dollars from you to
help buy that bunch of young cows we were speaking about," she
mocked.
"Only a thousand," he grinned. "And it ain't a cinch I'll win.
There are three or four straightup riders on this range. A fellow
come from the Hole-in-the-Wall and won out last year."
"And where were you?"
"Oh, I took second prize," he explained, with obvious
indifference.
"Well, you had better get first this year.
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