Page:Caroline Lockhart--The full of the Moon.djvu/149

 off me by a son-of-a-gun from Roswell. I follered him twenty mile."

"It's hard to keep anything fit to wear in a cow-camp," agreed Kansas, "where half the outfit is nothin' but petty thieves. I mind how bad I felt when I lost three good silk handkerchiefs that same way. I took 'em off a dude's neck while he was asleep and then some skunk robbed me."

"If you don't set no great store by that shirt, Kansas, I wouldn't mind givin' you five beans for it." Carelessly, "I kinda took a fancy to it."

The prairie Shylock shook his head.

"Fact is, Joe, I been holdin' that shirt back to be buried in. The way things happen sudden out here it's a good scheme to have one good suit by you."

"Of course,' replied Mr. Brindell haughtily, realizing that he was playing the mouse to Kansas Ed's cat, "of course t'aint my aim to jew a feller out of his shroud, but as far as that goes," he scrutinized Kansas Ed's unprepossessing visage critically, "you'd be jest as good-lookin' a corp' and more natural, with your coat-collar turned up."