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 lousy for all I know, but I hope they're so full of p'ison they'll drip it along the road. If I can help you put 'em through I'm here to do it, but I want you to understand I'm not goin' to tackle the job because I want to help a set of Texas fellers out of a hole. I don't give a damn whether any more Texas cattle ever make it across the Kansas line if I can put these over. I'll not be doin' it for you, but for myself. If I can bust that man, I'll bust him!"

"They're clean cattle," Hughes said, not vehemently as a man might be expected to speak in a matter of such heated controversy, but with the disheartened weariness of utter futility. "What have you got in mind, Dunham?"

The cattleman spoke with growing respect, more as man to man. Even Bob sneaked his hand away from his gun, still surly and sour, but no longer feeling as if he must fight somebody, the handiest man preferred.

"It's a wild scheme, maybe it's impossible," Dunham replied, lapsing into his inscrutable, self-communing silence, which he kept for some moments, his gaze on the trampled road. "It's not likely you'd think much of it, Mr. Hughes"—looking up suddenly—"so I guess I'd better keep it under my hat. I'm gittin' damn tired of bein' laughed at in this country, anyhow."

"If you can overlook what's been said, Dunham, we'll cross it out and start over," Hughes proposed, offering his hand.

Dunham shook hands with him solemnly, taking the initiative himself with Bob, whom he knew how to forgive better than one who had not misjudged and