Jeff glanced down at his writing, and back to his questioner. Then he made an alteration, closed the book and looked up again. He had a merry eye. “Exactly how does a cowboy look? And how does it talk?” he asked mildly. He glanced with much interest over as much of his own person as he could see; turning and twisting to aid the process. “I don’t see anything wrong. Is my hair on straight?” “Wrong!” echoed Aughinbaugh severely, shaking an accusing finger. “Why, you’re all wrong. What the public expects----” Mr. Bransford’s interruption may be omitted. It was profane. Also, it was plagiarized from Commodore Vanderbilt. “You a cowboy! Yah!” said Aughinbaugh in vigorous scorn. “With a silk necktie! Everybody knows that the typical cowboy wears a red cotton handkerchief.” “How long since you left New York?” “Me? I’m from Kansas City.” “Same thing,” said Bransford coldly. “I mean, how long since you came to El Paso? And have you been out of town since?” “About eight months. And I confess that my duties--at first in the bank and afterwards here, have kept me pretty close, except for a trip or two to Juarez. But why?” “Why enough!” returned Jeff. “Young man, young man! I see the finger of fate in this. It is no blind chance that brought me here while Hibler was away. It was predestined from the foundations of earth that I was to come here at this very now to explain to you about cowboys. I have the concentrated venom of about twenty-one years stored away to work off on somebody, and I feel it in my bones that you are the man. Come with me and I will do you good--as it says in mournful Numbers. You’ve been led astray. You shouldn’t believe all you read and only half what you see. “In the first place, take the typical cowboy. There positively ain’t no sich person! Maybe so half of ’em’s from Texas and the other half from anywhere and everywhere else. But they’re all alike in just one thing--and that is that every last one of them is entirely different from all the others. Each one talks as he pleases, acts as he pleases and--when not at work--dresses as he pleases. On the range though, they all dress pretty much alike.--Because, the things they wear there have been tried out and they’ve kept only the best of each kind--the best for that particular kind of work.” “They ‘proved all things and held fast that which was good,’” suggested Aughinbaugh.