"Think yo're smart, hey?" he demanded fiercely. "But I want my pay! Nobody can steal a ride with me without payin'. I want five dollars. You hear me? _Five dollars!_ These fools act like they think it's a joke, but I ain't swallerin' it; no, sir! How do _I_ know you didn't plan this all out, an' get yore friends to help you beat an old man out of his fare? There you was, snug in my skins, like a tick in a cow's hair, layin' there for forty miles, snickerin' at me! You wouldn't pay, an' ride alongside me, up in th' dust an' th' heat; but you got poked away on them soft hides, out of th' dust an' th' sun, takin' it easy while I was drivin' them four wild hosses for forty miles! Dozin' off, mebby, while I was doin' all th' work. I don't see no joke." He choked, controlled himself, and shouted: "But you can't do it! I want my pay! An' what will folks say up in Gunsight when they hears about you?" "Oh, Lord!" yelled Pete. "What _will_ they say? It'll never be forgot!" "Life must be pleasant," said Reb, "livin' with _that_ outfit! There's allus somethin' to pass away th' time. I reckon they must 'a' saved up a long time for this feller." "Can you imagine what he's been through today?" asked Pete, his imagination becoming active. "It was plain, common h--l!" Buffalo suddenly let out a whoop, draped himself on a wheel and burst into laughter, and when he could get control of himself he looked around at his audience. "Fellers," he groaned, "it wasn't _his_ outfit! It was them Double X fellers. There was four of 'em in Gunsight last night, an' they was feelin' good. They've got th' nerve to tackle a joke like this, too; an' there ain't no love lost between them two ranches. When I was goin' into th' hotel after puttin' up my team, I heard a lot of laughin' in Dave's saloon, an' I remembers some of them Double X fellers howlin' 'bout a kidnapin'. That's it! They done it! An' I tell you it took nerve, tacklin' this two-gun man for a joke! It won't be no joke when he gits back--there'll be killin's over this. But, killin' or no killin', I can't help it--Oh! Ho! Ho! Oh! Ho! Ho! An' me settin' up there, drivin' like a dodderin' old fool, with this feller tied up in them odorous skins! Wolf Forbes, two-gun badman of th' Bar H! Oh! Ho! Ho! There'll be killin's; but I got to laugh--Oh, Lordy! Lordy! Lordy!" "Forty mile! Forty mile!" senselessly repeated one man, weaving around, stepping on everyone in his path. "Forty mile! Forty mile!" "Playin' mummy on a pile of stinkin' hides!" cried another. "Tied up like a--like a--I dunno what!" "Bouncin' an' jouncin' under that tarp on a day like this!" "Forty mile" came around again, chanting his passwords, stumbled over Reb and flopped, still chanting. Brazos held up the bottle, and put it down again, not daring to give the last dose for fear of spilling it, and rocked back and forth on his haunches: "Wrapped in a stinkin' hide--forty mile--mummy--oh, my sacred cow!"