Tex sneered openly, luxuriously, aggressively, and for all the world to see. He promised himself that he would not remain here very long. Before him lay the squalid dirt street with its cans and rubbish, the bloated body of a dog near the platform, a dead cat farther along. There were several two-story frame buildings, evidently built while the townsite game was on. The rest were one-story shacks, and he remembered most of them. He picked up his belongings and sauntered into the station to wait until the agent had finished his business with the train crew, and that did not take long. The agent stepped into the dusty, dirty room, coughed, nodded, and passed into his partitioned office. In a moment he was out again, looked closely at the puncher and decided to risk a smile and a word: "Is there anything I can do for you?" he hazarded. Tex put his sombrero beside him on the bench and wiped his forehead with a sleeve. He saw that his companion was slight, not too healthy, and appeared to be friendly and intelligent; but in his eyes lay the shadow of fear. "Mebby you can tell me th’ best place to eat an’ sleep; an’ th’ best place to buy a horse," he replied. "Williams’ hotel is the best in town, and I’d ask him about the horse. You might do better if you didn’t say I recommended him to you." "Not if you don’t want me to," responded Tex, smiling sardonically for some inexplicable reason. "Reckon he’d eat you because yo’re sendin’ him trade? Don’t worry; I won’t say you told me." "So far as I am concerned it don’t matter. It’s you I’m thinking about." Tex stretched, crossed his legs, and smiled. "In that case I’ll use my own judgment," he replied. "Been workin’ for th’ railroad very long?" "Little too long, I’m afraid," answered the agent, coughing again, "but I’ve been out here only two months." He hesitated, looked a little self-conscious, and continued. "It’s my lungs, you know. I got a transfer for my health. If I can stick it out here I have hopes of slowly improving, and perhaps of getting entirely well." "If you can stick it out? Meanin’ yo’re findin’ it too monotonous an’ lonely?" queried Tex. The agent laughed shortly, the look of fear again coming into his eyes. "Anything but the first; and so far as being lonely is concerned, I find that my sister is company enough." Tex cogitated and recrossed his legs. "From what I have already seen of this town I’d gamble she is; but a man’s allus a little better off if he can herd with his own sex once in a while. So it ain’t monotonous? Have many trains a day?" he asked, knowing from his perusal of the time-table that there were but two. "One in and one out. You passed the other on the siding at Willow, if you’ve come from beyond there." "Reckon I remember it. Much business here to keep you busy?" "Not enough to tire even a--lunger!" He said the word bitterly and defiantly.