"He acts like he has some thoughts uh doubting my word, so I just offered him a hundred dollars to ride him--that blue roan, over there next that crooked post. GET_ a reserved seat right in front of the grand stand where all the big acts take_ PLACE;" he sung out suddenly, in the regulation circus tone. "GET-a-seat-right-in-front-where-Happy-Jack- the-WILD-Man-rides-the-BUCKING-BRONCHO--Go on, Happy. Don't keep the audience waiting. Aren't yuh going to earn that hundred dollars?" Happy Jack turned half a shade redder than was natural. "Aw, gwan. I never said I was going to do no broncho-busting ack. But I betche yuh never seen that roan before he was unloaded in Dry Lake." "What'll yuh bet I don't know that hoss from a yearling colt?" Andy challenged, and Happy Jack walked away without replying, and cast his loop sullenly over the first horse he came to--which was _not_ the roan. Chip, coming up to hear the last of it, turned and looked long at the horse in question; a mild-mannered horse, standing by a crooked corral post and flicking his ears at the flies. "Do you know that roan?" he asked Andy, in the tone which brings truthful answer. Andy had one good point: he never lied except in an irresponsible mood of pure deviltry. For instance, he never had lied seriously, to an employer. "Sure, I know that hoss," he answered truthfully. "Did you ever ride him?" "No," Andy admitted, still truthfully. "I never rode him but once myself, but I worked right with a Lazy 6 rep that had him in his string, down at the U up-and-down, two years ago. I know the hoss, all right; but I did lie when I told Happy I knowed him from a colt. I spread it on a little bit thick, there." He smiled engagingly down at Chip. "And he's a bad one, is he?" Chip queried Over his shoulder, just as he was about to walk away. "Well," Andy prevaricated--still clinging to the letter, if not to the spirit of truth. "He ain't a hoss I'd like to see Happy Jack go up against. I ain't saying, though, that he can't be _rode_. I don't say that about _any_ hoss."