On the home trip, as Nimrod Jim stalked along with his follower trotting beside, they rehearsed every detail of the unexpected encounter. Jim crouched and leaped again, giving his sensations when the buck did likewise. Then he waited while Ches ran down a side hill and threw himself upon a sapling, which for the time was a deer's hind leg. They were just of an age--any one would have said so, on seeing them approach the cabin, arms flying, tongues wagging, bruised, tired and happy. "Jim," said a very sleepy little boy after supper, gorged like an anaconda, "yer don't see t'ings like dat in N'york--not much yer don't. If dat racket had come off in der Bowery, dere'd be head-lines--'dlines--on der extries--more'n a mile--" Jim picked him up and tucked him into his bunk. "More'n a mile long--g' nigh'," sighed Ches. Jim lit his pipe and went out for an evening smoke. It was some little time the next morning before he could realize what he was doing out there under the tree. He had been in some ways a graver man of late. What he had undertaken as an experiment, a generous impulse, had been turned into a lasting responsibility. IV On the second day after Ches' arrival, Bud had come through with the mail, and before leaving, drew Jim aside, out of the boy's hearing. "The little feller's yours agin all comers now, Jim," he said. "What's that?" asked Jim, surprised by the meaning in the tone. "He's _yours_," repeated Bud. "That sweet-scented blossom that called himself the boy's dad, filled his skin with red-eye farther up the line and settled the fuss he had with his dame." "Hurt her?" "Man!" said Bud slowly, "he used a knife a foot long--gave it to her a dozen times as hard as he could drive--what's your opinion?" "Lord Almighty! Did he get away? But no, of course he couldn't, being on the train--" "He didn't get away. The Con. wired the news to Kimballs. What was he to do when a small army of punchers boarded the train and took the prisoner? He couldn't do nothing, and he never loved that black-muzzled whelp from the time he sassed him in the depot. The punchers took our friend out and tried him." "Tried him?" "With a rope. In three minutes by; the watch he was found wanting--your boy now, Jim, as I was telling you. Going to say anything to him about it?" "Why," said Jim, bewildered, "why, I don't know, Bud--guess not, just yet, on general principles. What do you think?" "Think you're right," said Bud. "The poor little rooster couldn't help but feel glad to hear the news, but it would sound kind of awful to hear a kid like that say he was glad two people were killed. Better wait till he's been with you a while, Jim, and learned something different." Jim flushed at the implied compliment. "You're right, Bud, I will."