"Say, you ain't got no call to worry about that part of it--there's where my troubles begin," returned Bud. "Now, you take these two bucks and jab 'em in your jeans--Go on, now! Do as I tell you, or damned if I don't lick you and make you take 'em! What's the good of money if it ain't to help a friend out with? I don't care who gets drunk on it, just so long as they have a good time. "Boy, you'll be sailing up the track regardless of orders, with your boiler full of suds, if you don't get out in the scramble for a while." "Lord! I'd like to see a railroad train! Haven't heard a whistle for two years! How far is it to the nearest station, Bud?" "Plattsburg--fifty mile--due south." "Christmas! Little far to walk." "Say, you take this horse, Jim,--go ahead! I can walk just as well as not, I'm getting too fat, anyhow. Go on, you take the horse and have a ride to Plattsburg!" "Yes, take the shirt off your back, and never mind if a bit of the skin goes with it. I'll see you far away first. Tell you what you could do for me, Buddy; the herd of burros is around now, if you'd round up one of them for me?" "Sure thing! You sit on the mail sack till I come back. There's a heap of registered stuff in it this trip. Oh say! What do you think? I was held up t'other side of the Bulldog. Bang! Zipp! says a little popper from the bushes. I climbed for them bushes, and out goes a beggar like a rabbit. I was after him like a coyote, bet cher life. Who do you suppose it was, Jim?" "Hang it, how should I know?" "That little down-east cuss with the crook in his back. He begged hard. Poor devil, he was up against the sandpaper side, all right. He heard from the postmaster that there was a lot of valuable mail going out, so he thought he'd make a try for it. Then what do you think he had the cold, cold nerve to do?" "Pass it up--'most anything, I reckon." "Worse'n that. Struck me for fifty!" "And got it." "Got it? No, not much he didn't, sonny! He drew just ten, and he was lucky to get that. I've done a favor or two for that feller, first and last, and to have him shoot at me made me sore--although he missed me by several locations, I'll say that for him--so I gave him the ten and told him I'd kick the hump on his back so high up on his shoulders he could wear it for a hat, if he ever shoved into my daylight again. And you never in your life saw a humpback make better time than he did. "Well here's for your jack-ass--which way's the herd?" "Right up over the hill." Jim sat patiently on the sack until Bud returned with the burro. "Here's your thoroughbred!" holloed Bud. "Get ap, there, Mary. Look at the knowing ears of him, will you? You bet cher life, you've got an animile there that'll go when he gets ready, and as fast as he pretty well damn pleases--nail him!"