“‘A rooting, tooting, shooting, fighting son-of-a-gun, and a good one!’” assisted Mason equably. “‘The only original go-getter—­’ Sure.  That’s all right.”

The flush came slowly and darkened Ford’s cheeks and brow and throat.  He threw his half-smoked cigarette savagely at the hearth of the rusty box-stove, and scowled at the place where it fell.  “Well, ain’t that reason enough?” he demanded harshly, after a minute.

Mason had been studying that flush.  He nodded assent to some question he had put to himself, and crowded tobacco into his pipe.  “No reason at all, one way or the other.  I need a foreman—­one I can depend on.  I’ve got to make a trip out to the Coast, this fall, and I’ve got to leave somebody here I can trust.”

Ford shot him a quick, questioning glance, and bit his lip.  “That,” he said more calmly, “is just what I’m driving at.  You can’t trust me.  You can’t depend on me, Ches.”

“Oh, yes I can,” Mason contradicted blandly.  “It’s just because I can that I want you.”

“You can’t.  You know damn’ well you can’t!  Why, you—­don’t you know I’ve got the name of being a drunkard, and a—­a bad actor all around?  I’m not like I was eight years ago, remember.  I’ve traveled a hard old trail since we bucked the snow together, Ches—­and it’s been mostly down grade.  I was all right for awhile, and then I got ten thousand dollars, and it seemed a lot of money.  I bought a fellow out—­he had a ranch and a few head of horses—­so he could take his wife back East to her mother.  She was sick.  I didn’t want the darned ranch.  And so help me, Ches, that’s the only thing I’ve done in the last four years that I hadn’t ought to be ashamed of.  The rest of the money I just simply blew.  I—­well, you see me; you didn’t want to take me up to the house to meet your wife, and I don’t blame you.  You’d be a chump if you did.  And this is nothing out of the ordinary.  I’ve got my face bunged up half the time, seems like.”  He thumped the pillow into a different position, settled his head against it, and looked at Mason with his old, whimsical smile.  “So when you talk about that foreman job, and depending on me, you’re—­plumb delirious.  I was going to write and tell you so, but I kept putting it off.  And then I took a notion I’d hunt you up and give you some good advice.  You’re a good fellow, Ches, but the court ought to appoint a guardian for you.”

“I’ll stick around for three or four weeks,” Mason observed, in the casual tone of one who is merely discussing the details of an everyday affair, “till the calves are all gathered.  We’re a little late this year, on account of old Slow dying right in round-up time.  We got most of the beef shipped—­all I care about gathering, this fall.  I’ve got most all young stock, and it won’t hurt to let ’em run another season; there ain’t many.  I’ll let you take the wagons out, and I’ll go with you till you get kinda harness-broke.  And—­”