“Shake,” said Smith. “I wisht we’d got acquainted sooner.”
“And mebby I kin tell you somethin’ about brands,” Tubbs went on boastfully.
“More’n likely.”
“I kin take a wet blanket and a piece of copper wire and put an addition to an old brand so it’ll last till you kin git the stock off’n your hands. I’ve never done it, but I’ve see it done.”
“I’ve heard tell of somethin’ like that,” Smith replied dryly.
“Er you kin draw out a brand so you never would know nothin’ was there. You take a chunk of green cottonwood, and saw it off square; then you bile it and bile it, and when it’s hot through, you slaps it on the brand, and when you lifts it up after while the brand is drawed out.”
“Did you dream that, Tubbs?”
“I b’leeve it’ll work,” declared Tubbs stoutly.
“Maybe it would work in I-ó-wa,” said Smith, “but I doubts if it would work here. Any way,” he added conciliatingly, “we’ll give it a try.”
“And this chanct—it’s tolable safe?”