Wallie replied with dignity:
"This is my homestead; I filed on it this morning."
"Looks like you'd a-found out if it was open to entry before you went to all that trouble." Boise Bill shuffled his feet so that a cloud of the light wood-ashes rose and settled in the gravy.
Wallie frowned but picked them out patiently.
"I did," he answered, moving the pan.
"Then somebody's lied to you, fer I filed on this ground and I ain't abandoned it."
"You've never done any work on it, and Mr. Tucker has my filing fees and application so I cannot see that there is any argument about it."
Wallie was very polite and conciliatory.
"You'll find that filin' is one thing and holdin' is another in this man's country." Quite deliberately he scuffled up another cloud of cinders.
"I will appreciate it," said Wallie, sharply, "if you won't kick ashes in my gravy!"