He stopped abruptly and looked out over the country toward Hidden Water, while the Mexicans 181 watched him furtively from beneath their slouched hats.
“Expecting some friends?” inquired Thomas, with a saturnine grin.
Hardy shook his head. “No. I came out here alone, and I left my gun in camp. I haven’t got a friend within forty miles, if that’s what you mean. I suppose you’ve got your orders, Mr. Thomas, but I just want to talk this matter over with you.”
“All right,” said the sheepman, suddenly thawing out at the good news. “I don’t have so much company as to make me refuse, even if it is a warm subject. But mebby you’d like a bite to eat before we git down to business?” He waved a deprecating hand at the greasy canvas, and Hardy swung quickly down from his saddle.
“Thanks. But don’t let me keep you from your dinner. Here’s where I break even with Jim Swope for all that grub I cooked last Spring,” he remarked, as he filled his plate. “But if it was him that asked me,” he added, “I’d starve to death before I’d eat it.”
He sat on his heels by the canvas, with the boss sheepman on the other side, and the Mexicans who had been so cocky took their plates and retired like Apaches to the edge of the brush, where they would not obtrude upon their betters.
“They say it’s bad for the digestion,” observed Hardy, after the first silence, “to talk about things that make you mad; so if you don’t mind, Mr. Thomas, we’ll forget about Jim Swope. What kind of a country is it up there in Apache County, where you keep your sheep all Summer?”
“A fine country,” rejoined Thomas, “and I wish to God I was back to it,” he added.
“Why, what’s the matter with this country? It looks pretty good to me.”