"That ain't payin' for the critter, is it?"
"No."
"An' do you reckon I'm goin' to let the boss take the price out o' my wages?" continued Jim Jones warmly.
"Isn't the steer worth something as meat?"
"Yes, but not near as much as he was wuth on the hoof."
"We might take up a collection for Mr. Jones, if he is a poor man," suggested Songbird, who did not want any trouble.
"But we haven't got to do it," broke in Tom. "It was his business not to let the steer run wild in the first place."
"So you're going to take a hand, eh?" stormed the cowboy; then, feeling he was in the minority, he went on more humbly: "Yes, I'm a poor man, and this may get me discharged."
"How much do you think we ought to pay?" asked Dick. "Name a reasonable price and I may settle, just to avoid trouble, and not because I think I ought to pay."
"How about fifty dollars?" asked the cowboy with a shrewd look in his fishy, blue eyes.