An earthen vessel contained a gallon or so, which Slidham had brought only a short time before from the spring near by. Eph quaffed long and deep before setting it on the rough floor, and drew the back of his hand across his mouth, with a sigh of enjoyment.
“You can’t improve much on that,” he remarked, resuming his seat on one of the bags of grain.
“No; it goes pretty well when you have been without anything for two or three days,” replied Rickard, who suspected the errand that had brought his old acquaintance thither.
“It isn’t as bad as that, but we haven’t had a swaller sence crossing the Pecos to-day.”
“You say ‘we’; how is that, Eph? When we parted you were travelling the other way, and no one was with you.”
“You’re right on that, but I met Ard Strubell and Baker Lattin, who had a younker with ‘em, and they war after you.”
“After me! What was that for?”
“Come, Bell, none of that; you understand what it means; you’ve got a younker, and they want him.”
“Are they willing to pay for him?” asked the horse thief.