"Sure! You're a good-looker—handsome. If you'd fix yourself up some."
"If I could git rid of the old man! If I could! Aw! come t' think, what I got that lout of a brother for? Easy—with Indians to lay it on. Blaze the way for 'Babe'—he's a saphead—but he knows enough to follow a spotted line."
"Go careful."
"I'll try t' scare 'em off."
"Huh! folks that ain't afraid to come this far in a schooner, Indians or no Indians, ain't likely to stampede at one white."
"You don't know how I mean."
"Go ahead. No use our brayin' like starved jackasses. Do somethin'. You was a fool to ever let 'em winter."
Matthews clenched his fists. "Well," he said, "they won't winter again!"