Over the rough table Fred Ross delivered himself.
“Something about you I like, Thady Shea,” he said, level-eyed. “The old man who fetched you here told me your name. Don’t know anything more about you. Didn’t know whiskey was bad for you; anyway, it cured the fever. First I knew about you was in yonder, when you talked. Damn good thing for you, pardner! Savvy? Yes.
“Tell you somethin’. I used to be range rider—a puncher, savvy? Forty a month. No future. Never mind the details, but it come to me that if I didn’t get somethin’ to work for, I might’s well quit livin’. So I took up this here quarter section and started in. It cost me dear, I’m tellin’ you!
“I sweat blood over every inch o’ this here land. Folks said it was no good. I put up this shack, put it up right. I set in to raise crops. I put my body into it. I put my heart into it. I put my livin’ eternal soul into it—and by the Lord I’m goin’ to win! I had somethin’ to work for, that’s all.”
Ross leaned back. The flame died from his eyes. He surveyed Thady Shea critically, appraisingly, generously.
“When I heard what you said, in yonder,” he pursued, “I seen all of a sudden that you were a man like me. Savvy? Yes. I don’t blame you, now, for lamming me over the ear like you done. My Lord! Ain’t I talked to God like you done in there? Ain’t things come up to rip the very guts out o’ my soul? Well, it’s like that with all folks, I guess, only it comes different. Savvy? Yes. I gave you whiskey, and I was a damn fool. That’s all.”
Ross rose and began to clatter dishes into the dishpan. Thady Shea rose and went to the doorway. He stood there, looking up the east-running cañon toward the morning sun. He did not see the half-plowed flat, he did not see the horses and plow; he did not see the piñon trees and the trickle of water. Tears were in his eyes. For one blazing moment he had seen into the soul of Fred Ross, the iron soul, the gentle soul, the brave soul of Fred Ross.
Suddenly he turned about, feeling upon his shoulder the hand of the other man.
“Shea, you asked a while ago if there wasn’t no help. Well, maybe there is—if you want it. Do you?”
“Yes,” said Thady Shea, huskily.