“Want lodgin’, do ye? An’ breakfast an’ supper, too, I reckon, don’t ye?” said he. “Goin’ to stay here long?”
“No, sir. I want to find a way to reach Ackerman’s rancho,” replied the boy, after he had pulled his fingers apart and straightened them out.
“O, goin’ there, be ye? All right. I kin help ye along. One of Ackerman’s herdsmen is stopping with me now.”
“Is it far from here?” asked Gus.
“O, no; just a jump—a hundred and fifty miles mebbe. Ye’ll see lively times thar, too, ‘kase the raiders come in thar thicker’n huckleberries last full moon. Want lodgin’, do ye? Take the third bench to the left in the bar-room. O, Mose!” shouted the landlord, so suddenly that Gus started involuntarily.
In response to this call, which was uttered in a tone so loud that it would have reached the ears of the person for whom it was intended, if he had been a quarter of a mile away, a young man, roughly dressed and armed like his companions, left the crowd on the verandah and came into the office. The host glanced at the register, on which Gus had placed his name, and introduced the newcomer to his guest.
“Mose,” said he, “this young feller is the chap yer lookin’ fur—Gus Robbins. Look out ye don’t lose him, fur he’s so green the cattle’ll eat him up when ye get him out thar to the ranche.”
Gus did not know who Mose was, but he shook hands with him, and was surprised to hear him say, in as good English as he could have used himself—
“We were all green when we first came out here. I have been looking for you for three days,” he added, as he led Gus toward a bench on one side of the room. “Ned told me he was expecting you, and described you so accurately that I was certain I knew who you were the moment I set eyes on you. I am one of Mr. Ackerman’s herdsmen, you know, and have just driven down five hundred head of stock that he sold the other day.”
Gus had not talked with his new acquaintance more than five minutes before he began to feel perfectly at home in his company. Mose was a good deal like the young men he had known in the North. True, he was bronzed and weather-beaten, and his clothing looked as though it had seen the hardest of service; but the words he used showed him to be an intelligent man, and he did not shout as though he thought his listener was hard of hearing. When there was a little pause in the conversation, Gus began to seek information on some points.