Corliss laughed. "You're a railroad man, I take it. Belong in this country?"
Sundown rose from his knees and backed away from the stove. "Nope. Don't belong anywhere, I guess. My address when I'm to home is Sundown Slim, Outdoors, Anywhere, speakin' general."
"Come in afoot?"
"Uhuh. Kind o' thought I'd get a job. Fellas at Antelope told me they wanted a cook at this hotel. I reckon they do—and some boarders and somethin' to cook."
"That's one of their jokes. Pretty stiff joke, sending you in here afoot."
"Oh, I ain't sore, mister. They stole me nanny, all right, but I feel jest as good here as anywhere."
Corliss led Chinook to the water-hole. Sundown followed.
"Ever think how many kinds of water they was?" queried Sundown. "Some is jest water; then they's some got a taste; then some's jest wet, but this here is fine! Felt like jumpin' in and drinkin' from the bottom up when I lit here. Where do you live?"
"On the Concho, thirty miles south."
"Any towns in between?"