“Goin’?” he asked indifferently. Seth was not a profitable customer.
“Yes.”
“Home?”
“No. So long.”
Seth swung into the saddle and rode off. And he, too, passed out of the town over the southern trail.
Later he overhauled the Indian. It was Jim Crow, the chief of the Indian police.
“Where do we sleep to-night?” he asked, after greeting the man.
Jim Crow, like all his race who worked for the government, never spoke his own language except when necessary. But he still retained his inclination to signs. Now he made a movement suggestive of three rises of land, and finished up with the word “Tepee.” 89
“I must get back the day after to-morrow,” Seth said. “Guess I’ll hit back through the Reservations. I want to see Parker.”
“Good,” said the Indian, and relapsed into that companionable silence which all prairie men, whether Indian or white, so well understand.