We didn’t have anything to say on the subject; so we just sat and chewed grass.
“I’ve been thinkin’ about that old Greek feller, ’at you named me after,” sez Promotheus at last. “He didn’t ask no one else to take the responsibility of tellin’ him what to do. He just decided what was right, and then did it. If I go to Ty Jones, and he treats me right, my own thoughts’ll tear at me like vultures; but this here other Promotheus, he stood it, ’cause it was for man’s good; and I’m game to do the same.
“I don’t intend to be any more sneakier ’n I have to be. All I intend to do is to find out what I can about the woman, and, if Ty ain’t treatin’ her right, to help get her away from him; but I want it understood right now that I’m not goin’ to work any tricks on Ty to get him into the law for what he’s done in bygone days. Now then, I take all the blame on my own shoulders; but we’ll have to fix up a tale to fool a wise one, ’cause Ty won’t be took in by chaff.”
We talked things over a long time; but it seemed mighty unreasonable for Promotheus to have pulled out without sayin’ a word, and then to come back without writin’ in the meantime; and we couldn’t quite hit on it. Finally the idee came to me.
“They’re goin’ to graze the grass down to the roots, this summer,” sez I; “but still, the’ won’t be enough to go around. A lot o’ cattle will have to be sold off early, and some will be trailed up into Montana, and cow-punchers are goin’ to be in demand. Ty is long on cattle and short on grass, and he’ll be glad to have extra help he can trust; so he won’t question ya too close. You tell him ’at Horace here was a government agent, and that he arrested you as a deserter, and took you to prison where you was given a life sentence; that you broke out a couple o’ months ago, and have been workin’ your way back as cautious as you could.”
“My Lord, I hate to tell him that!” sez The. “It’s too infernal much like what I told him the first time.”
“You got to make up a good story, or else give up your plan,” sez I.
“Yes, that’s so,” he agreed. “Ty’d believe that, too. What prison had I better say I’ve been in?”
“Which one was you in?” sez I.
“I never was in any government prison,” sez he. “I was in a state prison.”