“After that he dug a hole in the snow an’ cut some fir boughs an’ snugged down. He heard that laugh plenty of times ag’in, an’ for the first few times he crawled out after it; but pretty soon it scart him so he couldn’t move. He says he don’t remember what he did after that, but when Noel an’ Gabe Sabattis found him next day he had ten big spruces felled an’ was whirlin’ into the eleventh an’ tellin’ the world he had the devil treed at last. Crazy as a coot! He ain’t recovered yet, though he’s quiet enough an’ talks sane now an’ then. He knows who set his shack a-fire, anyhow.”
“Good Lord!” exclaimed Vane. “And do you believe it?”
“I don’t believe he had the devil up a tree.”
“That someone set fire to his camp?”
“Sure I do, an’ that Amos Dangler’s the man who done it, with the paws of a bear on his feet an’ hands. But don’t tell anybody I said so, for the love of Mike!”
After a brief but thoughtful silence Vane said, “If I should happen to get in wrong with that bunch, I promise you I won’t run away.”
“I guess you want a horse real bad?”
“I do now—but it was more a sentimental whim than anything else that brought me here. Your Danglers don’t scare me worth a cent, Jard. They make me hot behind the ears. Now I’ll have the best animal they’ve got of the old strain, if it takes me a year.”
“Maybe my filly’s as good as anything Luke Dangler’s got.”
“If that proves to be the case I’ll take her, too, if you’ll sell. But I tell you frankly that it’s a Dangler horse I want now.”