Then I slides off and sets down beside the trail.
“Where we goin’?” I asks.
Dirty comes back and sits down beside me.
“It don’t make no difference, does it?” he asks. “They said that we was mostly to blame; so I took you away from ’em and went away. It wasn’t our fault, Ike; but they have to blame somebody.”
“Magpie was mostly to blame,” says I. “We done the best we could. I dunno what you done, Dirty, but I know I saved Piperock from a lot of heartaches.”
“You sure did, Ike,” says Dirty.
“That critter would ’a’ been the ruination of Piperock.”
“That’s a cinch, Ike. But the worst of it is, you only stops the plague temp’rarily.”
“Thasso?” says I. “I done my best, Dirty Shirt. I wish I had the hide for a souvenir.”
Dirty looks queer-like at me.