"Three," said Skag.
"Let's smoke 'em now. They're calling me already."
Skag passed him the case, saying; "I'm not ready. I do not care just now."
The other puffed dismally.
"I don't always quite get you, son," he said. "But it's all right when
I do—"
Skag mused over this. He was hungry and he put the thought away. He was athirst and he put that thought away also. The wants came back, but he dealt with them more firmly. The two men talked of appetites in general, and Skag explained that he handled his, just as he had handled the wild animals in the circus, being straight with them and gaining their friendliness.
"Don't fight them," he said. "Get them on your side and they will pull for you in a pinch."
"You talk like a Hindu holy man—"
"Do they talk like that?" Skag asked quickly. . . . "It was my old friend with the circus—who taught me these things. He taught me to make friends with my own wild animals. It is true that he was many years in India. . . ."
"He was the one that had the ring in his left ear?"