"How much did he try to borrow?" Sally Jane inquired indifferently.
"Nothing like that, sweet one. The political steersmen of our fair county rode out to my place last night and——"
"What did the old thief want?" Sally Jane brutally wished to know.
"Steersmen, beloved. There were two of him, and you do both old gentlemen an injustice. They——"
"So Tip came with Rafe, did he? And you mean to tell me you didn't even miss your watch after they'd gone? You didn't? They must be sick, the pair of them. What did they do?"
"Offered me the nomination for sheriff!"
Sally Jane sat up abruptly, stuck her finger in her mouth, then held it up to catch the vagrant breeze.
"The wind's still in the west," she said, making her eyes round as saucers. "And you are still sitting there as large as life, and I'm here alive and in my right mind!" Here she pinched her forearm. "That hurt," she added. "I really am not dreaming. They want you for sheriff, huh?"
"Don't 'huh' at me, Sally Jane. It ain't being done by the best people no more. And they want me for sheriff, really."
"I wonder just how much of that really is real?"