in this man's town for a fellow to forget his troubles, and I'm looking for it."
"Looking for trouble's what you mean," Bill said pessimistically. "And if you're looking for it you'll sure find it."
Bill left that night in a day coach for the West, and Tom was left alone. He wandered about, limping slightly, but neither trouble nor pleasure offered itself. Once he found a shooting gallery, somewhere near East Madison Street, and spent some time popping away with a small .22 rifle at rows of white clay pipes. A small admiring group of men formed around him; and because he was lonely and because applause was meat to him; he swaggered a bit and kept on.
"Sure can shoot!"
"Huh, you call this shooting? Come out to my country where bears are ripe and I'll show you something!"
But even admiration palled on him. He went back to the hotel, and with the tan shoes still on his feet, patiently soaked them in hot water and went to bed in them. He slept little, but they had stretched somewhat by morning.
It was in the intervals of waking that he began once more to think of Kay. So far he had fought her back with fair success. The round-up and the drive had left him little time, and on the train the incessant poker game, broken only by stops for food and sleep or to look after the cattle, had been a consistent distraction. But that night, lying diagonally on a bed which was too short for him, she came to him again in all her youth, her charm and her love for him. A hundred pictures of her began to torture him; he saw her gallantly riding, the wind blowing back her short hair, he saw her attentively watching him while he made coffee, up on the North fork.
"Why, it's quite easy, isn't it!"
"Mean to say you've never made coffee? You'll be a fine wife for some fellow!"
And most of all he saw her that last night.
"The best thing that can happen to me is to break my neck and be done with it."
"It would break my heart, too."
He gave up the effort to sleep, and began to pace the floor.
