"I thought so!" he said. "What did I tell you? From what I hear"
"I don't care what you hear, and I don't give a damn!"
The next moment he was sorry, but the doctor had gone on.
Then one day he found that he had lost even his chance to get back at Little Dog. He was stripped of everything, even of revenge.
Gus had come into Ursula, had gone to the Sheriff's office and given himself up.
"What for?" asked Allison, staring at him.
Gus smiled.
"I've yust killed a fellow," he said. "I told Tom he was too smart for him, but he wasn't too smart for me. He came into my cabin. 'Hello,' he said. 'So you come through winter all right, eh?' 'Sure I did,' says I, and holds up my leg. 'All but that,' I says. He looked and started out, but I was too quick for him."
When Tom heard the news he went to see Gus in the jail, but he had little to add to his previous story. Little Dog had run off his horses the winter before, and left him there to die, so Gus had killed him. He seemed quite cheerful, although it was clear that he was not entirely balanced. He shook hands with Tom pleasantly when he left.
"The way to catch wolves is to think like a wolf," he said, and chuckled.
The next day Tom got a letter from Arizona. The show was going to England that fall, and needed an Assistant Boss Hostler.
"I understand you've had some hard luck," he wrote, "and I've recommended you for the job. It pays good money, and we are going to show the Johnnie Bulls something to make them drop their h's right down on the ground. You know the work. There's no grand-stand stuff about it, but it's a heap sight better than sitting on your thumbs all winter to keep them warm."
He decided to accept. He saw Tulloss and told him, and the banker did not demur. He had done his best, and it had got him nowhere. The Potter company was still hold-
