"Why?"

"I don't know myself just why." He hesitated before adding: "They
say him and Bannister is thicker than they'd ought to be. It's a
cinch that he's in cahoots somehow with that Shoshone bunch of
bad men."

"But--why, that's ridiculous. Only this morning he was trying to
kill Bannister himself."

"That's what I don't just savvy. There's a whole lot about that
business I don't get next to. I guess Bannister is at the head of
them. Everybody seems agreed about that. But the whole thing is a
tangle of contradiction to me. I've milled it over a heap in my
mind, too."

"What are some of the contradictions?"

"Well, here's one right off the bat, as we used to say back in
the States. Bannister is a great musician, they claim; fine
singer, and all that. Now I happen to know he can't sing any more
than a bellowing yearling."

"How do you know?" she asked, her eyes shining with interest.

"Because I heard him try it. 'Twas one day last summer when I was
out cutting trail of a bunch of strays down by Dead Cow Creek.
The day was hot, and I lay down behind a cottonwood and dropped
off to sleep. When I awakened it didn't take me longer'n an hour