companionable. When off duty, they were usually to be found near
each other, whether awake or asleep; and when Mizzoo, on entering
some village at the edge of the desert, sought relaxation from a
life of routine by shooting through the windows and spurring his
pony into the saloons, it was the young man, commonly known as Bill,
who lingered behind to advance money for damages to the windows, or
who kept close to the drunken ranger in order to repair the damages
Mizzoo had done to his own soul and body.

"I'll talk my head off," Mizzoo declared, "if that'll keep you on
the move with me, for it's one thing meeting a ghost in the desert
all alone, and quite another when there's a pair of us. Yes, I know
you don't believe nothing I say about that spirit, and I only hope
we'll come on it tonight! It ain't been a week since I see
something creeping along behind me whilst I was riding the line, a
little thing as swift as a jack-rabbit and as sly as a coyote--
something with long arms and short legs and the face of an Injun--"

"Of course it WAS an Indian," returned the young man carelessly.
"He is hanging about here to steal some of our horses. I don't want
you to talk about your ghost, I've heard of him a thousand times."

"Bill, the more you talk about a ghost, the more impressive he gets.
I tell you that wasn't no live Injun! Didn't I blaze away at him
with my six-shooter and empty all my barrels for nothing? No, sir,
it's the same spirit that haunts the trail from Vernon, Texas, to
Coffeyville. I've shot at that red devil this side of Fort Sill,
and at Skeleton Spring, and at Bull Foot Spring, and a mile from
Doan's store--always at night, for it never rises except at night,
as befits a good ghost. I reckon I'll waste cartridges on that