And then for her and Joe I rode down south and when I met Dan Barry d'you think they was any light in his eyes when he seen me?
"No, he'd forgotten me the way even a hoss won't forget his master.
Forgot me after a few months--and after all that'd gone between us! Not even Kate--even she was nothin' to him.

But still I kept at it and I brought him back.

I had to hurt him to do it, but God knows it wasn't out of spite that I hit him--God knows! "And when I seen Dan go into that burnin' barn I says to myself: 'Buck, if nothin' is done that wall will fall and there's the end of Dan Barry.
There's the end of him, that ain't any human use, and when he's finished after a while maybe Kate will get to know that they's other men in the world besides Dan.' I says that to myself, deep and still inside me.

And then I looked at Kate standin' in that white thing with her yaller hair all blowin' about her face--and I wanted her like a dyin' man wants heaven! But then I says to myself again: 'No matter what's happened, he's been my friend.

He's been my pal.