"I want a man of tact to go and talk with these people and get their point of view.

If you don't care to undertake it I'll send another man." "I think that I would enjoy the task," I said in ignorance of that hornet's nest back in the hills.
"Take Purvis with you," he said.

"He can take care of the horses, and as those back-country folk are a little lawless it will be just as well to have a witness with you.

They tell me that Purvis is a man of nerve and vigor." Thus very deftly and without alarming me he had given me a notion of the delicate nature of my task.

He had great faith in me those days.