So long!" "Adios!" Throughout this brief exchange of courtesies, Yavapai Joe had not moved, except to puff at his cigarette; nor had he ceased to regard Patches with a stupid curiosity.

As Phil and Patches moved away, he still sat gazing after the stranger, until he was aroused by a sharp word from Nick, as the latter turned his horse toward Tailholt Mountain.

Without changing his slouching position in the saddle, and with a final slinking, sidewise look toward Patches, the poor fellow obediently trailed after his master.
Patches could not resist the impulse to turn for another look at the wretched shadow of manhood that so interested him.
"Well, what do you think of that pair ?" asked Phil, breaking in upon his companion's preoccupation.
Patches shrugged his shoulders much as he had done that day of his first experience with the screwworms; then he said quietly, "Do you mind telling me about them, Phil ?" "Why, there's not much to tell," returned the cowboy.

"That is, there's not much that anybody knows for certain.

Nick was born in Yavapai County.