Supper's about ready, Ford.

Have the boys shovel some hay into the corral, and we'll leave the bunch there till morning.

Say, the wagons didn't beat you much; they never pulled in till after three.

Mose says the going's bad, on them dobe patches." Not much of an opening, that, for saying what Ford felt he was in duty bound to say.

He was constrained to wait until a better opportunity presented itself--and, as is the way with opportunity, it did not seem as if it would ever come of its own accord.