"He was a sulky divvle and wouldn't give a decent answer to me till he had his stomach filled.

From the way he waded into the ham and eggs, I guess a square meal and him has been strangers for a long time." Sleep and Ed Collier must have been strangers also, for Bud attended the inquest of Lew Morris, visited afterwards with Sheriff Cummings, who was full of reminiscence and wanted to remind Bud of everything that had ever happened within his knowledge during the time when they had been neighbors with no more than forty miles or so between them.

The sheriff offered Bud a horse and saddle, which he promised to deliver to the widow's corral after the citizens of Crater had gone to bed.

And while he did not say that it would be Ed's horse, Bud guessed shrewdly that it would.

After that, Bud carefully slit the lining of his boots tucked money and checks into the opening he had made, and did a very neat repair job.
All that while Ed Collier slept.