Thus he planted in Jean's sensitive mind a significant thought-provoking idea about the past-and-gone Isbels.
His further remarks, likewise, were exceedingly interesting to Jean.
The settling of the Tonto Basin by Texans was a subject often in dispute.

His own father had been in the first party of adventurous pioneers who had traveled up from the south to cross over the Reno Pass of the Mazatzals into the Basin.

"Newcomers from outside get impressions of the Tonto accordin' to the first settlers they meet," declared Blaisdell.

"An' shore it's my belief these first impressions never change, just so strong they are! Wal, I've heard my father say there were men in his wagon train that got run out of Texas, but he swore he wasn't one of them.

So I reckon that sort of talk held good for twenty years, an' for all the Texans who emigrated, except, of course, such notorious rustlers as Daggs an' men of his ilk.