And not so sure that you haven't discharged your keeper
prematurely. You mustn't think of such things."
"There you go. Forbidding me to think again! . . . Believe I will sit
down; would you believe that a full-grown man like me could get as weak
as a cat this quick?"
He took the chair just beyond her, tilted it back against the wall, his
booted heels caught under its elevated legs, and glanced away from her
to the colorful sky above San Juan's scattered houses in the west.
"Yes, sir," he continued his train of thought, "I'd like a horse
between my knees; I'd like to ride out yonder into the sunset, to meet
the night as it comes down; I'd like the feeling of nothing but the
stars over me instead of the smothery roof of a house. Doesn't it
appeal to you, too?"
"Yes," she said.
"You on Persis, with me on my big roan, riding not as we rode that
other night, but just for the fun of it. I'd like to ride like the
devil. . . . You don't mind my saying what I mean, do you? . . . to go
scooting across the sage-brush letting out a yell at every jump, boring
holes in the night with my gun, making all of the racket and dust that
one man can make. Ever feel that way? just like getting outside and
making a noise? Let me talk! I'm the one who has been shut up for so
long my tongue has started to grow fast to the roof of my mouth.
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