But they were quick to read signs, and with characteristic courtesy they fell in with the mood they could not understand.

There is no man living so quick to feel your mood, and so ready to adapt himself to it, as is the true Westerner.
This was the day of the cowboy's grief.

To the rest of the community The Pilot was preacher; to them he was comrade and friend.

They had been slow to admit him to their confidence, but steadily he had won his place with them, till within the last few months they had come to count him as of themselves.

He had ridden the range with them; he had slept in their shacks and cooked his meals on their tin stoves; and, besides, he was Bill's chum.