"What happened ?" "He hurt my horse.

If it hadn't been for that there'd been no trouble." A light leaped up in the old man's bold eyes.

He was a lover of horses.
Many hard words, and blows, too, he had dealt cowboys for being brutal.
"What'd he do ?" "Look at Spottie's mouth." The rancher's way of approaching a horse was singularly different from his son's, notwithstanding the fact that Spottie knew him and showed no uneasiness.

The examination took only a moment.
"Tongue cut bad.

Thet's a damn shame.