Lifting his battered hat courteously to the company, he said to the Dean, "I have returned your horse, sir.

I'm very much obliged to you.

I think you will find him in fairly good condition." Jim Reid repeated whatever it was that he had muttered to himself.
The Dean chuckled.

"Jim," he said to the big cattleman, "I want to introduce my friend, Mr.Lawrence Knight, one of Sheriff Gordon's deputies.

It looks like he had been busy over in the Tailholt Mountain neighborhood." The two men shook hands silently.