The pony turned an inquiring eye upon him, and he grinned, suddenly smitten with the humor of the situation.
"You ain't got no call to look so doggoned innocent about it," he said.
"If you'd been tendin' to your business, you wouldn't have stepped into no damned gopher hole." The pony moved slowly away, and he looked whimsically after it, remarking: "Mebbe if I'd been tendin' to my business it wouldn't have happened, either." He spoke again to the pony.

"I reckon you know that too, Mustard.

You're some wise." The animal was now at some little distance from the rock upon which he was sitting.

He arose, hobbling on one foot toward it, carrying the discarded boot in his hand.

He thought of riding with the foot bare.
At the Two Diamond he was sure to find some sort of liniment which, with the help of a bandage, would materially assist nature in---- He was passing a filmy mesquite clump--the bare foot swinging wide.
There was a warning rattle; a sharp thrust of a flat, brown head.
Ferguson halted in astonishment, almost knocked off his balance with the suddenness of the attack.