Day after day, as Patches rode with these hardy men, Phil watched him
finding himself and winning his place among the cowboys. They did not
fail, as they said, to "try him out." Nor did Phil, in these trials,
attempt in any way to assist his pupil. But the men learned very
quickly, as Curly had learned at the time of Patches' introduction,
that, while the new man was always ready to laugh with them when a joke
was turned against himself, there was a line beyond which it was not
well to go. In the work he was, of course, assigned only to such parts
as did not require the skill and knowledge of long training and
experience. But he did all that was given him to do with such readiness
and skill, thanks to Phil's teaching, that the men wondered. And this,
together with his evident ability in the art of defending himself, and
the story of his strange coming to the Cross-Triangle, caused not a
little talk, with many and varied opinions as to who he was, and what it
was that had brought him among them. Strangely enough, very few believed
that Patches' purpose in working as a cowboy for the Dean was simply to
earn an honest livelihood.
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