“Amen!” said Patches solemnly, when Phil paused for lack of breath.  “But, Phil, your eloquent characterization does not explain what the he-ghost has to do with the sale of the Pot-Hook-S outfit.”

Phil’s voice again dropped into its hopeless key as he answered.  “You remember how, from the very first, Kitty—­well—­sort of worshiped him, don’t you?”

“You mean how she worshiped his aesthetic cult, don’t you?” corrected Patches quietly.

“I suppose that’s it,” responded Phil gloomily.  “Well, Uncle Will says that they have been together mighty near every day for the past three months, and that about half of the time they have been over at Kitty’s home.  He has discovered, he says, that Kitty possesses a rare and wonderful capacity for absorbing the higher truths of the more purely intellectual and spiritual planes of life, and that she has a marvelously developed appreciation of those ideals of life which are so far removed from the base and material interests and passions which belong to the mere animal existence of the common herd.”

“Oh, hell!” groaned Patches.

“Well, that’s what he told Uncle Will,” returned Phil stoutly.  “And he has harped on that string so long, and yammered so much to Jim and to Kitty’s mother about the girl’s wonderful intellectuality, and what a record-breaking career she would have if only she had the opportunity, and what a shame, and a loss to the world it is for her to remain buried in these soul-dwarfing surroundings, that they have got to believing it themselves.  You see, Kitty herself has in a way been getting them used to the idea that Williamson Valley isn’t much of a place, and that the cow business doesn’t rank very high among the best people.  So Jim is going to sell out, and move away somewhere, where Kitty can have her career, and the boys can grow up to be something better than low-down cow-punchers like you and me.  Jim is able to retire anyway.”

“Thanks, Phil,” said Patches quietly.

“What for?”

“Why, for including me in your class.  I consider it a compliment, and”—­he added, with a touch of his old self-mocking humor—­“I think I know what I am saying—­better, perhaps, than the he-ghost knows what he talks about.”

“It may be that you do,” returned Phil wearily, “but you can see where it all puts me.  The professor has sure got me down and hog-tied so tight that I can’t even think.”

“Perhaps, and again, perhaps not,” returned Patches.  “Reid hasn’t found a buyer for the outfit yet, has he?”

“Not yet, but they’ll come along fast enough.  The Pot-Hook-S Ranch is too well known for the sale to hang fire long.”

The next day Phil seemed to slip back again, in his attitude toward Patches, to the temper of those last weeks of the rodeo.  It was as though the young man—­with his return to the home ranch and to the Dean and their talks and plans for the work—­again put himself, his personal convictions and his peculiar regard for Patches, aside, and became the unprejudiced foreman, careful for his employer’s interests.