There were not even cart ruts sunk in it.
He got back into the car.
''It's a boulevard,'' he said. ''Quit worrying.''
''Yes, sir.
It's your car, sir.''
''I know,'' the Colonel said. ''I'm still paying for it.
Say, Jackson, do you always suffer so much any time you go off a highway onto a secondary road?''
''No, sir.
But there's a lot of difference between a jeep, and a car as low hung as this.
Do you know the clearance you have on your differential and your body frame on this?''
''I've got a shovel in the trunk and we've got chains.
Wait till you see where we're going after we leave Venice,''
''Do we go all the way in this car?''
''I don't know.
I'll see.''
''Think about your fenders, sir.''
''We'll cut the fenders off like the Indians do in Oklahoma.
She's over-fendered right now.
She's got too much of everything except engine.
Jackson, that's a real engine she's got. One hundred and fifty ponies.''
''It certainly is, sir.
It's a great pleasure to drive that big engine on the good roads.
That's why I don't want anything to happen to her.''
''That's very good of you, Jackson.
Now just quit suffering.''
''I'm not suffering, sir.''
''Good,'' said the Colonel.
He was not, either, because just then he saw, beyond the line of close-bunched brown trees ahead, a sail moving along.
It was a big red sail, raked sharply down from the peak, and it moved slowly behind the trees.
Why should it always move your heart to see a sail moving along through the country, the Colonel thought Why does it move my heart to see the great, slow, pale oxen?
It must be the gait as well as the look of them and the size and the color.
But a good fine big mule, or a string of pack mules in good condition, moves me, too.
So does a coyote every time I ever see one, and a wolf, gaited like no other animal, gray and sure of himself, carrying that heavy head and with the hostile eyes.
''Ever see any wolves out around Rawlins, Jackson?''
''No, sir.
Wolves were gone before my time; they poisoned them out.
Plenty coyotes, though.''
''Do you like coyotes?''
''I like to hear them nights.''
''So do I.
Better than anything, except seeing a ship sailing along through the country.''
''There's a boat doing that over there, sir.''
''On the Sile canal,'' the Colonel told him. ''She's a sailing barge going to Venice.
This wind is off the mountains now and she makes it along pretty good.
It's liable to turn really cold tonight if this wind holds and it ought to bring in plenty ducks.
Turn to your left here and we'll run along the canal.
There's a good road.''
''They didn't have much duck shooting where I came from.
But there was plenty of it in Nebraska along the Platte.''
''Do you want to shoot where we're going?''