tion, and Wallie himself felt relief when the
windlass spun and he heard the splash of the bucket in the bottom.

Rufus's shrieks urged haste as he began to wind laboriously, and with
reason, for Rufus was heavy and though Wallie put forth all his strength
it was no easy task single-handed, and Rufus rose so slowly that the
water gained rapidly.

It became a race between Wallie and the subterranean stream that had
been tapped, and he was panting and all but exhausted when Rufus rose to
the surface. As he stepped from the bucket the water reached the top,
poured over the edge, and rushed down the "draw" to Skull Creek.

Wallie looked with bulging eyes for a moment and when he had recovered
from his astonishment, he turned joyfully, his grudge forgotten, and
shook Rufus's hand in congratulation.

A moment later his enthusiasm was tempered somewhat by the discovery
that he had brought to the surface the strongest flow of salt water in
the country!

CHAPTER XIII

WIPED OUT

"It's shore wicked the way you curse, Old Timer," said Pinkey,
reprovingly, as Wallie came up from the corral carrying an empty milk
bucket in one hand and testing the other for broken bones. "I could hear
you talkin' to Rastus from whur I'm settin'."

Wallie exhibited a row of bruised knuckles and replied fiercely:

"If ever I had an immortal soul I've lost it since that calf came!
Between his bunting on one side and me milking on the other, the cow
kicked the pail over."

"Quirl you a brownie and blow it threw your hackamore and forgit it,"
said Pinkey, soothingly, as he handed him a book of cigarette papers,
with a sack of tobacco and made room for him on the door-sill. "I ain't
used to cow milk anyhow; air-tight is better."

Wallie took the offering but remained standing, rolling it dextrously as
he looked off at his eighty acres of spring wheat showing emerald green
in the light of a July sunset.

Pinkey eyed him critically--the tufts of hair which stood out like
brushes through the cracks in what had once been a fine Panama hat, his
ragged shirt, the faded overalls, the riding boots with heels so run
over that he walked on the side of them.

Unconscious of the scrutiny, Wallie continued to gaze in a kind of holy
ecstasy at his wheat-field until Pinkey ejaculated:

"My, but you've changed horrible!"

"How, changed?" Wallie asked, absently.

"You're so danged dirty! I should think you'd have to sand that shirt
before you