nkey, who said vindictively:

"I'd rob a train to git money enough to turn fifty head of dudes loose
on Canby. He'd be mad enough to bite himself. If he could help it he
wouldn't have a neighbour within a hundred miles."

Wallie's thoughts were bitter as he remembered the many injuries he had
suffered at Canby's hands. It was a subject upon which he dared not
trust himself to talk--it stirred him too much, although he had long ago
decided that since he was powerless to retaliate there was nothing to do
but take his medicine. As he made no response, Pinkey continued while he
tightened the cinch:

"If you could make a dude ranch out o' this and worry him enough, he'd
give you about any price you asked, to quit."

"I'd ask plenty," Wallie replied, grimly, "but it's no use to talk."

"It wouldn't trouble my conscience none if I hazed a bunch of his horses
over the line, but horses are so cheap now that it wouldn't pay to take
the chance."

"There's the Prouty Bank," Wallie suggested, ironically.

"Them bullet-proof screens have made cashiers too hard to git at."
Pinkey spoke in an authoritative tone.

"Why don't you marry some rich widow and get us a stake?"

"Aw-w!" Resentment and disgust were in Pinkey's voice. "I'd steal
washings off of clothes lines first." He added: "I don't like them
jokes."

"I didn't know you were touchy, Pink."

"Everybody's touchy," Pinkey replied, sagely, "if you hit 'em on the
right spot. But, do you know, this dude ranch sticks in my mind, and I
can't git it out."

"We might as well let it drop. We haven't the money, so we're wasting
our breath. We'll lose the jobs we've got if we don't get about our
business. Let's leave the cattle in the corral and scout a little
through the hills--it'll save us another trip. I don't want to come here
again soon--it hurts too much."

Pinkey agreed, and they rode gloomily along the creek bank looking for a
ford. A few hot days had taken off the heavy snows in the mountains so
quickly that the stream was running swift and deep.

"That's treach'rous water," Pinkey observed. "They's boulders in there
as big as a house where it looks all smooth on top. I know a place about
a mile or so where I think it'll be safe."

They had ridden nearly that distance when, simultaneously, they pulled
their horses up.

"Look at that crazy fool!" Pinkey ejaculated, aghast.

"It's--Canby!" Wallie exclaimed.

"Nobody else! Watch him," incredulously, "tryin' to