obvious that Bud's knowledge of the great
Cathill range was almost phenomenal.

"You know these parts a heap," he observed.

"Know 'em?" Bud laughed in his deep-throated way, which was only
another indication of his buoyant mood. "You'd know 'em, boy, if you'd
had a father build up a big pelt trading post right in this valley, an'
fer sixteen years o' your life you'd ridden, an' shot, an' hunted over
this blue grass, and these hills, for nigh a range of fifty mile.
Guess I know this territory same as you know the playgrounds o' the
college that handed you your knowledge o' figgers. Know it? Say, you
could dump me right down anywhere around here for fifty miles an' more,
an' I'd travel straight here same as the birds fly." He laughed again.
"When you said you'd the notion of huntin' out your brother, who was
huntin' these hills, you give me the excuse I'd been yearnin' to find
in years. I wanted to see these hills again. I wanted it bad. Guess
I was jest crazy fer it. It didn't get me figgerin' long, either, to
locate wher' we'd likely find that boy you're lookin' fer. Ther' ain't
no better huntin' ground than around this valley. It's sort of
untouched since my father died, an' I had to quit it and take to
punchin' cattle. Then ther's that post he built. A dandy place, with
nigh everything a pelt hunter needs fer his comfort. We're making for
that post right now, an' when we make it I'm guessin' we ain't goin' to
chase much farther to locate that twin brother of yours."

"But you never----"

Bud shook his great head, and stretched his ungainly legs with his
stirrups thrust out wide.

"Sure I didn't tell you these things," he nodded, in simple, almost
childlike enjoyment.

"I never---- Say, does Nan know you were--raised here?"

"Surely." Then Bud went on with an amused twinkle in his eyes. "But I
guess Nan's like me. It ain't our way worryin' other folks with our
troubles. You see, most folks ain't a heap o' time to listen to other
folks' troubles. Most everybody's jest yearnin' to tell their own."

"Troubles?" Jeff smiled in his own peculiarly shadowy fashion. "You
don't seem to figure this valley's any sort of trouble, nor its
associations. But maybe there's a bone or two hidden around you don't
figure to show me."

Bud remained silent for some moments. Then he gave way to another of
his joyous, deep-throated laughs.

"No, sirree! Ther' ain't no troubles to this valley fer me. None