-hobo owes you a reckonin' he's
yearnin' to git quit of, Jeff," he said, the moment they were alone.
"They're workin' this way all the time. They ain't so much as smelt
around the old 'T.T.' territory in days. D'you make it that way?"

Jeff nodded.

"Sure."

But he made no attempt to throw enlightenment.

"Guess you signed the reward."

Bud watched the shadowed serious face of his friend.

"Maybe it's that." There was something like indifference in the
younger man's manner.

Perhaps it was this manner which stirred Bud's impatience and drove him
to resentment.

"Say," he cried, in fiercely vibrant tones, "d'you know what it is I
got in my head? It's the 'hands' on our range. Sure. Ther's some
lousy guy on the Obar working in with the gang. Cowpunchers are a
mongrel lot anyway. Ther' ain't one but 'ud souse the sacrament wine
ef the passon wa'an't lookin' on. I guess we'll need to chase up the
penitentiary re-cord of every blamed thief on our pay-roll. Maybe the
cinch we're lookin' fer lies that way."

"It's curious."

"Curious? Gee, it's rotten!"

The old man's patience completely gave way.

"See right here, Jeff. I ain't rattled. Not a thing. But ther's got
to be some guts put into this thing, an' you an' me's got to find 'em.
See? I'm sick to death. Right here an' now I tell you ther's goin' to
be a rotten piece of trouble around this lay-out, an' I'm goin' to be
in it--right up to my back teeth."

It was perhaps the first time Bud had displayed impatience with the man
who had always been the leading spirit of their enterprise. The truth
was, something seemed to have gone out of Jeff. He neglected nothing.
He spared himself no pains. His physical efforts seemed even to have
become greater as the days passed. Frequently, now, night as well as
day found him in the saddle watching over their interests. He had
become a sort of restless spirit urging forward the work, and watching,
watching with the lynx eyes dreaded so much by the men who served him.
But for all that something had certainly gone out of him, and Bud knew
and feared its going.

If Bud knew and feared the change, he also knew the cause of it.
Neither he nor Nan were blind to the drama silently working out in the
other household. It was bitterly plain and almost heart-breaking to
the onlookers. The same roof sheltered husband and wife. But no
unnecessary word was spoken between them. Their meals were taken
apart.