ke there's money in wolves," he said aloud and laughed a
little. "Old Lady Fortune, you want to watch out, or I'm liable to get
the best of you yet! Looks like I've got a hand to draw to, now.
Youp-_ee-ee_!" His forced imperturbability exploded in the yell, and
after that he moved briskly.

"I've got to play safe on this," he warned himself, while he scalped
the last of the pups. "No use getting rattled. If she's good as she
looks, she's fine. She'll help boost my little bunch of cattle, and
that's all I want. I ain't going to go hog-wild over it, like so many
do."

He went over and skinned the mother wolf, and with the pelts in a
strong-smelling bundle, returned to the sand pile and filled his
neckerchief as full as he could tie it. Then he went down into the
gulch, jumped the creek with his load--and got a foot wet where his
boot leaked along the sole--and climbed hurriedly up to where Rattler
waited and dozed in the sunshine, with the reins dropped to the ground.

Rattler objected to those fresh wolf-skins, and Ward lifted a
disciplinary boot-toe to his ribs. His mood did not accept patiently
any unnecessary delay in getting home, and he succeeded in making
Rattler aware of his mood. Rattler laid back his ears and took the
trail in long, rabbit-jumps for spite, risking his own and his master's
bones unchecked and unchided. The pace pleased Ward, and to the risk
he gave no thought. He was reconstructing his air-castles on broader
lines and smiling now and then to himself.

CHAPTER VIII

HELP FOR THE COW BUSINESS

He had no goldpan of his own, since this was not a mining country, and
his ambition had run in a different channel. He, therefore, took the
tin washbasin down to the creek and dumped the sand into it. Then,
squatting on his boot-heels at the edge of the stream, he filled the
basin with water and rocked it gently with a rotary motion that proved
him no novice at the work. His eyes were sharper and more intent in
their gaze than Billy Louise had ever seen them, and, though his
movements were unhurried, they were full of eagerness held in leash.

Several times he refilled the basin, and the amount of sand grew less
and less, until there remained only a few spoonfuls of coarse gravel
and a sediment that clung to the bottom of the basin and moved
sluggishly around and around. He picked out the tiny pebbles one by
one and threw them in the creek. He peered sharply at a small bit and