anything I hate, it's hinting and never coming right out with anything.
Have you lost any?"

Charlie turned with a hand on the cantle and faced her with polite
reproach. "Peter says we have," he admitted, with very evident
reluctance. "I hardly think so myself. I'd have to count them. I
know, of course, how many we've bought in the last year."

"Well, Peter knows more about it than you do," Billy Louise told him
bluntly. "If he has missed any, they're probably gone."

"I was in hopes you would be on my side, Miss Louise." Charlie smiled
deprecatingly. "I've argued with Aunt Martha and Peter until-- But I
didn't know you were a confirmed pessimist as well!"

"You didn't neglect to put your brand on them, did you?" asked Billy
Louise cruelly.

Charlie flushed under the sunburn. "Really, Miss Louise, you've no
mercy on a tenderfoot, have you?" he protested. "No, they are all
branded, really they are. Peter and Aunt Martha saw to that," he
confessed naively.

"It seems queer," said Billy Louise, thinking aloud. "Ward, there
certainly is rustling going on around here; and no one seems to know a
thing beyond the mere fact that they're losing cattle. Seabeck has
lost some--"

"Oh, are you sure?" Charlie's eyes widened perceptibly. "I hadn't
heard that. By Jove! It sort of makes a fellow feel shaky about going
into cattle very strong, doesn't it? It--it knocks off the profits
like the very deuce, to keep losing one here and there."

"A fellow has to figure on a certain percentage of loss," said Ward.
"This the new gate?"

"Yes." Charlie seemed relieved by the diversion. "Just merely a gate,
as you see; but we Covers are proud of every little improvement. Aunt
Martha comes up here every day, I verily believe, just to look at it
and admire it. The poor old soul never had any conveniences that she
couldn't make herself, you know, and she thinks this is great stuff. I
put this padlock on it so she can lock herself in, nights when I'm
away. She feels better with the gate locked. And then I've got a dog
that's as good as a company of soldiers himself. If either of you
happen down here when there's no one about, you will have to introduce
yourselves to Cerberus--so named because he guards the gates--not the
gate to Hades, please remember. Surbus, Aunt Martha calls him, which
is good Idahoese and seems to please him as well as any other. Just
speak to him by name--Surbus if you like--and he will b