is an'
what he knows aboot wild hosses ain't a hell of a lot. I've talked
with him."

"Blinky, old-timer, we've got the broomies sold. Now let's figure on
catching them," replied Pan joyfully. "And we'll cut out a few of the
best for ourselves."

"An' a couple fer our lady friends, hey, pard!" added Blinky, with
violence of gesture and speech.

Down the steep slope, through brush and thickets, they slid like a
couple of youngsters on a lark. Pan found the gateway between bluff
and slope even more adaptable to his purposes than it had appeared from
a distance. The whole lay of the land was miraculously advantageous to
the drive and the proposed trap.

"Oh, it's too darn good," cried Pan, incredulously. "It'll be too
easy. It makes me afraid."

"Thet somethin' unforeseen will happen, huh?" queried Blink, shrewdly.
"I had the same idee."

"But what could happen?" asked Pan, darkly speculative.

"Wal, to figger the way things run fer me an' Gus out heah I'd say
this," replied Blinky, with profound seriousness. "We'll do all the
cuttin' an' draggin' an' buildin'. We close up any gaps. We'll work
our selves till we're daid in our boots. Then we'll drive--drive them
wild hosses as hosses was never drove before."

"Well, what then?" queried Pan sharply.

"Drive 'em right in heah where Hardman's outfit will be waitin'!"

"My God, man," flashed Pan hotly. "Such a thing couldn't happen."

"Wal, it just could," drawled Blinky, "an' we couldn't do a damn thing
but fight."

"Fight?" repeated Pan passionately. The very thought of a contingency
such as Blinky had suggested made the hot red blood film his eyes.

"Thet's what I said, pard," replied his comrade coolly. "An' it would
be one hell of a fight, with all the best of numbers an' guns on
Hardman's side. We've got only three rifles besides our guns, an' not
much ammunition. I fetched all we had an' sent Gus for more. But
Black didn't send thet over an' I forgot to go after it."

"We can send somebody back to Marco," said Pan broodingly. "Say,
you've given me a shock. I never thought of such a possibility. I see
now it _could_ happen, but the chances are a thousand to one against
it."

"Shore. It's hardly worth guessin' aboot. But there's thet one
chance. An' we're both afeared of somethin' strange. All we can do,
Pan, is gamble."

On the way back to camp, Pan, pondering very gravely over the question,
at last decided that such a bold r