What's it _to_ yuh?"

"Me? It ain't nothin' a-tall to me, Bill. Only--yo' all shore done it
thorough," grinned Tex, and passed on to where a horse he wanted was
standing with his head against the fence, hoping to dodge the loop he
felt sure would presently come hissing his way.

Bill watched him from under his eyebrows, and he observed that Tex sent
more than one glance toward Jake. Bill interpreted those glances to suit
himself, and while he unobtrusively led Jake into a shed to give him a
hurried grooming before saddling another horse, Bill did some hard
thinking.

"Shore is a night-rider in this outfit," he summed up. "He shore did pick
himself a top hoss, and he shore rode the tail off'n 'im just about. Me,
I'm crazy to know who done it."

Bill had to hurry, so he left the matter to simmer for the present. But
that did not mean that Bill would wear "blinders," or that he would sleep
with his head under his tarp for fear of finding out what black-hearted
renegade had sacrilegiously borrowed Jake. Black-hearted renegade, by the
way, was but the dwindling to mild epithets after Bill's more colorful
vocabulary had been worn to rags by repetition.

All unconsciously Mary V had set another man in the outfit to sweating
his brain and swearing to himself. Tex would not sleep sound again until
he knew who had taken to night-riding--on a horse of Jake's quality. Tex
would have believed that Bill himself was the man, had he not read the
look on Bill's face while he studied the marks of hard riding. Tex was
no fool, else his income would have been restricted to what he could earn
by the sweat of his skin. Bill had been unconscious of scrutiny when Tex
had caught that look, and Bill had furthermore betrayed suspicion when
Tex spoke to him about the horse. Bill was mad, which Tex took as proof
that Bill had lain in his bed all night. Besides, Bill would hardly have
left Jake in the corral where he could have free access to the water
trough after such a ride as that must have been. Some one had brought
Jake home in such a hurry that he had merely pulled his saddle and bridle
off and--hustled back to bed, perhaps.

Tex was worried, and for a very good reason. He had been abroad the night
before, dodging off down the draw to the west until he could circle the
ridge and ride south. He had been too shrewd to ride a fagged horse home
and leave him in the corral to tell the tale of night prowling, however.
He had taken the time t