y! What
yuh done to 'im that he's sendin' yuh off down to Sinkhole? Me, I 'phoned
in and much as told 'em he'd have to double my pay if he wanted me to
stay down there any longer. That was a coupla days ago. Didn't git no
satisfaction atall till to-day. Me, I'd ruther go to jail, twicet over,
than stay here a week longer. Ain't saw a soul in two weeks down there.
Well, I'll be pushin' along. Adios--and here's hopin' you like it better
than what I done."

Johnny told him good-bye and straightway forgot him. Once he had his two
horses "lined out" in their shuffling little trail-trot that was their
natural gait, he picked up his dream where he had been interrupted. Where
his body went mattered little to Johnny Jewel, so long as he was left
alone with his thoughts. So presently his eyes were once more staring
vacantly at the dim trail, while in spirit he was soaring high and
swooping downward with the ease of a desert lark, while thousands
thrilled to watch his flight.

What did he care about Sinkhole Camp? Loneliness meant long,
uninterrupted hours in which to ride and read and dream of the great
things he meant some day to do.

CHAPTER FOUR

A THING THAT SETS LIKE A HAWK

Six days are not many when they are lived with companions and the
numberless details of one's everyday occupation. They may seem a month if
you pass them in jail, or in waiting for some great event,--or at
Sinkhole Camp, down near the Border.

Three days of the six Johnny spent in familiarizing himself with the two
or three detached horse herds that watered along the meager little stream
that sunk finally under a ledge and was seen no more in Arizona. He
counted the horses as best he could while they loitered at their watering
places, and he noticed where they fed habitually--also that they ranged
far and usually came in to water in the late afternoon or closer to dusk,
when the yellow-jackets that swarmed along the muddy banks of the stream
did not worry them so much, nor the flies that were a torment.

He reported by telephone to his employer, who seemed relieved to know
that everything was so quiet and untroubled down at that end of his
range. And once, quite inadvertently, he reported to Mary V; or was going
to, when he recognized a feminine note in the masculine gruffness that
spoke over the wire. And when she found he had discovered her:

"Oh, Johnny! I've thought of another verse!" she began animatedly.

Johnny hung up, and alth