ve t' get another outfit
together, and get another bunch on the trail. One good thing--I got
thirty days t' get off what cattle is on there; and thirty days uh grass
and water'll put 'em in good shape for the trip. Wish this bunch was as
well fixed."

"That's what," Rowdy assented. "But I think they'll make it, all right."

"I'll likely want yuh to stay up there and keep cases on 'em. Any
objections?"

"Sure not!" laughed Rowdy. "Only I'll want Pink and the Silent One to
stay with me."

"Keep what men yuh want. Anything else?"

"I don't think of anything," said Rowdy. "Only I'd like to have
a--talk--with Conroy." Creek eyed him sharply. "Yuh won't be apt t'
meet him. Old Bill Brown, up home, would like to see him, too. Bill's
a perseverin' old cuss, and wants to see Conroy so bad he's got the
sheriff out lookin' for him. It's about a bunch uh horses that was run
off, three years ago. Yuh brought one of 'em back into the country last
spring, yuh mind."

Rowdy and Pink looked at one another, but said nothing.

"Old Bill, he follered your back trail and found out some things he
wanted t' know. Conroy got wind of it, though, and he left the agency
kind-a suddint. No use yuh lookin' for him."

"Then we're ready to hit the grit, I guess." Rowdy glanced again at Pink
who nodded.

"Well, I ain't stoppin' yuh," Eagle Creek drawled laconically. "S'-long,
and good luck t' yuh."

He waited while Pink and the Silent One swung the point back down the
hill, with Rowdy helping them, quite unmoved by his sudden promotion.
When the herd was fairly started on the backward march, Eagle Creek
nodded satisfaction the while he pried off a corner of plug-tobacco.

"He's all right," he asserted emphatically. "That boy suits me, from
the ground up. If he don't put that deal through in good shape, it'll be
becaus' it can't be did."

Wooden Shoes, with whom Rowdy had always been a prime favorite, agreed
with Dutch heartiness. Then, leaving the herd to its new guardian they
rode swiftly to overtake and turn back the wagons.

"Three hundred miles! And part of it across howling desert!" Rowdy drew
his brows together. "It's a big thing for me, all right, Pink; but it's
sure a big contract to take this herd through, if anybody should happen
to ask yuh."

"Oh, buck up! You'll make good, all right--if only these creeks wasn't
so bone dry!"

"Well, there's water enough in the Rocking R field for to-day; we'll
throw 'em in there till t