eyes were blue and
long-lashed and beautiful, and they looked at the world with baby
innocence--whereas a more sophisticated little devil never jangled spurs
at his heels. He was everything but insipid, and men liked him--unless
he chose to dislike them, when they thought of him with grating teeth.
To find him bullying the Cross L boys brought a warmth to Rowdy's heart.

Pink made a cigarette, and then offered Rowdy his tobacco-sack, and
asked questions about the Cypress Hills country. How was this girl?--and
was that one married yet?--and did the other still grieve for him? As a
matter of fact, he had yet to see the girl who could quicken his pulse
a single beat, and for that reason it sometimes pleased him to affect
susceptibility beyond that of other men.

It was after dinner when he and Rowdy went humming down to the stables,
gossiping like a couple of old women over a back fence.

"I see you've got Conroy's Chub yet," Pink observed carelessly.

"Oh, for Heaven's sake let up on that cayuse!" Rowdy cried petulantly.
"I wish I'd never got sight of the little buzzard-head; I've had him
crammed down my throat the last day or two till it's getting plumb
monotonous. Pink, that cayuse never saw Oregon. He was raised right on
this flat, and he belongs to old Rodway. I've got to lead him back there
and turn him over to-day."

Pink took three puffs at his cigarette, and lifted his long lashes to
Rowdy's gloom-filled face. "Stole?" he asked briefly.

"Stole," Rowdy repeated disgustedly. "So was the whole blame' bunch, as
near as I can make out."

"We might 'a' knowed it. We might 'a' guessed Harry Conroy wouldn't have
a straight title to anything if he could make it crooked. I bet he never
finished paying back that money yuh lent him--out uh the kindness uh
your heart. Did he?" Pink leaned against the corral fence and kicked
meditatively at a snow-covered rock.

"He did not, m' son. Chub's all I ever got out uh the deal--and
I haven't even got him. I borrowed him from Rodway to pack my bed
over--borrowed the blame' little runty cayuse that cost me sixty-four
hard-earned dollars; that's what Harry borrowed of me. And every blame'
gazabo on the flat wanted to know what I was doing with him!"

"I can tell yuh where t' find Conroy, Rowdy. He's working for an
outfit down on the river. I'd sure fix him for this! Yuh got plenty of
evidence; you can send him up like a charm. It was different when he cut
your latigo strap in