toward the herd.

The weary cows were held over for a day of rest. The night guards were
doubled and this precaution was maintained during the succeeding two
stops before reaching the shipping point.

Harris and Billie sat on the top rail of the loading chute while the
last few Three Bar steers were being prodded on board the cars.

Harris slipped from his perch and motioned to Moore and Horne.

"You can go up town now and take on a few drinks. Hunt up an old
friend or two and wag your chins. Make it right secretive and
confidential and make each one promise faithful not to breathe a
syllable to another living soul. That way the news is sure to travel
rapid."

He returned to the girl as the stock train pulled out. Two hands waved
a joyous farewell from the top of the cars, delighted at the prospect
of a trip to market with the steers.

"I don't pretend to regret that old Rile played even for Bang's,"
Harris said. "But I wish he'd sorted out some one else in the albino's
place. It was bad business for the Three Bar when Harper went down."

"He was the head of the gang," she said. "The worst of the lot."

"And for that reason he was able to hold them down," Harris explained.
"It was some of the outfit from over in the Breaks that stampeded us.
Slade wouldn't let his own boys know that much about him so he'd hire
Lang. Harper had brains. He wouldn't have gone in for that. Lang has
thrown in against us. He's all bulk and no brains and as savage as an
Apache buck. He'll hang himself in the end but in the interim he may
hand us considerable grief."

XII

The wild riders of the Breaks no longer mingled with other men with the
same freedom as of old. Some fifteen men throughout the country felt
themselves marked and set apart from others. Friends no longer
fraternized with them at the bars when they rode into the towns. Doors
which had always been open in the past were now opened furtively if at
all. Lukewarm adherents fell away from them and avoided them even more
studiously than the rest. This swift transition had sprung apparently
from no more than a whisper, a murderous rumor which persisted in the
face of flat denials issued from its supposititious source.

All through the range and as far south as the railroad it was current
gossip that the Three Bar would pay a thousand dollars reward for each
of fifteen men, a fast saddle horse thrown in and no questions asked.
The men were named, an