Carter selected the outfit for the drive.
He named half a dozen men, who were variously known as Buck, Andy, Bud,
Soapy, Sogun, and the Kid. These men were experienced trail-herd men,
and Carter had confidence in them.

Their faces, as they prepared for the trip, revealed their joy and
pride over their selection, while the others, disappointment in their
eyes, plainly envied their fellow-companions.

But Sanderson lightened their disappointment by entrusting them with a
new responsibility.

"You fellows go back to the Double A an' hang around," he told them.
"I don't care whether you do a lick of work or not. Stick close to the
house an' keep an eye on Mary Bransford. If Dale, or any of his gang,
come nosin' around, bore them, plenty! If any harm comes to Mary
Bransford while I'm gone, I'll salivate you guys!"

Shortly after breakfast the herd was on the move. The cowboys started
them westward slowly, for trail cattle do not travel fast, urging them
on with voice and quirt until the line stretched out into a sinuously
weaving band a mile long.

They reached the edge of the big level after a time, and filed through
a narrow pass that led upward to a table-land. Again, after a time,
they took a descending trail, which brought them down upon a big plain
of grassland that extended many miles in all directions. Fringing the
plain on the north was a range of hills that swept back to the
mountains that guarded the neck of the big basin at Okar.

There was timber on the hills, and the sky line was ragged with
boulders. And so Sanderson and his men, glancing northward many times
during the morning, did not see a rider who made his way through the
hills.

During the previous afternoon the rider had sat on his horse in the dim
haze of distance, watching the Double A outfit round up its cattle; and
during the night he had stood on guard, watching the men around the
camp fire.

He had seen most of the Double A men return toward the ranchhouse after
the trail crew had been selected; he had followed the progress of the
herd during the morning.

At noon he halted in a screen of timber and grinned felinely.

"They're off, for certain," he said aloud.

Late that afternoon the man was in Okar, talking with Dale and
Silverthorn and Maison.

"What you've been expectin' has happened," he told them. "Sanderson,
Carter, an' six men are on the move with a trail herd. They're headed
straight on for Las Vegas."

Silver