hat would not carry ten paces. While Andy Green, with brown head bent
attentively, listened eagerly and added a sentence or two on his own
account now and then, and smiled--which he had not been in the habit of
doing lately.

"Say, you fellers are gittin' awful energetic, ain't yuh?--wranglin'
horses afoot!" Happy Jack bantered at the top of his voice when he
passed them by. "Better save up your strength while you kin. Weary's
goin' to set us herdin' sheep agin--and I betche there's goin' to be
something more'n herdin' on our hands before we git through."

"I wouldn't be a bit surprised if there was," sang out Andy, as
cheerfully as if he had been invited to dance "Ladies' choice" with the
prettiest girl in the crowd. "Wonder what hole he's going to dump this
bunch into," he added to the Native Son. "By gracious, he ought to send
'em just as far north as he can drive 'em without paying duty! I'd sure
take 'em over into Canada, if it was me running the show."

"It was a mistake," the Native Son volunteered, "for the whole bunch to
go off like we did to-day. They had those sheep up here on the hill just
for a bait. They knew we'd go straight up in the air and come down on
those two freaks herding 'em, and that gave them the chance to cross the
other bunch. I thought so all along, but I didn't like to butt in."

"Well Weary's mad enough now to do things that will leave a dent,
anyway," Andy commented under his breath when, from the corral gate, he
got a good look at Weary's profile, which showed the set of his mouth
and chin. "See that mouth? It's hunt the top rail, and do it quick, when
old Weary straightens out his lips like that."

Behind them, Happy Jack bellowed for an open gate and no obstructions,
and they drew hastily to one side to let the saddle horses gallop
past with a great upflinging of dust. Pink, with a quite obtrusive
facetiousness, began lustily chanting that it looked to him like a big
night to-night--with occasional, furtive glances at Weary's face; for
he, also, had been quick to read those close-pressed lips, which did not
soften in response to the ditty. Usually he laughed at Pink's drollery.

They rode rather quietly upon the hill again, to where fed the sheep.
During the hour or so that they had been absent the sheep had not moved
appreciably; they still grazed close enough to the boundary to make
their position seem a direct insult to the Flying U, a virtual slap in
the face. And these young