n vaquero, broke silence. "How long you call it
to this Gophertown place, I think?"

"Thirty miles," said Overland.

"Walkin' backwards--like Miguel's talk," said Billy Dime.

"That's easy," said Bud Light.

"What's easy?" questioned Williams.

"Walkin' backwards," replied the facetious Bud.

"If you don't step on your neck," said Pars Long.

"I'm gettin' cold feet," asserted Bud Light after a silence.

"That disease is ketchin'," said Billy Dime.

"I know it. I been sleepin' next to you," retorted Bud.

Brand Williams glanced across the fire at Overland, who smiled
inscrutably. The undercurrent was unfathomable to Williams, though he
guessed its main drift.

Suddenly Pars Long glanced at the foreman. "Brand," he said quietly, "we
expect you didn't read all of that letter from your friend here. You
said Collie was shot. You didn't say how, which ain't natural. We been
talkin' about it. Where was he hit?"

Overland saw his chance and grasped it with both hands. "In the back,"
he said slowly, and with great intensity.

Followed a silence in which the stamping of the tethered horses and the
whisper of the fire were the only sounds.

Presently Miguel ran his fingers through his glossy black hair. "In the
back!" he exclaimed. "And you needn't to tell that he was run away,
neither."

"In the back?" echoed Billy Dime.

Overland and Williams exchanged glances. "You done it now," said
Williams.

"'Cordin' to agreement," said Overland.

"Make it a wireless," said Billy Dime. "We ain't listenin', anyhow."

"Only thirty miles. What do you say, Brand?"

"Nothin'."

"_As_ usual," ejaculated Dime.

"I say about three to-morrow morning," ventured Pars Long. "Light will
be good about nine. We can do the thirty by nine. A fella would be able
to ride round town then without fallin' over anything."

"What you fellas gettin' at?" queried Williams.

"Gophertown," replied Dime. "You want to come along?"

"Is it settled?" asked the foreman.

The group nodded.

"Well, boys, it would 'a' been _my_ way of evenin' up for a pal."

"Then you're comin', too?"

"Do you think I'm packin' these here two guns and this belt jest to
reduce my shape?" queried Williams in a rather hurt tone.

"Whoop-ee for Brand!" they chorused, and the tethered ponies shied and
circled.

"I never rode out _lookin'_ for trouble," said Williams. "And I never
shied from lookin' _at_ it when it come my way."

"Who said anything about t