gurin' if you would show
me how to work this ole smoke-wagon here"--and Pete touched the huge
lump beneath his shirt--"why, that would kinda be like wages--but I
ain't got no money to buy cartridges."

"I, Jose de la Crux Montoya, will show you how to work him. It is a
big gun for such a chico."

"Oh, I reckon I kin hold her down. When do we start the shootin'
match?"

Montoya smiled.

"Manana, perhaps."

"Then that's settled!" Pete heaved a sigh. "But how am I goin' to git
them cartridges?"

"From the store."

"That's all right. But how many do I git for workin' for you?"

Montoya laughed outright. "You will become a good man with the sheep.
You will not waste the flour and the beans and the coffee and the
sugar, like Pedro here. You will count and not say--'Oh, I think it's
so much'--and because of that I will buy you two boxes of cartridges."

"Two boxes--a hundred a month?"

"Even so. You will waste many until you learn."

"Shake!" said Pete. "That suits me! And if any doggone ole brush-cats
or lion or bear come pokin' around this here camp, we'll sure smoke 'em
up. And if any of them cow-chasers from the mountain or the Concho
starts monkeyin' with our sheep, there's sure goin' to be a cowboy
funeral in these parts! You done hired a good man when you hired me!"

"We shall see," said Montoya, greatly amused. "But there is much work
to be done as well as the shooting."

"I'll be there!" exclaimed Pete. "What makes them sheep keep a-moanin'
and a-bawlin' and a-shufflin' round? Don't they never git to sleep?"

"Si, but it is a new camp. To-morrow night they will be quiet. It is
always so."

"Well, they sure make enough noise. When do we git goin'?"

"Pedro, he will leave manana. In two days we will move the camp."

"All right. I don't reckon Roth would be lookin' for me in any
sheep-camp anyhow." Young Pete was not afraid of the storekeeper, but
the fact that he had taken the gun troubled him, even though he had
left a note explaining that he took the gun in lieu of wages. He
shared Pedro's blankets, but slept little. The sheep milled and bawled
most of the night. Even before daybreak Pete was up and building a
fire. The sheep poured from the bedding-ground and pattered down to
the canon stream. Later they spread out across the wide canon-bottom
and grazed, watched by the dogs.

Full-fed and happy, Young Pete helped Pedro clean the camp-utensils.
The morning sun, pushin