ck as he swung his leg over the
top rail.

"Ought to," Nort agreed. "Said he wasn't going far."

"That might mean anything out here," Billee Dobb broke in, "from a
two-mile jaunt to a ride of twenty mile or more. Bud's O. K. though.
If he don't show up fer his meals he's got a good reason."

"You're probably right," Dick said, "but with all this trouble around
here I don't like to see anyone stay away too long. If he doesn't come
in before afternoon we'll have to take a ride around and see if we
can't spot him."

"No use crossing bridges before we come to them," Nort declared.
"After all this talk Bud will probably come riding in with a bear cub
he chased. Bud's funny that way. Anything that's a bit out of the
ordinary, and Bud will go miles out of his way to see it. Remember how
he stared at that cyclone coming until he forgot where he was?"

"I don't think he's so funny," the Kid declared in a thoughtful tone.
"Just doesn't like to miss any of the show, that's all. Me, I'm like
that sometimes. A pretty sunset gets me here somehow," and the Kid
placed his hand on his stomach in a general way.

"Have you tried eating raw onions?" Nort asked in a solicitous voice.
"They say they're awful good."

"Aw, you guys make me sick," said Yellin' Kid disgustedly. "Just as
soon as a feller gets--well--poetical like--you hop all over him."

"Ex-cuse me, Kid! I didn't know you were getting poetical. Why, if I
had known that I wouldn't have said a word. I thought you were telling
us about your indigestion."

"Go ahead--go ahead! I'll get you sometime, Nort. Billee, do you
think it's nice to run me around like that?"

"Do you good," Billee said with a grin. "When I was young an' worked
out with a bunch from Two-bar Cross--the roughest outfit you'd ever
laid eyes on--I wasn't let to open my mouth without someone hoppin'
down my throat. That was a gang, let me tell you!"

"They were the old-fashioned punchers, weren't they?" Dick asked,
winking at the Kid. "The kind that used a buck-strap and ate his
coffee out of a frying-pan."

"Buck-strap! Buck--say, boy, if any man on that there Two-bar Cross
outfit ever heard you speak of a buck-strap they wouldn't know what you
was talkin' about. No, sir! Those boys were rough customers."

A buck-strap is a leather thong fastened to the saddle in such a way
that if the pony suddenly bucks, its rider can hold himself on by
inserting his hand within this thong and