pulling hard. The user of one
of these contraptions is never proud of it, needless to say.

"You used to work a lot in the summer, didn't you, Billee?" the Kid
asked with a concealed grin.

"Yes, and in the winter, too. Mostly in the winter. I remember one
time----"

"Now he's off," the Kid whispered in an aside to Dick. "This'll be
good."

"I remember once when I was ridin' for the Two-bar Cross bunch an' we
had four thousand head of cattle on the range. 'Long about December,
when the first snow starts, me an' Joe Heldig was sent out to see how
the bunch was makin' out, and if they needed anything, one of us was to
ride back an' tell the rest while the other watched. Well, we set out
about seven o'clock one morning to see if we could spot the herd.

"It was clear an' cold when we started. Not a cloud in the sky.
Thinks I, we're pretty lucky, havin' such fine weather; that late in
the season, too. Joe Heldig, he don't say nothin'. We took with us
our blankets, some sour-dough, coffee an' bacon, an' that fryin'-pan
you was talking about, Dick. We rode along easy like, not worryin' nor
nothin', an' talkin' about the best way to skin a steer, an' whether
it's best to split two pair on the draw to try for a flush. That used
to be a trick of Joe's.

"Around about noon it started to get warmer, an' off in the east a few
white clouds showed up. Me, I don't worry none, but I see Joe lookin'
kind of anxious now an' then.

"We found the bunch at three o'clock, not as far out as we figgered
they'd be. Seemed pretty contented an' easy. Had a good grazin' spot,
too. An' just as we was about to call it a day I felt something wet
drop on my nose. Then another. Joe looked at me an' I looked at him.
Snow! Know what that means on the range?

"Well, there was nothin' for it but to stick around an' see how bad it
was goin' to be. By five o'clock we knew. The flakes was comin' down
so thick you couldn't see, and a wind had sprung up. An' Joe an' me
had a bunch of cattle on our hands. I told Joe one of us better try to
make the ranch and bring back enough men to get the cattle to a
sheltered spot, so they wouldn't die. I knew we couldn't move them
alone, and where they were grazin' it was all open. So Joe started.
He knew the general direction, an' what would be sure suicide for
anyone else was just a chance for Joe, havin' lived for twenty years
right in that section.

"I could easy keep track of the cows