step as he went down the slope for his horse. He no longer feared that
Silvermane would run away. The gray's bell could always be heard near
camp in the mornings, and when Hare whistled there came always the
answering thump of hobbled feet. When Silvermane saw him striding
through the cedars or across the grassy belt of the valley he would
neigh his gladness. Hare had come to love Silvermane and talked to him
and treated him as if he were human.

When the mustangs were brought into camp the day's work began, the
same work as that of yesterday, and yet with endless variety, with
ever-changing situations that called for quick wits, steel arms,
stout hearts, and unflagging energies. The darkening blue sky and the
sun-tipped crags of Vermillion Cliffs were signals to start for camp.
They ate like wolves, sat for a while around the camp-fire, a ragged,
weary, silent group; and soon lay down, their dark faces in the shadow
of the cedars.

In the beginning of this toil-filled time Hare had resolutely set
himself to forget Mescal, and he had succeeded at least for a time, when
he was so sore and weary that he scarcely thought at all. But she came
back to him, and then there was seldom an hour that was not hers. The
long months which seemed years since he had seen her, the change in him
wrought by labor and peril, the deepening friendship between him and
Dave, even the love he bore Silvermane--these, instead of making dim the
memory of the dark-eyed girl, only made him tenderer in his thought of
her.

Snow drove the riders from the canyon-camp down to Silver Cup, where
they found August Naab and Snap, who had ridden in the day before.

"Now you couldn't guess how many cattle are back there in the canyons,"
said Dave to his father.

"I haven't any idea," answered August, dubiously.

"Five thousand head."

"Dave!" His father's tone was incredulous.

"Yes. You know we haven't been back in there for years. The stock has
multiplied rapidly in spite of the lions and wolves. Not only that, but
they're safe from the winter, and are not likely to be found by Dene or
anybody else."

"How do you make that out?"

"The first cattle we drove in used to come back here to Silver Cup
to winter. Then they stopped coming, and we almost forgot them. Well,
they've got a trail round under the Saddle, and they go down and winter
in the canyon. In summer they head up those rocky gullies, but they
can't get up on the mountain. So it isn't