me-trail when something
subconsciously noted made her glance over her shoulder. And she saw
them! She needed no glass to bring them close. Those six small forms
moving over the distant hill could be nothing else, but if she doubted,
all room for doubt was instantly removed, for in a moment a group of
horsemen passed raggedly over the same crest. Hervey had found them,
after all! Tears of relief and astonishment streamed down her face. God
bless Lew Hervey for this good work!

Even the bay seemed to recover her spirit at the sight. She had picked
up her head before she felt the rein of the mistress and now she
answered the first word by swinging into a brisk gallop that overhauled
the others swiftly. How the eyes of Marianne feasted on the reclaimed
truants! They danced along gaily, their slender bodies shining with
sweat in the light of the early day, and Lady Mary mincing in the lead.
A moment later, Marianne was among her cowpunchers.

They were stolid as ever but she knew them well enough to understand by
the smiles they interchanged, that they were intensely pleased with
their work of the night. Then she found herself crying to Hervey:
"You're wonderful! Simply wonderful! How could you have followed them so
far and found them in the night?"

At that, of course, Hervey became exceedingly matter of fact. He spoke
as though the explanation were self-evident.

"They busted away in a straight line," he said, "so I knew by that that
something was leading 'em. Them bays ain't got sense enough of their own
to run so straight." She noted the slur without anger. "Well, what was
leading 'em must of been what let 'em out of the corral; and what let
'em out of the corral--"

"Horse thieves!" cried Marianne, but Hervey observed her without
interest.

"Hoss stealing ain't popular around these parts for some time," he said.
"Rustle a cow, now and then, but they don't aim no higher--not since we
strung Josh Sinclair to the cottonwood. Nope, they was stole, but not by
a man."

Here he made a tantalizing pause to roll a cigarette with Marianne
exclaiming: "If not a man, then what on earth, Mr. Hervey?"

He puffed out his answer with the first big cloud of smoke: "By another
hoss! I guessed it right off. Remember what I said last night about the
chestnut stallion and the bad luck he put on my gun?"

She recalled vividly how Hervey, with the utmost solemnity, had avowed
that the leader of the mustangs put "bad luck" on his bu