ment. The other cantered alongside
on a dirty brown horse which had a white stocking on the near front
foot, keeping close watch of the surrounding plain, his mind active and
alert.

Bill Howland laughed suddenly and slapped his thigh with enthusiasm:
"Say, Orphant," he cried, "you are shore raising h--l with that Cross
Bar-8 gang! You has got them so tangled up and miserable that they don't
know where they are! If their brains was money they'd have to chalk up
their drinks. They're about as dangerous as ossified prairie dogs.
They remind me of the feller who kicked a rattlesnake to see if it was
alive, and found out that it was. No, sir, they shore won't die of brain
fever. Why, they ain't had any sleep for a week, have to work double
hard, eat what they can cook in sieve tins, and can't say their soul's
their own after dark. They could get rest if they quit working one
day and all but one get plenty of sleep. Then the other feller could get
his at night. But they don't know enough. Oh, it's rich: the whole
blamed town is laughing at 'em fit to bust. It's the funniest thing
ever happened in these parts since I've been out here."

Then he suddenly paused: "Say, Sneed sent a puncher to town this morning.
It was that brass-headed, flat-faced Bucknell, what you tied up by the
canyon. He begged the sheriff to swear in a dozen bad men and come out and
protect his foreman and the rest of the outfit. And the pin-headed wart
went and blabbed the whole thing right in front of the Taggert's saloon
crowd, and he shore had to blow, all right. He shore did, and that gang's
always thirsty."

The horseman flecked the ashes from his cigarette and smiled: "Well?" he
asked, looking up.

"So Shields took Charley Winter and the two Larkin boys and went out
to the ranch right after the puncher went back. So you want to go easy
to-night or you'll touch off some unexpected fireworks and such. Shields
and his men will stay out there for several days and nights. That'll
give the crazy hens a chance to rest up a bit nights. But you be blamed
careful about them pinwheels and skyrockets or you'll get burned some.
Now, don't you even remember that _I_ told you about it. I wouldn't-a
said nothing at all, seeing as it ain't none of my business, only you
went and got me out of a tight place, and Bill Howland don't forget a
favor, no siree! You gave me a square deal and a ace full on kings with
them animated paint shops, and I'll give you a lift ev