eak to you about it. I thought you could suggest something.'

"'Well,' I replied, 'every time you call you say I sent you over to ask
about the sheriff's health. How'll that do?'

"He grinned sheepishly and then swore: 'H--l, that would make a shore
enough mess of it,' he cried. 'I'd be a royal American idiot to say a
thing like that, now, wouldn't I?'"

The sheriff laughed heartily, and they talked about the picnic until they
had reached the ranch-house, where he wrote the note to his wife. Bidding
his friend good-by, he rode out past the corrals and headed for the A-Y.

When about half-way to his own ranch, and on A-Y ground, he surmounted a
rise and saw a figure flit from sight behind a thicket, and his curiosity
was immediately aroused. Not knowing who the man might be, he stalked his
quarry and finally found Bucknell standing beside his horse.

"Well, what's the trouble now?" the sheriff asked as he came out into
sight. He was dangerously near angry, for Bucknell was on forbidden ground
and was flushed as if from liquor. "What's the trouble?" he repeated.

Bucknell looked confused: "Nothing, Sheriff. Why?" he asked, evading the
searching gaze of the peace officer.

"Oh, I thought something might have gone wrong on the Cross Bar-8, and
that you were looking for me," Shields coldly replied.

Bucknell looked at the ground and coughed nervously before he replied,
which only made the sheriff all the more determined to get at the matter
in a true light.

"No, nothing's wrong," replied the puncher. "I was just riding out this
way--I was some nervous, that's all."

"That don't go with me!" the sheriff said sharply. "I've lived too long
to bite on a yarn like that. Why, you can't look at me!"

The puncher did not reply and the sheriff continued:

"Now, look here, Bucknell, take some good advice from me--stay on your
ranch, mind your own business and let liquor alone. As sure as you
monkey around the Star C Blake will give you a d----n sound licking, and
he's man enough to do it, too, make no error. And as for the A-Y, well,
the temporary foreman of that ranch is the cleverest man with a gun that I
ever saw, and I've seen some good ones in my time. If you go up against
him you'll get shot, for he'd think you were about the easiest proposition
he ever met. As sure as you drink you'll get drunk, and as sure as you
get drunk you'll work up an appetite for a fight, and if you pick a
fight with him you'll never know w