hand. The
man looked lazy. If he spoke at all it would be with lazy speech, yet
Jean had not encountered many men to whom he would have accorded more
potency to stir in him the instinct of self-preservation.

"Shore," drawled this gaunt-faced Texan, "old Gass lives aboot a mile
down heah." With slow sweep of the big hand he indicated a general
direction to the south; then, appearing to forget his questioner, he
turned his attention to the game.

Jean muttered his thanks and, striding out, he mounted again, and drove
the pack mule down the road. "Reckon I've ran into the wrong folds
to-day," he said. "If I remember dad right he was a man to make an'
keep friends. Somehow I'll bet there's goin' to be hell." Beyond the
store were some rather pretty and comfortable homes, little ranch
houses back in the coves of the hills. The road turned west and Jean
saw his first sunset in the Tonto Basin. It was a pageant of purple
clouds with silver edges, and background of deep rich gold. Presently
Jean met a lad driving a cow. "Hello, Johnny!" he said, genially, and
with a double purpose. "My name's Jean Isbel. By Golly! I'm lost in
Grass Valley. Will you tell me where my dad lives?"

"Yep. Keep right on, an' y'u cain't miss him," replied the lad, with a
bright smile. "He's lookin' fer y'u."

"How do you know, boy?" queried Jean, warmed by that smile.

"Aw, I know. It's all over the valley thet y'u'd ride in ter-day.
Shore I wus the one thet tole yer dad an' he give me a dollar."

"Was he glad to hear it?" asked Jean, with a queer sensation in his
throat.

"Wal, he plumb was."

"An' who told you I was goin' to ride in to-day?"

"I heerd it at the store," replied the lad, with an air of confidence.
"Some sheepmen was talkin' to Greaves. He's the storekeeper. I was
settin' outside, but I heerd. A Mexican come down off the Rim ter-day
an' he fetched the news." Here the lad looked furtively around, then
whispered. "An' thet greaser was sent by somebody. I never heerd no
more, but them sheepmen looked pretty plumb sour. An' one of them,
comin' out, give me a kick, darn him. It shore is the luckedest day
fer us cowmen."

"How's that, Johnny?"

"Wal, that's shore a big fight comin' to Grass Valley. My dad says so
an' he rides fer yer dad. An' if it comes now y'u'll be heah."

"Ahuh!" laughed Jean. "An' what then, boy?"

The lad turned bright eyes upward. "Aw, now, yu'all cain't come thet
on me.