ng on the back of
Sultan, his noble little black stallion, on the ridge of a prairie
swell, looking at a lowering sky.

Out of the northwest a chilling wind, damp and raw, was sweeping
dull-gray clouds before it.

Ted had addressed his remark to Bud Morgan, his chum and able
lieutenant, who threw a glance at the clouds and grunted.

"I reckon we be," he muttered, "an' I'm free ter say I'm dern sorry ter
hear it."

"It's hard luck," resumed Ted. "If we had got away a week earlier, or
hadn't been held up by the high water at Poplar Fork, we would have been
at the ranch now, and settled for the winter."

"Thar's no telling whar an 'if' won't land yer sometimes. If we hadn't
started we wouldn't hev been here at all. But here we aire, an' we'll
hev ter git out o' it."

"Think we better push on, or make camp?" asked Ted.

"Got ter make camp fer ther night somewhere," answered Bud. "But I wisht
ther storm hed held off till ter-morrer this time; we'd hev been within
hootin' distance o' ther Long Tom Ranch."

"Suppose we push on a few hours more. We can camp down in the dark if we
must. If the snow gets deep before ye reach the high ground you know
what it means."

"I shore do. I wuz all through a big snow in this yere man's country a
few years back, an' it wuz some fierce."

"All right. Ride back and drive them up. I'll point. We'll drive until
it gets too dark. Tell the wagons to move up."

Bud wheeled his pony and dashed to the rear of the great herd of cattle
that was coming on at a snail's pace.

The cattle were lowing uneasily. They knew even better than the men that
a storm was coming, and they dreaded it.

This was the big Circle S herd which the broncho boys had bought in
Texas in the spring of that year, and which they had herded and driven
northward throughout the summer to winter on the Montana plateau, later
to be driven to Moon Valley, and there put into condition for the
market.

Various things had delayed the arrival of the herd on their winter
grounds. A detention of several days at a time by flood, by a stampede,
and by fights with rustlers, had brought the cattle several weeks late
to their winter grounds.

Ted Strong had determined to try the experiment of wintering Southern
cattle in the Montana country in order to harden them and improve the
quality of the beef.

The broncho boys had a large order to fill for the government the
following summer, and it was to accomplish their contract