field, stopped dejectedly and stood
with his nose against the closed gate, and then climbed slowly down
from the top rail of the corral, still silent with the silence more
eloquent than speech in any known language.

Over by the gate, Andy was yanking savagely at the latigo; and he,
also, had never a word to say. He was still wondering how it had
happened. He looked the roan over critically and shook his head
against the riddle; for he had known him to be a quiet, dependable,
all-round good horse, with no bad traits and an easy-going disposition
that fretted at nothing. A high-strung, nervous beast might, from
rough usage and abuse, go "bad"; but the blue roan--they had called
him Pardner--had never showed the slightest symptom of nerves. Andy
knew horses as he knew himself. That a horse like Pardner should, in
two years, become an evil-tempered past-master in such devilish
pitching as that, was past belief.

"I guess he'll do, all right," spoke Coleman at his elbow. "I've seen
horses pitch, and I will say that he's got some specialties that are
worth exhibiting." Then, as a polite way of letting Andy down easy, he
added, "I don't wonder you couldn't connect."

"Connect--_hell_!" It was Andy's first realization of what his failure
meant to the others. He left off wondering about the roan, and faced
the fact that he had been thrown, fair and square, and that before an
audience of twenty-five pairs of eyes which had seen rough riding
before, and which had expected of him something better than they were
accustomed to seeing.

"I reckon Billy Roberts will have to work on that cayuse a while,"
fleered a Diamond G man, coming over to them. "He'll gentle him down
so that anybody--_even Green_, can ride him!"

Andy faced him hotly, opened his mouth for sharp reply, and closed it.
He had been "piled." Nothing that he could say might alter that fact,
nor explanations lighten the disgrace. He turned and went out the
gate, carrying his saddle and bridle with him.

"Aw--and you was goin' t' ride in that contest!" wailed Happy Jack
recriminatingly. "And I've got forty dollars up on yuh!"

"Shut up!" snapped Pink in his ear, heart-broken but loyal to the
last. "Yuh going to blat around and let them Diamond Gs give yuh the
laugh? Hunt up something you can use for a backbone till they get out
uh camp, for Heaven's sake! Andy's our man. So help me, Josephine, if
anybody goes rubbing it in where I can hear, he'll get his face
pu