e as far as he could reach with the corner of his
neckerchief.

"Mornin', Bill," he said.

"Mornin', Curly," said the sheriff pleasantly. "Lookin' for a doctor?
You're ridin' perty fast."

"Nope," said Curly. "Reckon it's a shade too late fer a doctor."

The sheriff was gravely silent. After a while he said, quietly:"

"Any trouble?"

"Yep. Plenty."

"Who?"

"Why, it's Cal Greathouse. You know Cal. This is his second drive.
His cows is down on the Rattlesnake bottoms now. He was camped there
two weeks, not fur from my place. Last week he goes off west a ways,
a-lookin' fer some winter range that won't be so crowded. He goes
alone. Now, to-day his horse comes back, draggin' his lariat. We
'lowed we better come tell you. O' course, they ain't no horse gettin'
away f'm Cal Greathouse, not if he's alive."

The sheriff was silent for some time, looking at his visitor straight
with his oxlike eyes. "Did Cal have much money with him?" he asked,
finally.

"Not so awful much, near's the boys can tell. Mebbe a few hundred, fer
spendin' money, like."

"Had he had any furse with ary feller down in there lately?"

"Nope, not that any one knows of. He just done went off over the
range, an' fanned out, seems like, without no special reason."

The sheriff again fell into thought, slowly chewing at a splinter.
"I'll tell you," he said at length, slowly, "I kain't very well git
away right now. You go over an' git Cap Franklin. He's a good man.
Pick up somebody else you want to go along with you, an' then you start
out on Cal's trail, near as you can git at it. You better take along
that d----d Greaser o' yourn, that big Juan, fer he kin run trail like
a houn'. You stop at all the outfits you come to, fer say fifty miles.
Don't do nothin' more'n ask, an' then go on. If you come to a outfit
that hain't seen him, an' then another outfit furder on that has seen
him, you remember the one that hain't. If you don't git no track in
fifty mile, swing around to the southeast, an' cut the main drive trail
an' see if you hear of anything that-away. If you don't git no trace
by that, you better come on back in an' tell me, an' then we'll see
what to do about it furder."

"All right, Bill," said Curly, rising and taking a chew of tobacco, in
which the sheriff joined him. "All right. You got any papers fer us
to take along?"

"Papers?" said the sheriff contemptuously. "Papers? Hell!"

CHAPTER XXVI