wo blown ponies bore down on the station at a dead run. One of the
riders jumped off and ran for the office. The other unstrapped a
bundle, apparently mostly slicker, from his companion's saddle cantle.
In a moment the first emerged. The energetic Nita had opened the
window, and Clyde overheard their conversation.

"I'm shy my grip," said the first. "The agent doesn't know where she
is, and I can't wait. Round up Rosebud soon as you can, and find out
what's become of it."

The other swore frankly at Rosebud, who appeared to be an individual.
"I'll bet he's drunk, somewheres. I'll express your war bag when I find
it."

The engine bell clanged a warning, and the conductor shouted
cryptically. The two men shook hands.

"So long, Joe," said the younger. "I've had a whale of a time. Come up
to my country and see me next year. Come any old time. We'll bust
things wide open for you."

The other grinned widely. "The missus ain't lettin' me range like I
used to. So long. Keep sober, old-timer. Don't play none with
strangers. Say, d'you remember the time when we----"

Clyde lost the remainder in the shudder and grind of the trucks as the
coaches began to move. The two men disappeared from her field of
vision. Nita closed the window. Once more she leaned back, resigning
herself to the weariness of the journey.

But a moment afterward the man of the platform appeared at the end of
the aisle, accompanied by the porter who carried his bundle. Instantly
he became the cynosure of a battery of disapproving eyes.

For his apparel would have been more in place in the bare colonist cars
of the first section than in the vestibuled, luxurious rear coaches of
the second. From the battered and stained old pony hat on his head to
the disreputable laced boots into which his trousers were shoved, he
was covered with the gray dust of the plains. Apart from his costume
and the top dressing of dust, he was tall, cleanly built, and evidently
as hard as a wire nail. His hair missed red by the merest fraction, and
his eyes were a clear blue, level and direct. He moved as lightly as a
prowling animal, and he met the supercilious and disdainful glances of
his fellow passengers with a half smile of amused comprehension.

The porter, with a deference betokening an unusually large advance tip,
ushered him to a seat across the aisle from Clyde's. But the stranger,
catching a glimpse of himself in the panel mirror, stopped suddenly.
Instantly Clyde