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+Project Gutenberg's Rowdy of the Cross L, by B.M. Sinclair, AKA B.M. Bower
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Rowdy of the Cross L
+
+Author: B.M. Sinclair, AKA B.M. Bower
+
+Posting Date: November 7, 2008 [EBook #1907]
+Release Date: September, 1999
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROWDY OF THE CROSS L ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mary Starr
+
+
+
+
+
+ROWDY OF THE "CROSS L."
+
+By B.M. Sinclair (AKA B. M. Bower)
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+     1. Lost in a Blizzard
+     2. Miss Conroy Refuses Shelter
+     3. Rowdy Hires a New Boss
+     4. Pink as "Chappyrone"
+     5. At Home at Cross L
+     6. A Shot From the Dark
+     7. Rowdy in a Tough Place
+     8. Pink in a Threatening Mood
+     9. Moving the Herd
+     10. Harry Conroy at Home
+     11. Rowdy Promoted
+     12. "You Can Tell Jessie"
+     13. Rowdy Finds Happiness
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1. Lost in a Blizzard.
+
+"Rowdy" Vaughan--he had been christened Rowland by his mother, and
+rechristened Rowdy by his cowboy friends, who are prone to treat with
+much irreverence the names bestowed by mothers--was not happy. He stood
+in the stirrups and shook off the thick layer of snow which clung, damp
+and close-packed, to his coat. The dull yellow folds were full of it;
+his gray hat, pulled low over his purple ears, was heaped with it. He
+reached up a gloved hand and scraped away as much as he could, wrapped
+the long-skirted, "sour-dough" coat around his numbed legs, then settled
+into the saddle with a shiver of distaste at the plight he was in, and
+wished himself back at the Horseshoe Bar.
+
+Dixie, standing knee-deep in a drift, shook himself much after the
+manner of his master; perhaps he, also, wished himself back at the
+Horseshoe Bar. He turned his head to look back, blinking at the snow
+which beat insistently in his eyes; he could not hold them open long
+enough to see anything, however, so he twitched his ears pettishly and
+gave over the attempt.
+
+"It's up to you, old boy," Rowdy told him resignedly. "I'm plumb lost; I
+never was in this damn country before, anyhow--and I sure wish I wasn't
+here now. If you've any idea where we're at, I'm dead willing to have
+you pilot the layout. Never mind Chub; locating his feed when it's stuck
+under his nose is his limit."
+
+Chub lifted an ear dispiritedly when his name was spoken; but, as was
+usually the case, he heard no good of himself, and dropped his head
+again. No one took heed of him; no one ever did. His part was to carry
+Vaughan's bed, and to follow unquestionably where Vaughan and Dixie
+might lead. He was cold and tired and hungry, but his faith in his
+master was strong; the responsibility of finding shelter before the dark
+came down rested not with him.
+
+Vaughan pressed his chilled knees against Dixie's ribs, but the hand
+upon the reins was carefully non-committal; so that Dixie, having no
+suggestion of his master's wish, ventured to indulge his own. He turned
+tail squarely to the storm and went straight ahead. Vaughan put his
+hands deep into his pockets, snuggled farther down into the sheepskin
+collar of his coat, and rode passive, enduring.
+
+They brought up against a wire fence, and Vaughan, rousing from his
+apathy, tried to peer through the white, shifting wall of the storm.
+"You're a swell guide--not," he remarked to the horse. "Now you, you
+hike down this fence till you locate a gate or a corner, or any darned
+thing; and I don't give a cuss if the snow does get in your eyes. It's
+your own fault."
+
+Dixie, sneezing the snow from his nostrils, turned obediently; Chub,
+his feet dragging wearily in the snow, trailed patiently behind. Half an
+hour of this, and it seemed as if it would go on forever.
+
+Through the swirl Vaughan could see the posts standing forlornly in
+the snow, with sixteen feet of blizzard between; at no time could he
+distinguish more than two or three at once, and there were long minutes
+when the wall stood, blank and shifting, just beyond the first post.
+
+Then Dixie lifted his head and gazed questioningly before him, his ears
+pointed forward--sentient, strained--and whinnied shrill challenge.
+He hurried his steps, dragging Chub out of the beginnings of a dream.
+Vaughan straightened and took his hands from his pockets.
+
+Out beyond the dim, wavering outline of the farthest post came answer
+to the challenge. A mysterious, vague shape grew impalpably upon the
+strained vision; a horse sneezed, then nickered eagerly. Vaughan drew up
+and waited.
+
+"Hello!" he called cheerfully. "Pleasant day, this. Out for your
+health?"
+
+The shape hesitated, as though taken aback by the greeting, and there
+was no answer. Vaughan, puzzled, rode closer.
+
+"Say, don't talk so fast!" he yelled. "I can't follow yuh."
+
+"Who--who is it?" The voice sounded perturbed; and it was, moreover, the
+voice of a woman.
+
+Vaughan pulled up short and swore into his collar. Women are not, as a
+rule, to be met out on the blank prairie in a blizzard. His voice, when
+he spoke again, was not ironical, as it had been; it was placating.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said. "I thought it was a man. I'm looking for
+the Cross L; you don't happen to know where it is, do yuh?"
+
+"No--I don't," she declared dismally. "I don't know where any place is.
+I'm teaching school in this neighborhood--or in some other. I was going
+to spend Sunday with a friend, but this storm came up, and I'm--lost."
+
+"Same here," said Rowdy pleasantly, as though being lost was a matter
+for congratulation.
+
+"Oh! I was in hopes--"
+
+"So was I, so we're even there. We'll have to pool our chances, I guess.
+Any gate down that way--or haven't you followed the fence?"
+
+"I followed it for miles and miles--it seemed. It must be some big field
+of the Cross L; but they have so very many big fields!"
+
+"And you couldn't give a rough guess at how far it is to the Cross
+L?"--insinuatingly.
+
+He could vaguely see her shake of head. "Ordinarily it should be about
+six miles beyond Rodway's, where I board. But I haven't the haziest idea
+of where Rodway's place is, you see; so that won't help you much. I'm
+all at sea in this snow." Her voice was rueful.
+
+"Well, if you came up the fence, there's no use going back that way; and
+there's sure nothing made by going away from it.--that's the way I came.
+Why not go on the way you're headed?"
+
+"We might as well, I suppose," she assented; and Rowdy turned and rode
+by her side, grateful for the plurality of the pronoun which tacitly
+included him in her wanderings, and meditating many things. For one, he
+wondered if she were as nice a girl as her voice sounded. He could not
+see much of her face, because it was muffled in a white silk scarf. Only
+her eyes showed, and they were dark and bright.
+
+When he awoke to the fact that the wind, grown colder, beat upon her
+cruelly, he dropped behind a pace and took the windy side, that he might
+shield her with his body. But if she observed the action she gave no
+sign; her face was turned from him and the wind, and she rode without
+speaking. After long plodding, the line of posts turned unexpectedly a
+right angle, and Vaughan took a long, relieved breath.
+
+"We'll have the wind on our backs now," he remarked. "I guess we may as
+well keep on and see where this fence goes to."
+
+His tone was too elaborately cheerful to be very cheering. He was
+wondering if the girl was dressed warmly. It had been so warm and sunny
+before the blizzard struck, but now the wind searched out the thin
+places in one's clothing and ran lead in one's bones, where should be
+simply marrow. He fancied that her voice, when she spoke, gave evidence
+of actual suffering--and the heart of Rowdy Vaughan was ever soft toward
+a woman.
+
+"If you're cold," he began, "I'll open up my bed and get out a blanket."
+He held Dixie in tentatively.
+
+"Oh, don't trouble to do that," she protested; but there was that in her
+voice which hardened his impulse into fixed resolution.
+
+"I ought to have thought of it before," he lamented, and swung down
+stiffly into the snow.
+
+Her eyes followed his movement with a very evident interest while
+he unbuckled the pack Chub had carried since sunrise and drew out a
+blanket.
+
+"Stand in your stirrup," he commanded briskly "and I'll wrap you up.
+It's a Navajo, and the wind will have a time trying to find a thin
+spot."
+
+"You're thoughtful." She snuggled into it thankfully. "I was cold."
+
+Vaughan tucked it around her with more care than haste. He was pretty
+uncomfortable himself, and for that reason he was the more anxious
+that the girl should be warm. It came to him that she was a cute little
+schoolma'am, all right; he was glad she belonged close around the Cross
+L. He also wished he knew her name--and so he set about finding it out,
+with much guile.
+
+"How's that?" he wanted to know, when he had made sure that her
+feet--such tiny feet--were well covered. He thought it lucky that she
+did not ride astride, after the manner of the latter-day young woman,
+because then he could not have covered her so completely. "Hold on! That
+windy side's going to make trouble." He unbuckled the strap he wore
+to hold his own coat snug about him, and put it around the girl's slim
+waist, feeling idiotically happy and guilty the while. "It don't come
+within a mile of you," he complained; "but it'll help some."
+
+Sheltered in the thick folds of the Navajo, she laughed, and the sound
+of it sent the blood galloping through Rowdy Vaughan's body so that he
+was almost warm. He went and scraped the snow out of his saddle, and
+swung up, feeling that, after all, there are worse things in the
+world than being lost and hungry in a blizzard, with a sweet-voiced,
+bright-eyed little schoolma'am who can laugh like that.
+
+"I don't want to have you think I may be a bold, bad robber-man," he
+said, when they got going again. "My name's Rowdy Vaughan--for which I
+beg your pardon. Mother named me Rowland, never knowing I'd get out here
+and have her nice, pretty name mutilated that way. I won't say that my
+behavior never suggested the change, though. I'm from the Horseshoe
+Bar, over the line, and if I have my way, I'll be a Cross L man before
+another day." Then he waited expectantly.
+
+"For fear you may think I'm a--a robber-woman," she answered him
+solemnly--he felt sure her eyes twinkled, if only he could have seen
+them--"I'm Jessie Conroy. And if you're from over the line, maybe you
+know my brother Harry. He was over there a year or two."
+
+Rowdy hunched his shoulders--presumably at the wind. Harry Conroy's
+sister, was she? And he swore. "I may have met him," he parried, in a
+tone you'd never notice as being painstakingly careless. "I think I did,
+come to think of it."
+
+Miss Conroy seemed displeased, and presently the cause was forthcoming.
+"If you'd ever met him," she said, "you'd hardly forget him."
+(Rowdy mentally agreed profanely.) "He's the best rider in the whole
+country--and the handsomest. He--he's splendid! And he's the only
+brother I've got. It's a pity you never got acquainted with him."
+
+"Yes," lied Rowdy, and thought a good deal in a very short time. Harry
+Conroy's sister! Well, she wasn't to blame for that, of course; nor for
+thinking her brother a white man. "I remember I did see him ride once,"
+he observed. "He was a whirlwind, all right--and he sure was handsome,
+too."
+
+Miss Conroy turned her face toward him and smiled her pleasure, and
+Rowdy hovered between heaven and--another place. He was glad she
+smiled, and he was afraid of what that subject might discover for his
+straightforward tongue in the way of pitfalls. It would not be nice to
+let her know what he really thought of her brother.
+
+"This looks to me like a lane," he said diplomatically. "We must be
+getting somewhere; don't you recognize any landmarks?"
+
+Miss Conroy leaned forward and peered through the clouds of snow dust.
+Already the night was creeping down upon the land, stealthily turning
+the blank white of the blizzard into as blank a gray--which was as near
+darkness as it could get, because of the snow which fell and fell,
+and yet seemed never to find an abiding-place, but danced and swirled
+giddily in the wind as the cold froze it dry. There would be no more
+damp, clinging masses that night; it was sifting down like flour from a
+giant sieve; and of the supply there seemed no end.
+
+"I don't know of any lanes around here," she began dubiously, "unless
+it's--"
+
+Vaughan looked sharply at her muffled figure and wondered why she
+broke off so suddenly. She was staring hard at the few, faint traces of
+landmarks; and, bundled in the red-and-yellow Navajo blanket, with her
+bright, dark eyes, she might easily have passed for a slim young squaw.
+
+Out ahead, a dog began barking vaguely, and Rowdy turned eagerly to
+the sound. Dixie, scenting human habitation, stepped out more briskly
+through the snow, and even Chub lifted an ear briefly to show he heard.
+
+"It may not be any one you know," Vaughan remarked, and his voice showed
+his longing; "but it'll be shelter and a warm fire--and supper. Can you
+appreciate such blessings, Miss Conroy? I can. I've been in the saddle
+since sunrise; and I was so sure I'd strike the Cross L by dinner-time
+that I didn't bring a bite to eat. It was a sheep-camp where I stopped,
+and the grub didn't look good to me, anyway--I've called myself bad
+names all the afternoon for being more dainty than sensible. But it's
+all right now, I guess."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2. Miss Conroy Refuses Shelter.
+
+The storm lifted suddenly, as storms have a way of doing, and a low,
+squat ranch-house stood dimly revealed against the bleak expanse of
+wind-tortured prairie. Rowdy gave an exultant little whoop and made for
+the gate, leaned and swung it open and rode through, dragging Chub after
+him by main strength, as usual. When he turned to close the gate after
+Miss Conroy he found her standing still in the lane.
+
+"Come on in," he called, with a trace of impatience born of his
+weariness and hunger.
+
+"Thank you, no." Miss Conroy's voice was as crisply cold as the wind
+which fluttered the Navajo blanket around her face. "I much prefer the
+blizzard."
+
+
+For a moment Rowdy found nothing to say; he just stared. Miss Conroy
+shifted uneasily in the saddle.
+
+"This is old Bill Brown's place," she explained reluctantly. "He--I'd
+rather freeze than go in!"
+
+"Well, I guess that won't be hard to do," he retorted curtly, "if you
+stay out much longer."
+
+The dog was growing hysterical over their presence, and Bill Brown
+himself came out to see what it was all about. He could see two dim
+figures at the gate.
+
+"Hello!" he shouted. "Why don't yuh come on in? What yuh standing there
+chewing the rag for?"
+
+Vaughan hesitated, his eyes upon Miss Conroy.
+
+"Go in," she commanded imperiously, quite as if he were a refractory
+pupil. "You're tired out, and hungry. I'm neither. Besides, I know where
+I am now. I can find my way without any trouble. Go in, I tell you!"
+
+But Rowdy stayed where he was, with the gate creaking to and fro between
+them. Dixie circled till his back was to the wind. "I hope you don't
+think you're going to mill around out here alone," Rowdy said tartly.
+
+"I can manage very well. I'm not lost now, I tell you. Rodway's is only
+three miles from here, and I know the direction."
+
+Bill Brown waded out to them, wondering what weighty discussion was
+keeping them there in the cold. Vaughan he passed by with the cursory
+glance of a disinterested stranger, and went on to where Miss Conroy
+waited stubbornly in the lane.
+
+"Oh, it's you!" he said grimly. "Well, come in and thaw out; I hope yuh
+didn't think yuh wouldn't be welcome yuh knew better. You got lost, I
+reckon. Come on--"
+
+Miss Conroy struck Badger sharply across the flank and disappeared into
+the night. "When I ask shelter of you," she flung back, "you'll know
+it."
+
+Rowdy started after, and met Bill Brown squarely in the gate. Bill eyed
+him sharply. "Say, young fellow, how'd you come by that packhorse?" he
+demanded, as Chub brushed past him.
+
+"None of your damn' business," snapped Rowdy, and drove the spurs into
+Dixie's ribs. But Chub was a handicap at any time; now, when he was
+tired, there was no getting anything like speed out of him; he clung to
+his shuffling trot, which was really no better than a walk. After
+five minutes spent alternately in spurring Dixie and yanking at Chub's
+lead-rope, Rowdy grew frightened and took to shouting. While they were
+in the lane Miss Conroy must perforce ride straight ahead, but the lane
+would not last always. As though with malicious intent, the snow swooped
+down again and the world became an unreal, nightmare world, wherein was
+nothing save shifting, blinding snowfloury and wind and bitter, numbing
+cold.
+
+Rowdy stood in his stirrups, cupped his chilled fingers around his
+numbed lips, and sent a longdrawn "Who-ee!" shrilling weirdly into the
+night.
+
+It seemed to him, after long listening, that from the right came faint
+reply, and he turned and rode recklessly, swearing at Chub for
+his slowness. He called again, and the answer, though faint, was
+unmistakable. He settled heavily into the saddle--too weak, from sheer
+relief, to call again. He had not known till then just how frightened he
+had been, and he was somewhat disconcerted at the discovery. In a minute
+the reaction passed and he shouted a loud hello.
+
+"Hello?" came the voice of Miss Conroy, tantalizingly calm, and as
+superior as the greeting of Central. "Were you looking for me, Mr.
+Vaughan?"
+
+She was close to him--so close that she had not needed to raise her
+voice perceptibly. Rowdy rode up alongside, remembering uncomfortably
+his prolonged shouting.
+
+"I sure was," he admitted. And then: "You rode off with my blanket on."
+He was very proud of his matter-of-fact tone.
+
+"Oh!" Miss Conroy was almost deceived, and a bit disappointed. "I'll
+give it to you now, and you can go back--if you know the way."
+
+"No hurry," said Rowdy politely. "I'll go on and see if you can find a
+place that looks good to you. You seem pretty particular."
+
+Miss Conroy may have blushed, in the shelter of the blanket. "I suppose
+it did look strange to you," she confessed, but defiantly. "Bill Brown
+is an enemy to--Harry. He--because he lost a horse or two out of a
+field, one time, he--he actually accused Harry of taking them! He lied,
+of course, and nobody believed him; nobody could believe a thing like
+that about Harry. It was perfectly absurd. But he did his best to
+hurt Harry's name, and I would rather freeze than ask shelter of him.
+Wouldn't you--in my place, I mean?"
+
+"I always stand up for my friends," evaded Rowdy. "And if I had a
+brother--"
+
+"Of course you'd be loyal," approved Miss Conroy warmly. "But I didn't
+want you to come on; it isn't your quarrel. And I know the way now. You
+needn't have come any farther."
+
+"You forgot the blanket," Rowdy reminded wickedly. "I think a lot of
+that Navajo."
+
+"You insisted upon my taking it," she retorted, and took refuge in
+silence.
+
+For a long hour they plodded blindly. Rowdy beat his hands often about
+his body to start the blood, and meditated yearnigly upon hot coffee
+and the things he liked best to eat. Also, a good long pull at a
+flask wouldn't be had, either, he thought. And he hoped this little
+schoolma'am knew where she was going--truth to tell, he doubted it.
+
+After a while, it seemed that Miss Conroy doubted it also. She took
+to leaning forward and straining her eyes to see through the gray wall
+before.
+
+"There should be a gate here," she said dubiously, at last.
+
+"It seems to me," Rowdy ventured mildly, "if there were a gate, it would
+have some kind of a fence hitched to it; wouldn't it?"
+
+Miss Conroy was in no mood for facetiousness, and refused to answer his
+question. "I surely can't have made a mistake," she observed uneasily.
+
+"It would be a wonder if you didn't, such a night as this," he consoled.
+"I wouldn't bank on traveling straight myself, even if I knew the
+country--which I don't. And I've been in more blizzards than I'm years
+old."
+
+"Rodway's place can't be far away," she said, brightening. "It may be
+farther to the east; shall we try that way--if you know which is east?"
+
+"Sure, we'll try. It's all we can do. My packhorse is about all in, from
+the way he hangs back; if we don't strike something pretty soon I'll
+have to turn him loose."
+
+"Oh, don't do that," she begged. "It would be too cruel. We're sure to
+reach Rodway's very soon."
+
+More plodding through drifts high and drifts low; more leaning from
+saddles to search anxiously for trace of something besides snow and wind
+and biting cold. Then, far to the right, a yellow eye glowed briefly
+when the storm paused to take breath. Miss Conroy gave a glad little cry
+and turned Badger sharply.
+
+"Did you see? It was the light from a window. We were going the wrong
+way. I'm sure that is Rodway's."
+
+Rowdy thanked the Lord and followed her. They came up against a fence,
+found a gate, and passed through. While they hurried toward it, the
+light winked welcome; as they drew near, some one stirred the fire and
+sent sparks and rose-hued smoke rushing up into the smother of snow.
+Rowdy watched them wistfully, and wondered if there would be supper, and
+strong, hot coffee. He lifted Miss Conroy out of the saddle, carried
+her two long strides, and deposited her upon the door-step; rapped
+imperatively, and when a voice replied, lifted the latch and pushed her
+in before him.
+
+For a minute they stood blinking, just within the door. The change
+from numbing cold and darkness to the light of the overheated room was
+stupefying.
+
+Then Miss Conroy went over and held her little, gloved hands to the
+heat of the stove, but she did not take the chair which some one pushed
+toward her. She stood, the blanket shrouding her face and her slim young
+figure, and looked about her curiously. It was not Rodway's house, after
+all. She thought she knew what place it was--the shack where Rodway's
+hay-balers bached.
+
+From the first, Rowdy did not like the look of things--though for
+himself it did not matter; he was used to such scenes. It was the
+presence of the girl which made him uncomfortable. He unbuttoned his
+coat that the warmth might reach his chilled body, and frowned.
+
+Four men sat around a small, dirty table; evidently the arrivals had
+interrupted an exciting game of seven-up. A glance told Rowdy, even
+if his nose had not, that the four round, ribbed bottles had not been
+nearly emptied without effect.
+
+"Have one on the house," the man nearest him cried, and shoved a bottle
+toward him.
+
+Involuntarily Rowdy reached for it. Now that he was inside, he realized
+all at once how weary he was, and cold and hungry. Each abused muscle
+and nerve seemed to have a distinct grievance against him. His fingers
+closed around the bottle before he remembered and dropped it. He looked
+up, hoping Miss Conroy had not observed the action; met her wide,
+questioning eyes, and the blood flew guiltily to his cheeks.
+
+"Thanks, boys--not any for me," he said, and apologized to Miss Conroy
+with his eyes.
+
+The man rose and confronted him unsteadily. "Dat's a hell off a way! You
+too proud for drink weeth us? You drink, now! By Gar, I make you drink!"
+
+Rowdy's eyelids drooped, which was a bad sign for those who knew him.
+"You're forgetting there's a lady present," he reminded warningly.
+
+The man turned a brief, contemptuous glance toward the stove. "You got
+the damn' queer way to talk. I don't call no squaw no lady. You drink
+queeck, now!"
+
+"Aw, shut up, Frenchy," the man at his elbow abjured him. "He don't have
+to drink if he don't want to."
+
+"You keep the face close," the other retorted majestically; and cursed
+loud and long and incoherently.
+
+Rowdy drew back his arm, with a fist that meant trouble for somebody;
+but there were others before him who pinned the importunate host to the
+table, where he squirmed unavailingly.
+
+Rowdy buttoned up his coat the while he eyed the group disgustedly. "I
+guess we'll drift," he remarked. "You don't look good to me, and that's
+no dream."
+
+"Aw, stay and warm up," the fourth man expostulated. "Yuh don't need t'
+mind Le Febre; he's drunk."
+
+But Rowdy opened the door decisively, and Miss Conroy, her cheeks
+like two storm-buffeted poppies, followed him out with dignity--albeit
+trailing a yard of red-and-yellow Navajo blanket behind her. Rowdy
+lifted her into the saddle, tucked her feet carefully under the blanket,
+and said never a word.
+
+"Mr. Vaughan," she began hesitatingly, "this is too bad; you need not
+have left. I--I wasn't afraid."
+
+"I know you weren't," conceded Rowdy. "But it was a hard formation--for
+a woman. Are there any more places on this flat marked Unavailable?"
+
+Miss Conroy replied misanthropically that if there were they would be
+sure to find them.
+
+They took up their weary wanderings again, while the yellow eye of the
+window winked after them. They missed Rodway's by a scant hundred yards,
+and didn't know it, because the side of the house next them had no
+lighted windows. They traveled in a wide, half circle, and thought that
+they were leaving a straight trail behind them. More than once Rowdy was
+urged by his aching arm to drop the lead-rope and leave Chub to shift
+by himself, but habit was strong and his heart was soft. Then he felt an
+odd twitching at the lead-rope, as if Chub were minded to rebel against
+their leadership. Rowdy yanked him into remembrance of his duty, and
+wondered. Bill Brown's question came insistently to mind; he wondered
+the more.
+
+Two minutes and the lead-rope was sawing against the small of his back
+again. Rowdy turned Dixie's head, and spoke for the first time in an
+hour.
+
+"My packhorse seems to have an idea about where he wants to go," he
+said. "I guess we might as well follow him as anybody; he ain't often
+taken with a rush of brains to the head. And we can't be any worse lost
+than we are now, can we?"
+
+Miss Conroy said no dispiritedly, and they swung about and followed
+Chub's leadership apathetically. It took Chub just five minutes to
+demonstrate that he knew what he was about. When he stopped, it was with
+his nose against a corral gate; not content with that, he whinnied, and
+a new, exultant note was in the sound. A deep-voiced dog bayed loudly,
+and a shrill yelp cut in and clamored for recognition.
+
+Miss Conroy gasped. "It's Lion and Skeesicks. We're at Rodway's, Mr.
+Vaughan."
+
+Rowdy, for the second time, thanked the Lord. But when he was stripping
+the pack off Chub's back, ten minutes later, he was thinking many things
+he would not have cared to say aloud. It might be all right, but it sure
+was strange, he told himself, that Chub belonged here at Rodway's when
+Harry Conroy claimed that he was an Oregon horse. Rowdy had thought his
+account against Harry Conroy long enough, but it looked now as though
+another item must be added to the list. He went in and ate his supper
+thoughtfully, and when he got into bed he did not fall asleep within two
+minutes, as he might be expected to do. His last conscious thought was
+not of stolen horses, however. It was: "And she's Harry Conroy's sister!
+Now, what do you think of that? But all the same, she's sure a nice
+little schoolma'am."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3. Rowdy Hires a New Boss.
+
+Next morning, after breakfast, Mr. Rodway followed Vaughan out to the
+stable, and repeated Bill Brown's question.
+
+"I'd like to know where yuh got this horse," he began, with an
+apologetic sort of determination in his tone. "He happens to belong to
+me. He was run off with a bunch three years ago, and this is the first
+trace anybody has ever got of 'em. I see the brand's been worked. It was
+a Roman four--that's my brand; now it looks like a map of Texas; but I'd
+swear to the horse--raised him from a colt."
+
+Rowdy had expected something of the sort, and he knew quite well what he
+was going to do; he had settled that the night before, with the memory
+of Miss Conroy's eyes fresh in his mind.
+
+"I got him in a deal across the line," he said. "I was told he came from
+east Oregon. But last night, when he piloted us straight to your corral
+gate, I guessed he'd been here before. He's yours, all right, if you say
+so."
+
+"Uh course he ain't worth such a pile uh money," apologized Rodway, "but
+the kids thought a heap of him. I'd rather locate some of the horses
+that was with him--or the man yuh got him of. They was some mighty good
+horses run out uh this country then, but they was all out on the range,
+so we didn't miss 'em in time to do any good. Do yu know who took 'em
+across the line?"
+
+"No," said Rowdy deliberately. "The man I got Chub from went north, and
+I heard he got killed. I don't know of any other in the deal."
+
+Rodway grunted, and Vaughan began vigorously brushing Dixie's roughened
+coat. "If you don't mind," he said, after a minute, "I'd like to borrow
+Chub to pack my bed over to the Cross L. I can bring him back again."
+
+"Why, sure!" assented Rodway eagerly. "I hate to take him from yuh, but
+the kids--"
+
+"Oh, that's all right," interrupted Rowdy cheerfully. "It's all in the
+game, and I should 'a' looked up his pedigree, for I knew--. Anyway, was
+worth the price of him to have him along last night. We'd have milled
+around till daylight, I guess, only for him."
+
+"That's what," agreed Rodway. "Jessie's horse is one she brought from
+home lately, and he ain't located yet; I dunno as he'd 'a' piloted her
+home. Billy--that's what the kids named him--was born and raised here,
+yuh see. I'll bet he's glad to get back--and the kids'll be plumb wild."
+
+Rowdy did not answer; there seemed nothing in particular to say, and he
+was wondering if he would see Miss Conroy before he left. She had not
+eaten breakfast with the others; from their manner, he judged that
+no one expected her to. He was not well informed upon the subject
+of schoolma'ams, but he had a hazy impression that late rising was a
+distinguishing characteristic--and he did not know how late. He
+saddled leisurely, and packed his bed for the last time upon Chub. The
+red-and-yellow Navajo blanket he folded tenderly, with an unconscious
+smile for the service it had done, and laid it in its accustomed place
+in the bed. Then, having no plausible excuse for going back to the
+house, he mounted and rode away into the brilliant white world, watching
+wistfully the house from the tail of his eye.
+
+She might have got up in time to see him off, he thought discontentedly;
+but he supposed one cowpuncher more or less made little difference to
+her. Anyway, he didn't know as he had any license to moon around her.
+She probably had a fellow; she might even be engaged, for all he knew.
+And--she was Harry Conroy's sister; and from his experience with the
+breed, good looks didn't count for anything. Harry was good-looking, and
+he was a snake, if ever there was one. He had never expected to lie for
+him--but he had done it, all right--and because Harry's sister happened
+to have nice eyes and a pretty little foot!--
+
+He had half a mind to go back and tell Rodway all he knew about those
+horses; it was only a matter of time, anyway, till Harry Conroy overshot
+the mark and got what was coming to him. He sure didn't owe Harry
+anything, that he had need to shield him like he had done. Still,
+Rodway would wonder why he hadn't told it at first; and that little girl
+believed in Harry, and said he was "splendid!" Humph! He wondered if she
+really meant that. If she did--
+
+He squared his back to the house--and the memory of Miss Conroy's
+eyes--and plodded across the field to the gate. Now the sun was shining,
+and there was no possibility of getting lost. The way to the Cross L lay
+straight and plain before him.
+
+Rowdy rode leisurely up over the crest of a ridge beyond which lay the
+home ranch of the Cross L. Whether it was henceforth to be his home he
+had yet to discover--though there was reason for hoping that it would
+be. Even so venturesome a man as Rowdy Vaughan would scarce ride a long
+hundred miles through unpeopled prairie, in the tricky month of March,
+without some reason for expecting a welcome at the end of his journey.
+In this case, a previous acquaintance with "Wooden Shoes" Mielke,
+foreman of the Cross L, was Rowdy's trump-card. Wooden Shoes, whenever
+chance had brought them together in the last two or three years, was
+ever urging Rowdy to come over and unroll his soogans in the Cross L
+bed-tent, and promising the best string in the outfit to ride--besides
+other things alluring to a cow-puncher. So that, when his relations with
+the Horseshoe Bar became strained, Rowdy remembered his friend of the
+Cross L and the promises, and had drifted south.
+
+Just now he hoped that Wooden Shoes would be home to greet him, and
+his eyes searched wishfully the huddle of low-eaved cabins and the
+assortment of sheds and corrals for the bulky form of the foreman. But
+no one seemed to be about--except a bigbodied, bandy-legged individual,
+who appeared to be playfully chasing a big, bright bay stallion inside
+the large enclosure where stood the cabins.
+
+Rowdy watched them impersonally; a glance proved that the man was not
+Wooden Shoes, and so he was not particularly interested in him or his
+doings. It did occur to him, however, that if the fellow wanted to catch
+that brute, he ought to have sense enough to get a horse. No one but
+a plumb idiot would mill around in that snow afoot. He jogged down the
+slope at a shuffling trot, grinning tolerantly at the pantomime below.
+
+He of the bandy-legs stopped, evidently out of breath; the stallion
+stopped also, snorting defiance. Rowdy heard him plainly, even at that
+distance. The horse arched his neck and watched the man warily, ready
+to be off at the first symptom of hostilities--and Rowdy observed that a
+short rope hung from his halter, swaying as he moved.
+
+Bandy-legs seemed to have an idea; he turned and scuttled to the nearest
+cabin, returning with what seemed a basin of oats, for he shook it
+enticingly and edged cautiously toward the horse. Rowdy could imagine
+him coaxing, with hypocritically endearing names, such as "Good old
+boy!" and "Steady now, Billy"--or whatever the horse's name might
+be. Rowdy chuckled to himself, and hoped the horse saw through the
+subterfuge.
+
+Perhaps the horse chuckled also; at any rate, he stood quite still,
+equally prepared to bounce away on the instant or to don the mask of
+docility. Bandy-legs drew nearer and nearer, shaking the basin briskly,
+like an old woman sifting meal. The horse waited, his nostrils quivering
+hungrily at the smell of the oats, and with an occasional low nicker.
+
+Bandy-legs went on tiptoes--or as nearly as he could in the snow--the
+basin at arm's length before. The dainty, flaring nostrils sniffed
+tentatively, dipped into the basin, and snuffed the oats about
+luxuriously--till he felt a stealthy hand seize the dangling rope. At
+the touch he snorted protest, and was off and away, upsetting Bandy-legs
+and the basin ignominiously into a high-piled drift.
+
+Bandy-legs sat up, scraped the snow out of his collar and his ears, and
+swore. It was then that Rowdy appeared like an angel of deliverance.
+
+"Want that horse caught?" he yelled cheerfully.
+
+Bandy-legs lifted up his voice and bellowed things I should not like to
+repeat verbatim. But Rowdy gathered that the man emphatically did want
+that so-and-so-and-then-some horse caught, and that it couldn't be done
+a blessed minute too soon. Whereat Rowdy smiled anew, with his face
+discreetly turned away from Bandy-legs, and took down his rope and
+widened the loop. Also, he turned Chub loose.
+
+The stallion evidently sensed what new danger threatened his stolen
+freedom, and circled the yard with high, springy strides. Rowdy circled
+after, saw his chance, swirled the loop twice over his head, and
+hazarded a long throw.
+
+Rowdy knew it for pure good luck that it landed right, but to this day
+Bandy-legs looks upon him as a Wonder with a rope--and Bandy-legs would
+insist upon the capital.
+
+"Where shall I take him?" Rowdy asked, coming up with his captive, and
+with nothing but his eyes to show how he was laughing inwardly.
+
+Bandy-legs crawled from the drift, still scraping snow from inside his
+collar, and gave many directions about going through a certain gate into
+such-and-such a corral; from there into a stable; and by seeming devious
+ways into a minutely described stall.
+
+"All right," said Rowdy, cutting short the last needless details. "I
+guess I can find the trail;" and started off, leading the stallion.
+Bandy-legs followed, and Chub, observing the departure of Dixie, ambled
+faithfully in the rear.
+
+"Much obliged," conceded Bandy-legs, when the stallion was safely housed
+and tied securely. "Where yuh headed for, young man?"
+
+"Right here," Rowdy told him calmly, loosening Dixie's cinch. "I'm the
+long-lost top hand that the Cross L's been watching the sky-line for,
+lo! these many moons, a-yearning for the privilege of handing me forty
+plunks about twice as fast as I've got 'em coming. Where's the boss?"
+
+"Er--I'm him," confessed Bandy-legs meekly, and circled the two
+dubiously. "I guess you've heard uh Eagle Creek Smith--I'm him. The
+Cross L belongs to me."
+
+Rowdy let out an explosive, and showed a row of nice teeth. "Well, I
+ain't hard to please," he added. "I won't kick on that, I guess. I like
+your looks tolerable well, and I'm willing to take yuh on for a boss. If
+yuh do your part, I bet we'll get along fine." His tone was banteringly
+patronizing "Anyway, I'll try yuh for a spell. You can put my name down
+as Rowdy Vaughan, lately canned from the Horseshoe Bar."
+
+"What for?" ventured Bandy-legs--rather, Eagle Creek--still circling
+Rowdy dubiously.
+
+"What for was I canned?" repeated Rowdy easily. "Being a modest youth, I
+hate t' tell yuh. But the old man's son and me, we disagreed, and one
+of his eyes swelled some; so did mine, a little." He stood head and
+shoulders above Eagle Creek, and he smiled down upon him engagingly.
+Eagle Creek capitulated before the smile.
+
+"Well, I ain't got any sons--that I know of," he grinned. "So I guess
+yuh can consider yourself a Cross L man till further notice."
+
+"Why, sure!" The teeth gleamed again briefly. "That's what I've been
+telling you right along. Where's old Wooden Shoes? He's responsible for
+me being here."
+
+"Gone to Chinook. He'll be back in a day or two." Eagle Creek shifted
+his feet awkwardly. "Say"--he glanced uneasily behind him--"yuh don't
+want t' let it get around that yuh sort of--hired me--see?"
+
+"Of course not," Rowdy assured him. "I was only joshing. If you don't
+want me, just tell me to hit the sod."
+
+"You stay right where you're at!" commanded Eagle Creek with returned
+confidence in himself and his authority. Of a truth, this self-assured,
+straight-limbed young man had rather dazed him. "Take your bed and
+war-bag up to the bunk-house and make yourself t' home till the boys get
+back, and--say, where'd yuh git that pack-horse?"
+
+The laugh went out of Rowdy's tawny eyes. The question hit a spot that
+was becoming sore. "I borrowed him this morning from Mr. Rodway," he
+said evenly. "I'm to take him back to-day. I stopped there last night."
+
+"Oh!" Eagle Creek coughed apologetically, and said no word, while Rowdy
+led Chub back to the cabin which he had pointed out as the bunk-house;
+he stood by while Rowdy loosened the pack and dragged it inside.
+
+"I guess you can get located here," he said. "I ain't workin' more'n
+three or four men just now, but there's quite a few uh the boys stopping
+here; the Cross L's a regular hang-out for cow-punchers. You're a little
+early for the season, but I'll see that yuh have something t' do--just
+t' keep yuh out uh devilment."
+
+Rowdy's brows unbent; it would seem that Eagle Creek was capable of
+"joshing" also. "It's up t' you, old-timer," he retorted. "I'm strong
+and willing, and don't shy at anything but pitchforks."
+
+Eagle Creek grinned. "This ain't no blamed cowhospital," he gave as a
+parting shot. "All the hay that's shoveled on this ranch needn't hurt
+nobody's feelings." With that he shut the door, and left Rowdy to
+acquaint himself with his new home.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4. Pink as "Chappyrone."
+
+Rowdy was sprawled ungracefully upon somebody's bunk--he neither knew
+nor cared whose--and he was snoring unmelodiously, and not dreaming a
+thing; for when a cow-puncher has nothing in particular to do, he
+sleeps to atone for the weary hours when he must be very wide-awake. An
+avalanche descended upon his unwarned middle, and checked the rhythmic
+ebb and flow of sound. He squawked and came to life clawing viciously.
+
+"I'd like t' know where the devil yuh come from," a voice remarked
+plaintively in a soft treble.
+
+Rowdy opened his eyes with a snap. "Pink! by all that's good and bad!
+Get up off my diaphragm, you little fiend."
+
+Pink absent-mindedly kneaded Rowdy's stomach with his knuckles, and
+immediately found himself in a far corner. He came back, dimpling
+mischievously. He looked much more an angel than a fiend, for all his
+Angora chaps and flame-colored scarf.
+
+"Your bed and war-bag's on my bunk; you're on Smoky's; and Dixie's
+makin' himself to home in the corral. By all them signs and tokens,
+I give a reckless guess you're here t' stay a while. That right?" He
+prodded again at Rowdy's ribs.
+
+"It sure is, Pink. And if I'd known you was holding out here, I'd 'a'
+come sooner, maybe. You sure look good to me, you darned little cuss!"
+Rowdy sat up and took a lightning inventory of the four or five other
+fellows lounging about. He must have slept pretty sound, he thought, not
+to hear them come in.
+
+Pink read the look, and bethought him of the necessary introductions.
+"This is my side-kicker over the line that--you've heard about till
+you're plumb weary, boys," he announced musically. "His name is Rowdy
+Vaughan--bronco-peeler, crap fiend, and all-round bad man. He ain't a
+safe companion, and yuh want t' sleep with your six-guns cuddled under
+your right ear, and never, on no account, show him your backs. He's a
+real wolf, he is, and the only reason I live t' tell the tale is because
+he respects m' size. Boys, I'm afraid for yuh--but I wish yuh well."
+
+"Pink, you need killing, and I'm tempted to live up to my rep," grinned
+Rowdy indulgently. "Read me the pedigree of your friends."
+
+"Oh, they ain't no worse--when yuh git used to 'em. That long-legged
+jasper with the far-away look in his eyes is the Silent One--if he takes
+a notion t' you, he'll maybe tell yuh the name his mother calls him. He
+may have seen better days; but here's hoping he won't see no worse! He
+once was a tenderfoot; but he's convalescing."
+
+The Silent One nodded carelessly, but with a quick, measuring glance
+that Rowdy liked.
+
+"This unshaved savage is Smoky. He's harmless, if yuh don't
+mention socialism in his presence; and if yuh do, he'll
+down-with-the-trust-and-long-live-the-sons-uh-toil, all hours uh the
+night, and keep folks awake. Then him and the fellow that started him
+off 'll likely get chapped good and plenty. Over there's Jim Ellis
+and Bob Nevin; they've both turned a cow or two, and I've seen worse
+specimens running around loose--plenty of 'em. That man hidin' behind
+the grin--you can see him if yuh look close--is Sunny Sam. Yuh needn't
+take no notice of him, unless you're a mind to. He won't care--he's dead
+gentle.
+
+"Say," he broke off, "how'd you happen t' stray onto this range, anyhow?
+Yuh used t' belong t the Horseshoe Bar so solid the assessor always t'
+yuh down on the personal-property list."
+
+"They won't pay taxes on me no more, son." Rowdy's eyes dwelt fondly
+upon Pink's cupid-bow mouth and dimples. He had never dreamed of finding
+Pink here; though, when he came to think of it there was no reason why
+he shouldn't.
+
+Pink was not like any one else. He was slight and girlish to look at.
+But you mustn't trust appearances; for Pink was all muscle strung on
+steel wire, according to the belief of those who tried to handle him.
+He had little white hands, and feet that looked quite comfortable in
+a number four boot, and his hair was a tawny gold and curled in
+distracting, damp rings on his forehead. His eyes were blue and
+long-lashed and beautiful, and they looked at the world with baby
+innocence--whereas a more sophisticated little devil never jangled spurs
+at his heels. He was everything but insipid, and men liked him--unless
+he chose to dislike them, when they thought of him with grating teeth.
+To find him bullying the Cross L boys brought a warmth to Rowdy's heart.
+
+Pink made a cigarette, and then offered Rowdy his tobacco-sack, and
+asked questions about the Cypress Hills country. How was this girl?--and
+was that one married yet?--and did the other still grieve for him? As a
+matter of fact, he had yet to see the girl who could quicken his pulse
+a single beat, and for that reason it sometimes pleased him to affect
+susceptibility beyond that of other men.
+
+It was after dinner when he and Rowdy went humming down to the stables,
+gossiping like a couple of old women over a back fence.
+
+"I see you've got Conroy's Chub yet," Pink observed carelessly.
+
+"Oh, for Heaven's sake let up on that cayuse!" Rowdy cried petulantly.
+"I wish I'd never got sight of the little buzzard-head; I've had him
+crammed down my throat the last day or two till it's getting plumb
+monotonous. Pink, that cayuse never saw Oregon. He was raised right on
+this flat, and he belongs to old Rodway. I've got to lead him back there
+and turn him over to-day."
+
+Pink took three puffs at his cigarette, and lifted his long lashes to
+Rowdy's gloom-filled face. "Stole?" he asked briefly.
+
+"Stole," Rowdy repeated disgustedly. "So was the whole blame' bunch, as
+near as I can make out."
+
+"We might 'a' knowed it. We might 'a' guessed Harry Conroy wouldn't have
+a straight title to anything if he could make it crooked. I bet he never
+finished paying back that money yuh lent him--out uh the kindness uh
+your heart. Did he?" Pink leaned against the corral fence and kicked
+meditatively at a snow-covered rock.
+
+"He did not, m' son. Chub's all I ever got out uh the deal--and
+I haven't even got him. I borrowed him from Rodway to pack my bed
+over--borrowed the blame' little runty cayuse that cost me sixty-four
+hard-earned dollars; that's what Harry borrowed of me. And every blame'
+gazabo on the flat wanted to know what I was doing with him!"
+
+"I can tell yuh where t' find Conroy, Rowdy. He's working for an
+outfit down on the river. I'd sure fix him for this! Yuh got plenty of
+evidence; you can send him up like a charm. It was different when he cut
+your latigo strap in that rough-riding contest; yuh couldn't prove it on
+him. But this--why, man, it's a cinch!"
+
+"I haven't lost Harry Conroy, so I ain't looking for him just now,"
+growled Rowdy. "So long as he keeps out uh reach, I won't ask no more of
+him. And, Pink, I wish you'd keep this quiet--about him having Chub. I
+told Rodway I couldn't put him next to the fellow that brought that
+bunch across the line. I told him the fellow went north and got killed.
+He did go north--fifty miles or so; and he'd ought to been killed, if he
+wasn't. Let it go that way, Pink."
+
+Pink looked like a cherub-faced child when he has been told there's
+no Santa Claus. "Sure, if yuh say so," he stammered dubiously. He eyed
+Rowdy reproachfully, and then looked away to the horizon. He kicked
+the rock out of place, and then poked it painstakingly back with his
+toe--and from the look of him, he did not know there was a rock there at
+all.
+
+"How'd yuh happen to run across Rodway?" he asked guilelessly.
+
+"I stopped there last night. I got to milling around in that storm, and
+ran across the schoolma'am that boards at Rodway's, She was plumb lost,
+too, so we dubbed around together for a while, and finally got inside
+Rodway's field. Then Chub come alive and piloted us to the house. This
+morning Rodway claimed him--says the brand has been worked from a Roman
+four. Oh, it's all straight goods," he added hastily. "Old Eagle Creek
+here knew him, too."
+
+But Pink was not thinking of Chub. He hunched his chap-belt higher
+and spat viciously into the snow. "I knowed it," he declared, with
+melancholy triumph. "It's school-ma'amitis that's gave yuh softening uh
+the vitals, and not no Christian charity play. How comes it you're took
+that way, all unbeknown t' your friends? Yuh never used t' bother about
+no female girls. It's a cinch you're wise that she's Harry's sister; and
+I admit she's a swell looker. But so's he; and I should think, Rowdy,
+you'd had about enough uh that brand uh snake."
+
+"There's nothing so snaky about her that I could see," defended Rowdy.
+He did not particularly relish having his own mental argument against
+Miss Conroy thrown back at him from another. "She seemed to be all
+right; and if you'd seen how plucky she was in that blizzard--"
+
+"Well, I never heard anybody stand up and call Harry white-livered, when
+yuh come t' that," Pink cut in tartly. "Anyway, you're a blame fool. If
+she was a little white-winged angel, yuh wouldn't stand no kind uh show;
+and I tell yuh why. She's got a little tin god that she says prayers to
+regular."
+
+"That's Harry. And wouldn't he be the fine brother-in-law? He could
+borrow all your wages off'n yuh, and when yuh went t' make a pretty
+ride, he'd up and cut your latigo, and give yuh a fall. And he could
+work stolen horses off onto yuh--and yuh wouldn't give a damn, 'cause
+Jessie wears a number two shoe--"
+
+"You must have done some rimrock riding after her yourself!" jeered
+Rowdy.
+
+"And has got shiny brown eyes, just like Harry's--"
+
+"They're not!" laughed Rowdy, half-angrily. "If you say that again,
+Pink, I'll stick your head in a snow-bank. Her eyes are all right. They
+sure look good to me."
+
+"You've sure got 'em," mourned Pink. "Yuh need t' be close-herded by
+your friends, and that's no dream. You wait till toward evening before
+yuh take that horse back. I'm going along t' chappyrone yuh, Rowdy. Yuh
+ain't safe running loose any more."
+
+Rowdy cursed him companionably and told him to go along, if he wanted
+to, and to look out he didn't throw up his own hands; and Pink grumbled
+and swore and did go along. But when they got there, Miss Conroy greeted
+him like a very good friend; which sent Rowdy sulky, and kept him so all
+the evening. It seemed to him that Pink was playing a double game, and
+when they started home he told him so.
+
+But Pink turned in his saddle and smiled so that his dimples showed
+plainly in the moonlight. "Chappyrones that set in a corner and look
+wise are the rankest kind uh fakes," he explained. "When she was talking
+to me, she was letting you alone--see?"
+
+Rowdy accepted the explanation silently, and stored it away in his
+memory. After that, by riding craftily, and by threats, and by much
+vituperation, he managed to reach Rodway's unchapperoned at least three
+times out of five--which was doing remarkably well, when one considers
+Pink.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5. At Home at Cross L.
+
+In two days Rowdy was quite at home with the Cross L. In a month he
+found himself transplanted from the smoke-laden air of the bunk-house,
+and set off from the world in a line camp, with nothing to do but patrol
+the boggy banks of Milk River, where it was still unfenced and unclaimed
+by small farmers. The only mitigation of his exile, so far as he could
+see, lay in the fact that he had Pink and the Silent One for companions.
+
+It developed that when he would speak to the Silent One, he must say
+Jim, or wait long for a reply. Also, the Silent One was not always
+silent, and he was quick to observe the weak points in those around him,
+and keen at repartee. When it pleased him so to do, he could handle the
+English language in a way that was perfectly amazing--and not always
+intelligible to the unschooled. At such times Pink frankly made no
+attempt to understand him; Rowdy, having been hustled through grammar
+school and two-thirds through high school before he ran away from a
+brand new stepmother, rather enjoyed the outbreaks and Pink's consequent
+disgust.
+
+Not one of them loved particularly the line camp, and Rowdy least of
+all, since it put an extra ten miles between Miss Conroy and himself.
+Rowdy had got to that point where his mind dwelt much upon matters
+domestic, and he made many secret calculations on the cost of
+housekeeping for two. More than that, he put himself upon a rigid
+allowance for pocket-money--an allowance barely sufficient to keep
+him in tobacco and papers. All this without consulting Miss Conroy's
+wishes--which only goes to show that Rowdy Vaughan was a born optimist.
+
+The Silent One complained that he could not keep supplied with
+reading-matter, and Pink bewailed the monotony of inaction. For, beyond
+watching the river to keep the cattle from miring in the mud lately
+released from frost grip, there was nothing to do.
+
+According to the calendar, spring was well upon them, and the prairies
+would soon be flaunting new dresses of green. The calendar, however, had
+neglected to record the rainless heat of the summer gone before, or
+the searing winds that burned the grass brown as it grew, or the winter
+which forgot its part and permitted prairie-dogs to chip-chip-chip above
+ground in January, when they should be sleeping decently in their cellar
+homes.
+
+Apart from the brief storm which Rowdy had brought with him, there had
+been no snow worth considering. Always the chill winds shaved the barren
+land from the north, or veered unexpectedly, and blew dry warmth from
+the southwest; but never the snow for which the land yearned. Wind, and
+bright sunlight, and more wind, and hypocritical, drifting clouds, and
+more sun; lean cattle walking, walking, up-hill and down coulee, nose to
+the dry ground, snipping the stray tufts where should be a woolly carpet
+of sweet, ripened grasses, eating wildrose bushes level with the sod,
+and wishing there was only an abundance even of them; drifting uneasily
+from hilltop to farther hilltop, hunger-driven and gaunt, where should
+be sleek content. When they sought to continue their quest beyond the
+river, and the weaker bogged at its muddy edge, Rowdy and Pink and
+the Silent One would ride out, and with their ropes drag them back
+ignominiously to solid ground and the very doubtful joy of living.
+
+May Day found the grass-land brown and lifeless, with a chill wind
+blowing over it. The cattle wandered as before except that knock-kneed
+little calves trailed beside their lean mothers and clamored for full
+stomachs.
+
+The Cross L cattle bore the brunt of the range famine, because Eagle
+Creek Smith was a stockman of the old school. His cattle must live on
+the open range, because they always had done so. Other men bought or
+leased large tracts of grass-land, and fenced them for just such an
+emergency, but not he. It is true that he had two or three large fields,
+as Miss Conroy had told Rowdy, but it was his boast that all the hay he
+raised was eaten by his saddlehorses, and that all the fields he owned
+were used solely for horse pastures. The open range was the place for
+cattle and no Cross L critter ever fed inside a wire fence.
+
+Through the dry summer before, when other men read the ominous signs
+and hurriedly leased pasture-land and cut down their herds to what the
+fields would feed, Eagle Creek went calmly on as he had done always.
+He shipped what beef was fit--and that, of a truth, was not much!--and
+settled down for the winter, trusting to winter snows and spring rains
+to refill the long-dry lakes and waterholes, and coat the levels anew
+with grass.
+
+But the winter snows had failed to appear, and with the spring came
+no rain. "April showers" became a hideously ironical joke at nature's
+expense. Always the wind blew, and sometimes great flocks of clouds
+would drift superciliously up from the far sky-line, play with men's
+hopes, and sail disdainfully on to some more favored land.
+
+It is all very well for a man to cling stubbornly to precedent, but if
+he clings long enough, there comes a time when to cling becomes akin to
+crime. Eagle Creek Smith still stubbornly held that rangecattle should
+be kept to the range. He waited until May was fast merging to June,
+watching, from sheer habit, for the spring transformation of brown
+prairies into green. When it did not come, and only the coulee sides and
+bottoms showed green among the brown, he accepted ruefully the unusual
+conditions which nature had thrust upon him, and started "Wooden Shoes"
+out with the wagons on the horse round-up, which is a preliminary to the
+roundup proper, as every one knows.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6. A Shot From the Dark.
+
+"I call that a bad job well done," Pink remarked, after a long silence,
+as he gave over trying to catch a fish in the muddy Milk River.
+
+"What?" Rowdy, still prone to day-dreams of matters domestic, came back
+reluctantly to reality, and inspected his bait.
+
+"Oh, come alive! I mean the horse round-up. How we're going to keep that
+bunch uh skeletons under us all summer is a guessing contest for fair.
+Wooden Shoes has got t' give me about forty, instead of a dozen, if
+he wants me t' hit 'er up on circle the way I'm used to. I bet their
+back-bones'll wear clean up through our saddles."
+
+"Oh, I guess not," said Rowdy calmly. "They ain't so thin--and they'll
+pick up flesh. There's some mighty good ones in the bunch, too. I hope
+Wooden Shoes don't forget to give me the first pick. There's one I got
+my eye on--that blue roan. Anyway, I guess you can wiggle along with
+less than forty."
+
+Pink shook his head thoughtfully and sighed. Pink loved good mounts, and
+the outlook did not please him. The round-up had camped, for the last
+time, on the river within easy riding distance of Camas. The next day's
+drive would bring them to the home ranch, where Eagle Creek was fuming
+over the lateness of the season, the condition of the range, and the
+June rains, which had thus far failed even to moisten decently the
+grass-roots.
+
+"Let's ride over to Camas; all the other fellows have gone," Pink
+proposed listlessly, drawing in his line.
+
+Rowdy as listlessly consented. Camas as a town was neither interesting
+nor important; but when one has spent three long weeks communing with
+nature in her sulkiest and most unamiable mood, even a town without a
+railroad to its name may serve to relieve the monotony of living.
+
+The sun was piling gorgeous masses of purple and crimson clouds high
+about him, cuddling his fat cheeks against their soft folds till, a
+Midas, he turned them to gold at the touch. Those farther away
+gloomed jealously at the favoritism of their lord, and huddled closer
+together--the purple for rage, perhaps; and the crimson for shame!
+
+Pink's face was tinged daintily with the glow, and even Rowdy's lean,
+brown features were for the moment glorified. They rode knee to knee
+silently, thinking each his own thoughts the while they watched the
+sunset with eyes grown familiar with its barbaric splendor, but never
+indifferent.
+
+Soon the west held none but the deeper tints, and the shadows climbed,
+with the stealthy tread of trailing Indians, from the valley, chasing
+the after-glow to the very hilltops, where it stood a moment at bay
+and then surrendered meekly to the dusk. A meadow-lark near-by cut the
+silence into haunting ripples of melody, stopped affrighted at their
+coming, and flew off into the dull glow of the west; his little body
+showed black against a crimson cloud. Out across the river a lone coyote
+yapped sharply, then trailed off into the weird plaint of his kind.
+
+"Brother-in-law's in town to-day; Bob Nevin saw him," Pink remarked,
+when the coyote ceased wailing and held his peace.
+
+"Who?" Rowdy only half-heard.
+
+"Bob Nevin," repeated Pink naively.
+
+"Don't get funny. Who did Bob see?"
+
+"Brother-in-law. Yours, not mine. Jessie's tin god. If he's there yet,
+I bid for an invite to the 'swatfest.' Or maybe"--a horrible possibility
+forced itself upon Pink--"maybe you'll kill the fattest maverick and
+fall on his neck--"
+
+"The maverick's?" Rowdy's brows were rather pinched together, but his
+tone told nothing.
+
+"Naw; Harry Conroy's a fellow's liable to do most any fool thing when
+he's got schoolma'amitis."
+
+"That so?"
+
+Pink snorted. The possibility had grown to black certainty in his mind.
+He became suddenly furious.
+
+"Lord! I hope some kind friend'll lead me out an' knock me in the head,
+if ever I get locoed over any darned girl!"
+
+"Same here," agreed Rowdy, unmoved.
+
+"Then your days are sure numbered in words uh one syllable, old-timer,"
+snapped Pink.
+
+Rowdy leaned and patted him caressingly upon the shoulder--a form of
+irony which Pink detested. "Don't get excited, sonny," he soothed. "Did
+you fetch your gun?"
+
+"I sure did!" Pink drew a long breath of relief. "Yuh needn't think I'm
+going t' take chances on being no human colander. I've packed a gun for
+Harry Conroy ever since that rough-riding contest uh yourn. Yuh mind
+the way I took him under the ear with a rock? He's been makin' war-talk
+behind m' back ever since. Did I bring m' gun! Well, I guess yes!" He
+dimpled distractingly.
+
+"All the same, it'll suit me not to run up against him," said Rowdy
+quite frankly. He knew Pink would understand. Then he lifted his coat
+suggestively, to show the weapon concealed beneath, and smiled.
+
+"Different here. Yuh did have sense enough t' be ready--and if yuh see
+him, and don't forget he's got a sister with a number two foot, damned
+if I don't fix yuh both a-plenty!" He settled his hat more firmly over
+his curls, and eyed Rowdy anxiously from under his lashes.
+
+Rowdy caught the action and the look from the tail of his eye, and
+grinned at his horse's ears. Pink in warlike mood always made him think
+of a four-year-old child playing pirate with the difference that Pink
+was always in deadly earnest and would fight like a fiend.
+
+For more reasons than one he hoped they would not meet Harry Conroy.
+Jessie was still in ignorance of his real attitude toward her brother,
+and Rowdy wanted nothing more than to keep her so. The trouble was that
+he was quite certain to forget everything but his grievances, if ever he
+came face to face with Harry. Also, Pink would always fight quicker for
+his friends than for himself, and he felt very tender toward Pink. So
+he hoped fervently that Harry Conroy had already ridden back whence he
+came, and there would be no unpleasantness.
+
+Four or five Cross L horses stood meekly before the Come Again Saloon,
+so Rowdy and Pink added theirs to the gathering and went in. The Silent
+One looked up from his place at a round table in a far corner, and
+beckoned.
+
+"We need another hand here," he said, when they went over to him. "These
+gentlemen are worried because they might be taken into high society some
+day, and they would be placed in a very embarrassing position through
+their ignorance of bridge-whist. I have very magnanimously consented to
+teach them the rudiments."
+
+Bob Nevin looked up, and then lowered an eyelid cautiously. "He's a
+liar. He offered to learn us how to play it; we bet him the drinks he
+didn't savvy the game himself. Set down, Pink, and I'll have you for my
+pretty pardner."
+
+The Silent One shuffled the cards thoughtfully. "To make it seem like
+bona-fide bridge," he began, "we should have everybody playing."
+
+"Aw, the common, ordinary brand is good enough," protested Bob. "I ain't
+in on any trimmings."
+
+The Silent One smiled ever so slightly. "We should have prizes--or
+favors. Is there a store in town where one could buy something
+suitable?"
+
+"They got codfish up here; I smelt it," suggested Jim Ellis. Him the
+Silent One ignored.
+
+"What do you say, boys, to a real, high society whist-party? I'll invite
+the crowd, and be the hostess. And I'll serve punch--"
+
+"Come on, fellows, and have one with me," called a strange voice near
+the door.
+
+"Meeting's adjourned," cried Jim Ellis, and got up to accept the
+invitation and range along the bar with the rest. He had not been
+particularly interested in bridge-whist anyway.
+
+The others remained seated, and the bartender called across to know what
+they would have. Pink cut the cards very carefully, and did not look up.
+Rowdy thrust both hands in his pockets and turned his square shoulder
+to the bar. He did not need to look--he knew that voice, with its shoddy
+heartiness.
+
+Men began to observe his attitude, and looked at one another. When one
+is asked to drink with another, he must comply or decline graciously, if
+he would not give a direct insult.
+
+Harry Conroy took three long steps and laid a hand on Rowdy's
+shoulder--a hand which Rowdy shook off as though it burned. "Say,
+stranger, are you too high-toned t' drink with a common cowpuncher?" he
+demanded sharply.
+
+Rowdy half-turned toward him. "No, sir. But I'll be mighty thirsty
+before I drink with you." His voice was even, but it cut.
+
+The room stilled on the instant; it was as if every man of them had
+turned to lay figures. Harry Conroy had winced at sight of Rowdy's
+face--men saw that, and some of them wondered. Pink leaned back in
+his chair, every nerve tightened for the next move, and waited. It
+was Harry--handsome, sneering, a certain swaggering defiance in his
+pose--who first spoke.
+
+"Oh, it's you, is it? I haven't saw yuh for some time. How's
+bronco-fighting? Gone up against any more contests?" He laughed
+mockingly--with mouth and eyes maddeningly like Jessie's in teasing
+mood.
+
+Rowdy could have killed him for the resemblance alone. His lids drooped
+sleepily over eyes that glittered. Harry saw the sign, read it for
+danger; but he laughed again.
+
+"Yuh ought to have seen this bronco-peeler pull leather, boys," he
+jeered recklessly "I like to 'a' died. He got piled up the slickest I
+ever saw; and there was some feeble-minded Canucks had money up on him,
+too: He won't drink with me, 'cause I got off with the purse. He's got
+a grouch--and I don't know as I blame him; he did get let down pretty
+hard, for a fact."
+
+"Maybe he did pull leather--but he didn't cut none, like you did, you
+damn' skunk!" It was Pink--Pink, with big, long-lashed eyes purple with
+rage, and with a dead-white streak around his mouth, and a gun in his
+hand.
+
+Harry wheeled toward him, and if a new light of fear crept into his
+eyes, his lips belied it in a sneer. "Two of a kind!" he laughed. "So
+that's the story yuh brought over here, is it? Hell of a lot uh good
+it'll do yuh!"
+
+Something in Pink's face warned Rowdy. Harry's face turned watchfully
+from one to the other. Evidently he considered Pink the more uncertain
+of the two; and he was quite justified in so thinking. Pink was only
+waiting for a cue before using his gun; and when Pink once began, there
+was no telling where or when he would leave off.
+
+While Harry stood uncertain, Rowdy's fist suddenly spatted against his
+cheek with considerable force. He tumbled, a cursing heap, against the
+foot-rail of the bar, scrambled up like a cat--a particularly vicious
+cat--and came at Rowdy murderously. The Come Again would shortly have
+been filled with the pungent haze of burned powder, only that the
+bartender was a man-of-action. He hated brawls, and it did not matter
+to him how just might be the quarrel; he slapped the gaping barrels of
+a sawed-off shotgun across the bar--and from the look of it one might
+imagine many disagreeable things.
+
+"Drop it! Cut it out!" he bellowed. "Yuh ain't going t' make no
+slaughter-pen out uh this joint, I tell yuh. Put up them guns or else
+take 'em outside. If you fellers are hell-bent on smokin' each other up,
+they's all kinds uh room outdoors. Git! Vamose! Hike!"
+
+Conroy wheeled and walked, straight-backed and venomous, to the door.
+"Come on out, if yuh ain't scared," he sneered. "It's two agin' one
+and then some, by the look uh things. But I'll take yuh singly or in
+bunches. I'm ready for the whole damn' Cross L bunch uh coyotes. Come
+on, you white-livered--!"
+
+Rowdy rushed for him, with Pink and the Silent One at his heels. He had
+forgotten that Harry Conroy ever had a sister of any sort whatsoever.
+All he knew was that Harry had done him much wrong, of the sort which
+comes near to being unforgivable, and that he had sneered insults that
+no man may overlook. All he thought of was to get his hands on him.
+
+Outside, the dusky stillness made all sounds seem out of place; the
+faint starlight made all objects black and unfamiliar. Rowdy stopped,
+just off the threshold, blinking at the darkness which held his enemy.
+It was strange that he did not find him at his elbow, he thought--and
+a suspicion came to him that Harry was lying in wait; it would be like
+him. He stepped out of the yellow glare from a window and stood in
+more friendly shade. Behind him, on the door-step, stood the other two,
+blinking as he had done.
+
+A form which he did not recognize rushed up out of the darkness and
+confronted the three belligerently. "You're a-disturbin' the peace,"
+he yelled. "We don't stand for nothing like that in Camas. You're my
+prisoners--all uh yuh." The edict seemed to include even the bartender,
+peering over the shoulder of Bob Nevin, who struggled with several
+others for immediate passage through the doorway.
+
+"I guess not, pardner," retorted Pink, facing him as defiantly as though
+the marshal were not twice his size.
+
+The marshal lunged for him; but the Silent One, reaching a long arm from
+the door-step, rapped him smartly on the head with his gun. The marshal
+squawked and went down in a formless heap.
+
+"Come on, boys," said the Silent One coolly. "I think we'd better go.
+Your friend seems to have vanished in thin air."
+
+Rowdy, grumbling mightily over what looked unpleasantly like retreat,
+was pushed toward his horse and mounted under protest. Likewise Pink,
+who was for staying and cleaning up the whole town. But the Silent One
+was firm, and there was that in his manner which compelled obedience.
+
+Harry Conroy might have been an optical--and aural--illusion, for all
+the trace there was of him. But when the three rode out into the little
+street, a bullet pinged close to Rowdy's left ear, and the red bark of a
+revolver spat viciously from a black shadow beside the Come Again.
+
+Rowdy and the two turned and rode back, shooting blindly at the place,
+but the shadow yawned silently before them and gave no sign. Then the
+Silent One, observing that the marshal was getting upon a pair of very
+unsteady legs, again assumed the leadership, and fairly forced Rowdy and
+Pink into the homeward trail.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7. Rowdy in a Tough Place.
+
+Rowdy, with nice calculation, met Miss Conroy just as she had left
+the school-house, and noted with much satisfaction that she was riding
+alone. Miss Conroy, if she had been at all observant, must have seen the
+light of some fixed purpose shining in his eyes; for Rowdy was resolved
+to make her a partner in his dreams of matters domestic. And, of a
+truth, his easy assurance was the thinnest of cloaks to hide his inner
+agitation.
+
+"The round-up just got in yesterday afternoon," he told her, as he swung
+into the trail beside her. "We're going to start out again to-morrow, so
+this is about the only chance I'll have to see you for a while."
+
+"I knew the round-up must be in," said Miss Conroy calmly. "I heard that
+you were in Camas a night or two ago."
+
+Inwardly, Rowdy dodged. "We camped close to Camas," he conceded
+guardedly. "A lot of us fellows rode into town."
+
+"Yes, so Harry told me," she said. "He came over to see me yesterday.
+He is going to leave--has already, in fact. He has had a fine position
+offered him by the Indian agent at Belknap. The agent used to be
+a friend of father's." She looked at Rowdy sidelong, and then went
+straight at what was in the minds of both.
+
+"I'm sorry to hear, Mr. Vaughan, that you are on bad terms with Harry.
+What was the trouble?" She turned her head and smiled at him--but the
+smile did not bring his lips to answer; it was unpleasantly like the way
+Harry smiled when he had some deviltry in mind.
+
+Rowdy scented trouble and parried. "Men can't always get along agreeably
+together."
+
+"And you disagree with a man rather emphatically, I should judge. Harry
+said you knocked him down." Politeness ruled her voice, but cheeks and
+eyes were aflame.
+
+"I did. And of course he told you how he took a shot at me from a dark
+corner, outside." Rowdy's eyes, it would seem, had kindled from the fire
+in hers.
+
+"No, he didn't--but I--you struck him first."
+
+"Hitting a man with your fist is one thing," said Rowdy with decision.
+"Shooting at him from ambush is another."
+
+"Harry shouldn't have done that," she admitted with dignity. "But why
+wouldn't you take a drink with him? Not that I approve of drinking--I
+wish Harry wouldn't do such things--but he said it was an insult the way
+you refused."
+
+"Jessie--"
+
+"Miss Conroy, please."
+
+"Jessie"--he repeated the name stubbornly--"I think we'd better drop
+that subject. You don't understand the case; and, anyway, I didn't come
+here to discuss Harry. Our trouble is long standing, and if I insulted
+him you ought to know I had a reason. I never came whining to you about
+him, and it don't speak well for him that he hot-footed over to you with
+his version. I suppose he'd heard about me--er--going to see you, and
+wanted to queer me. I hope you'll take my word for it, Jessie, that I've
+never harmed him; all the trouble he's made for himself, one way and
+another.
+
+"But what I came over for to-day concerns just you and me. I wanted
+to tell you that--to ask you if you'll marry me. I might put it more
+artistic, Jessie, but that's what I mean, and--I mean all the things
+I'd like to say and can't." He stopped and smiled at her, wistfully
+whimsical. "I've been three weeks getting my feelings into proper words,
+little girl, and coming over here I had a speech thought out that
+sure done justice to my subject. But all I can remember of it is just
+that--that I want you for always."
+
+Miss Conroy looked away from him, but he could see a deeper tint of red
+in her cheek. It seemed a long time before she said anything. Then:
+"But you've forgotten about Harry. He's my brother, and he'd be--er--you
+wouldn't want him related--to you."
+
+"Harry! Well, I pass him up. I've got a pretty long account against him;
+but I'll cross it off. It won't be hard to do--for you. I've thought of
+all that; and a man can forgive a whole lot in the brother of the woman
+he loves." He leaned toward her and added honestly: "I can't promise you
+I'll ever get to like him, Jessie; but I'll keep my hands off him, and
+I'll treat him civil; and when you consider all he's done, that's quite
+a large-sized contract."
+
+Miss Conroy became much interested in the ears of her horse.
+
+"The only thing to decide is whether you like me enough. If you do,
+we'll sure be happy. Never mind Harry."
+
+"You're very generous," she flared, "telling me to never mind Harry.
+And Harry's my own brother, and the only near relative I've got. I know
+he's--impulsive, and quick-tempered, perhaps. But he needs me all the
+more. Do you think I'll turn against him, even for you?"
+
+That "even" may have been a slip, but it heartened Rowdy immensely.
+"I don't ask you to," he told her gently. "I only want you to not turn
+against me."
+
+"I do wish you two would be sensible, and stop quarreling." She glanced
+at him briefly.
+
+"I'm willing to cut it out--I told you that. I can't answer for him,
+though." Rowdy sighed, wishing Harry Conroy in Australia, or some place
+equally remote.
+
+Miss Conroy suddenly resolved to be strictly just; and when a young
+woman sets about being deliberately just, the Lord pity him whom she
+judges!
+
+"Before I answer you, I must know just what all this is about," she said
+firmly. "I want to hear both sides; I'm sure Harry wouldn't do anything
+mean. Do you think he would?"
+
+Rowdy was dissentingly silent.
+
+"Do you really, in your heart, believe that Harry would--knowingly--be
+guilty of anything mean?" Her eyes plainly told the answer she wanted to
+hear.
+
+Rowdy looked into them, hesitated, and clung tenaciously to his
+convictions. "Yes, I do; and I know Harry pretty well, Jessie." His face
+showed how much he hated to say it.
+
+"I'm afraid you are very prejudiced," she sighed. "But go on; tell me
+just what you have against Harry. I'm sure it can all be explained away,
+only I must hear what it is."
+
+Rowdy regarded her, puzzled. How he was to comply he did not know. It
+would be simply brutal to tell her. He would feel like a hangman. And
+she believed so in Harry, she wouldn't listen; even if she did, he
+thought bitterly, she would hate him for destroying her faith. A woman's
+justice--ah, me!
+
+"Don't you see you're putting me in a mighty hard position, girlie?" he
+protested. "You're a heap better off not to know. He's your brother. I
+wish you'd take my word that I'll drop the whole thing right where it
+is. Harry's had all the best of it, so far; let it stand that way."
+
+Her eyes met his coldly. "Are you afraid to let me judge between you?
+What did he do? Daren't you tell?"
+
+Rowdy's lids drooped ominously. "If you call that a dare," he said
+grimly, "I'll tell you, fast enough. I was a friend to him when he
+needed one mighty bad. I helped him when he was dead broke and out uh
+work. I kept him going all winter--and to show his gratitude, he gave
+me the doublecross, in more ways than one. I won't go into details." He
+decided that he simply could not tell her bluntly that Harry had worked
+off stolen horses on him, and worse.
+
+"Oh--you won't go into details!" Scorn filled eyes and voice. "Are
+they so trivial, then? You tell me what you did for Harry--playing Good
+Samaritan. Harry, let me tell you, has property of his own; I can't see
+why he should ever be in need of charity. You're like all the rest; you
+hint things against him--but I believe it's just jealousy. You can't
+come out honestly and tell me a single instance where he has harmed you,
+or done anything worse than other high-spirited young men."
+
+"It wouldn't do any good to tell you," he retorted. "You think he's just
+lacking wings to be an angel. I hope to God you'll always be able to
+think so! I'm sure I don't want to jar your faith."
+
+"I must say your actions don't bear out your words. You've just been
+trying to turn me against him."
+
+"I haven't. I've been trying to convince you that I want you, anyway,
+and Harry needn't come between us."
+
+"In other words, you're willing to overlook my being Harry's sister. I
+appreciate your generosity, I'm sure." She did not look, however, as if
+she meant that.
+
+"I didn't mean that."
+
+"Then you won't overlook it? How very unfortunate! Because I can't help
+the relationship."
+
+"Would you, if you could?" he asked rashly.
+
+"Certainly not!"
+
+"I'm afraid we're getting off the trail," he amended tactfully. "I asked
+you, a while back, if you'd marry me."
+
+"And I said I must hear both sides of your trouble with Harry, before I
+could answer."
+
+"What's the use? You'd take his part, anyway."
+
+"Not if I found he was guilty of all you--insinuate. I should be
+perfectly just." She really believed that.
+
+"Can't you tell me yes or no, anyway? Don't let him come between us."
+
+"I can't help it. We'd never agree, or be happy. He'd keep on coming
+between us, whether we meant him to or not," she said dispiritedly.
+
+"That's a cinch," Rowdy muttered, thinking of Harry's trouble-breeding
+talents.
+
+"Then there's no more to be said. Until you and Harry settle your
+difficulties amicably, or I am convinced that he's in the wrong, we'll
+just be friends, Mr. Vaughan. Good afternoon." She rode into the Rodway
+yard, feeling very just and virtuous, no doubt. But she left Rowdy
+with some rather unpleasant thoughts, and with a sentiment toward her
+precious brother which was not far from manslaughter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8. Pink in a Threatening Mood.
+
+Eagle Creek Smith had at last reached the point where he must face new
+conditions and change established customs. He could no longer ignore
+the barrenness of the range, or close his eyes to the grim fact that
+his cattle were facing starvation--and that in June, when they should be
+taking on flesh.
+
+When he finally did confess to himself that things couldn't go on like
+that, others had been before him in leasing and buying land, until only
+the dry benches were left to him and his hungry herds.
+
+But Eagle Creek was a man of resource. When the round-up pulled in and
+Wooden Shoes reported to him the general state of the cattle, and told
+of the water-holes newly fenced and of creek bottoms gobbled by men more
+farseeing than he, Eagle Creek took twenty-four hours to adjust himself
+to the situation and to meet the crisis before him. His own land, as
+compared to his twenty thousand cattle, was too pitifully inadequate for
+a second thought.
+
+He must look elsewhere for the correct answer to his problem.
+
+When Rowdy rode apathetically up to the stable, Pink came out of the
+bunk-house to meet him, big with news. "Oh, doctor! We're up against it
+a-plenty now," he greeted, with his dimples at their deepest.
+
+"Huh!" grunted Rowdy crossly. "What's hurting you, Pink?"
+
+"Forecasting the future," Pink retorted. "Eagle Creek has come alive,
+and has wised up sudden to the fact that this ain't going t' be any
+Noah's flood brand uh summer, and that his cattle look like the tailings
+of a wash-board factory. He's got busy--and we're sure going to. We're
+due t' hit the grit out uh here in the first beams uh rosy morn, and do
+a record stunt at gathering cattle."
+
+"Well, we were going to, anyhow," Rowdy cut in.
+
+"But that's only the prelude, old-timer. We've got t' take 'em across
+country to the Belknap reservation. Eagle Creek went t' town and
+telegraphed, and got the refusal of it for pasturage; he ain't so
+slow, oncet he gets started. But if you've ever rode over them dried-up
+benches, you savvy the merry party we'll be when we git there. I've saw
+jack-rabbits packing their lunch along over there."
+
+"Belknap"--Rowdy dropped his saddle spitefully to the ground--"is where
+our friend Conroy has just gone to fill a splendid position."
+
+Pink thoughtfully blew the ashes from his cigarette. "Harry Conroy would
+fill one position fine. So one uh these days I'll offer it to him. I
+don't know anybody that'd look nicer in a coffin than that jasper--and
+if he's gone t' Belknap, that's likely the position he'll fill, all
+right."
+
+Rowdy said nothing, but his very silence told Pink much.
+
+"How'd yuh make out with Jessie?" Pink asked frankly, though he was not
+supposed to know where Rowdy had been.
+
+Rowdy knew from experience that it was useless trying to keep anything
+from Pink that Pink wanted to know; besides, there was a certain comfort
+in telling his troubles to so stanch a friend. "Harry got his work in
+there, too," he said bitterly. "He beat me to her and queered me for
+good, by the looks."
+
+"Huh!" said Pink. "I wouldn't waste much time worrying over her, if
+she's that easy turned."
+
+"She's all right," defended Rowdy quickly. "I don't know as I blame her;
+she takes the stand any sister would take. She wants to know all about
+the trouble--hear both sides, she said, so she could judge which was to
+blame. I guess she's got her heart set on being peacemaker. I know one
+thing: she--likes me, all right."
+
+"I don't see how he queered yuh any, then," puzzled Pink. "She sure
+couldn't take his part after you'd told her all he done."
+
+Rowdy turned on him savagely. "You little fool, do you think I told her?
+Right there's the trouble. He told his story; and when she asked for
+mine, I couldn't say anything. She's his sister."
+
+"You--didn't--tell!" Pink leaned against the stable and stared. "Rowdy
+Vaughan, there's times when even your friend can't disguise the fact
+that yuh act plumb batty. Yuh let Harry do yuh dirt that any other man'd
+'a' killed him on bare suspicion uh doing; and yuh never told her when
+she asked yuh to! How yuh lent him money, and let him steal some right
+out uh your pocket--"
+
+"I couldn't prove that," Rowdy objected.
+
+"And yuh never told her about his cutting your latigo--"
+
+"Oh, cut it out!" Rowdy glowered down at him. "I guess I don't need to
+be reminded of all those things. But are they the things a man can tell
+a girl about her brother? Pink, you're about as unfeeling a little devil
+as I ever run across. Maybe you'd have told her; but I couldn't. So it's
+all off."
+
+He turned away and stared unseeingly at the rim of hills that hid the
+place where she lived. She seemed very far away from him just then--and
+very, very desirable. He thought then that he had never before realized
+just how much he cared.
+
+"You can jest bet I'd 'a' told her!" gritted Pink, watching furtively
+Rowdy's averted face. "She ain't goin' t' be bowed down by no load of
+ignorance much longer, either. If she don't get Harry Conroy's pedigree
+straight out, without the varnish, it'll be because I ain't next to all
+his past."
+
+But Rowdy, glooming among the debris of certain pet air-castles, neither
+heard nor wanted to hear Pink's wrathful mutterings. As a matter of
+fact, it was not till Pink clattered out of the yard on Mascot that he
+remembered where he was. Even then it did not occur to him to wonder
+where Pink was going.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9. Moving the Herd.
+
+Four thousand weary cattle crawled up the long ridge which divides Chin
+Coulee from Quitter Creek. Pink, riding point, opposite the Silent One,
+twisted round in his saddle and looked back at the slow-moving river of
+horns and backs veiled in a gray dust-cloud. Down the line at intervals
+rode the others, humped listlessly in their saddles, their hat brims
+pulled low over tired eyes that smarted with dust and wind and burning
+heat.
+
+Pink sighed, and wished lonesomely that it was Rowdy riding point with
+him, instead of the Silent One, who grew even more silent as the day
+dragged leadenly to mid-afternoon; Pink could endure anything better
+than being left to his thoughts and to the complaining herd for company.
+
+He took off his hat, pushed back his curls--dripping wet they were and
+flattened unbecomingly in pasty, yellow rings on his forehead--and eyed
+with disfavor a line-backed, dry cow, with one horn tipped rakishly
+toward her speckled nose; she blinked silently at wind and heat, and
+forged steadily ahead, up-hill and down coulee, always in the lead,
+always walking, walking, like an automaton. Her energy, in the face of
+all the dry, dreary days, rasped Pink's nerves unbearably. For nearly a
+week he had ridden left point, and always that line-backed cow with the
+down-crumpled horn walked and walked and walked, a length ahead of her
+most intrepid followers.
+
+He leaned from his saddle, picked up a rock from the barren, yellow
+hillside, and threw it at the cow spitefully. The rock bounced off her
+lean rump; she blinked and broke into a shuffling trot, her dragging
+hoofs kicking up an extra amount of dust, which blew straight into
+Pink's face.
+
+"Aw, cut it out!" he shouted petulantly. "You're sure the limit, without
+doing any stunts at sprinting up-hill. Ain't yuh got any nerves, yuh
+blamed old skate? Yuh act like it was milkin'-time, and yuh was headed
+straight for the bars and a bran mash. Can't yuh realize the kind uh
+deal you're up against? Here's cattle that's got you skinned for looks,
+old girl, and they know it's coming blamed tough; and you just bat your
+eyes and peg along like yuh enjoyed it. Bawl, or something, can't yuh?
+Drop back a foot and act human!"
+
+The Silent One looked across at him with a tired smile. "Let her go,
+Pink, and pray for more like her," he called amusedly. "There'll be
+enough of them dropping back presently."
+
+Pink threw one leg over the horn and rode sidewise, made him a
+cigarette, and tried to forget the cow--or, at least, to forgive her for
+not acting as dog-tired as he felt.
+
+They were on the very peak of the ridge now, and the hill sloped
+smoothly down before them to the bluff which bounded Quitter Creek. Far
+down, a tiny black speck in the coulee-bottom, they could see Wooden
+Shoes riding along the creek-bank, scouting for water. From the way he
+rode, and from the fact that camp was nowhere in sight, Pink guessed
+shrewdly that his quest was in vain. He shrugged his shoulders at what
+that meant, and gave his attention to the herd.
+
+The marching line split at the brow of the bluff. The line-backed
+cow lowered her head a bit and went unfaltering down the parched,
+gravel-coated hill, followed by a few hundred of the freshest. Then the
+stream stopped flowing, and Pink and the Silent One rode back up the
+bluff to where the bulk of the footsore herd, their senses dulled by
+hunger and weariness and choking thirst, sniffed at the gravel that
+promised agony to their bruised feet, and balked at the ordeal. Others
+straggled up, bunched against the rebels, and stood stolidly where they
+were.
+
+Pink galloped on down the crawling line. "Forward, the Standard Oil
+Brigade!" he yelled whimsically as he went.
+
+The cowboys heard--and understood. They left their places and went
+forward at a lope, and Pink rode back to the coulee edge, untying
+his slicker as he went. The Silent One was already off his horse and
+shouting hoarsely as he whacked with his slicker at the sulky mass.
+Pink rode in and did the same. It was not the first time this thing had
+happened, and from a diversion it was verging closely on the monotonous.
+Presently, even a rank tenderfoot must have caught the significance of
+Pink's military expression. The Standard Oil Brigade was at the front in
+force.
+
+Cowboys, swinging five-gallon oil-cans, picked up from scattered sheep
+camps and carried many a weary mile for just such an emergency, were
+charging the bunch intrepidly. Others made shift with flat sirup-cans
+with pebbles inside. A few, like Pink and the Silent One, flapped their
+slickers till their arms ached. Anything, everything that would make
+a din and startle the cattle out of their lethargy, was pressed into
+service.
+
+But they might have been raised in a barnyard and fed cabbage leaves
+from back door-steps, for all the excitement they showed. Cattle that
+three months ago--or a month--would run, head and tail high in air, at
+sight of a man on foot, backed away from a rattling, banging cube of
+gleaming tin, turned and faced the thing dull-eyed and apathetic.
+
+In time, however, they gave way dogedly before the onslaught. A few were
+forced shrinkingly down the hill; others followed gingerly, until the
+line lengthened and flowed, a sluggish, brown-red stream, into the
+coulee and across to Quitter Creek.
+
+Here the leaders were browsing greedily along the banks. They had
+emptied the few holes that had still held a meager store of brackish
+water and so the mutinous bulk of the herd snuffed at the trampled,
+muddy spots and bellowed their disappointment.
+
+Wooden Shoes rode up and surveyed the half maddened animals gloomily.
+"Push 'em on, boys," he said. "They's nothings for 'em here. I've sent
+the wagons on to Red Willow; we'll try that next. Push 'em along all yuh
+can, while I go on ahead and see."
+
+With tin-cans, slickers, and much vituperation, they forced the herd up
+the coulee side and strung them out again on trail. The line-backed
+cow walked and walked in the lead before Pink's querulous gaze, and the
+others plodded listlessly after. The gray dust-cloud formed anew over
+their slowmoving backs, and the cowboys humped over in their saddles
+and rode and rode, with the hot sun beating aslant in their dirt-grimed
+faces, and with the wind blowing and blowing.
+
+If this had been the first herd to make that dreary trip, things would
+not have been quite so disheartening. But it was the third. Seven
+thousand lean kine had passed that way before them, eating the scant
+grass growth and drinking what water they could find among those barren,
+sun-baked coulees.
+
+The Cross L boys, on this third trip, were become a jaded lot of
+hollow-eyed men, whose nerves were rasped raw with long hours and longer
+days in the saddle. Pink's cheeks no longer made his name appropriate,
+and he was not the only one who grew fretful over small things. Rowdy
+had been heard, more than once lately, to anathematize viciously the
+prairie-dogs for standing on their tails and chipchip-chipping at them
+as they went by. And though the Silent One did not swear, he carried
+rocks in his pockets, and threw them with venomous precision at every
+"dog" that showed his impertinent nose out of a burrow within range. For
+Pink, he vented his spleen on the line-backed cow.
+
+So they walked and walked and walked.
+
+The cattle balked at another hill, and all the tincans and slickers in
+the crowd could scarcely move them. The wind dropped with the sun, and
+the clouds glowed gorgeously above them, getting scant notice, except
+that they told eloquently of the coming night; and there were yet
+miles--long, rough, heartbreaking miles--to put behind them before
+they could hope for the things their tired bodies craved: supper and
+dreamless sleep.
+
+When the last of the herd had sidled, under protest, down the long hill
+to the flat, dusk was pushing the horizon closer upon them, mile by
+mile. When they crawled sinuously out upon the welcome level, the hill
+loomed ghostly and black behind them. A mile out, Wooden Shoes rode out
+of the gloom and met the point. He turned and rode beside Pink.
+
+"Yuh'll have t' swing 'em north," he greeted.
+
+"Red Willow's dry as hell--all but in the Rockin' R field. No use askin'
+ole Mullen to let us in there; we'll just go. I sent the wagons through
+the fence, an' yuh'll find camp about a mile up from the mouth uh the
+big coulee. You swing 'em round the end uh this bench, an' hit that big
+coulee at the head. When you come t' the fence, tear it down. They's
+awful good grass in that field!"
+
+"All right," said Pink cheerfully. It was in open defiance of range
+etiquette; but their need was desperate. The only thing about it Pink
+did not like was the long detour they must make. He called the news
+across to the Silent One, after Wooden Shoes had gone on down the line,
+and they swung the point gradually to the left.
+
+Before that drive was over, Pink had vowed many times to leave the range
+forever and never to turn another cow--besides a good many other foolish
+things which would be forgotten, once he had a good sleep. And Rowdy,
+plodding half-way down the herd, had grown exceedingly pessimistic
+regarding Jessie Conroy, and decided that there was no sense in thinking
+about her all the time, the way he had been doing. Also, he told himself
+savagely that if Harry ever crossed his trail again, there would be
+something doing. This thing of letting a cur like that run roughshod
+over a man on account of a girl that didn't care was plumb idiotic. And
+beside him the cattle walked and walked and walked, a dim, moving mass
+in the quiet July night.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10. Harry Conroy at Home.
+
+It was late next morning when they got under way; for they had not
+reached camp until long after midnight, and Wooden Shoes was determined
+the cattle should have one good feed, and all the water they wanted, to
+requite them for the hard drive of the day before.
+
+Pink rode out with Rowdy to the herd--a heavylidded, gloomy Rowdy he
+was, and not amiably inclined toward the small talk of the range. But
+Pink had slept five whole hours and was almost his normal self; which
+means that speech was not to be denied him.
+
+"What yuh mourning over?" he bantered. "Mad 'cause the reservation's so
+close?"
+
+"Sure," assented Rowdy, with deep sarcasm.
+
+"That's what I thought. Studying up the nicest way uh giving
+brother-in-law the glad hand, ain't yuh?"
+
+"He's no relation uh mine--and never will be," said Rowdy curtly. "And
+I'll thank you, Pink, to drop that subject for good and all."
+
+"Down she goes," assented Pink, quite unperturbed. "But the cards ain't
+all turned yet, yuh want to remember, I wouldn't pass on no hand like
+you've got. If I wanted a girl right bad, Rowdy, I'd wait till I got
+refused before I'd quit."
+
+"Seems to me you've changed your politics lately," Rowdy retorted. "A
+while back you was cussing the whole business; and now you're worse than
+an old maid aunt. Pink, you may not be wise to the fact, but you sure
+are an inconsistent little devil."
+
+"Are yuh going t' hunt Harry up and--"
+
+"I thought I told you to drop that."
+
+"Did yuh? All right, then--only I hope yuh didn't leave your gun packed
+away in your bed," he insinuated.
+
+"You can take a look to-night, if you want to."
+
+Pink laughed in a particularly infectious way he had, and, before he
+quite knew it, Rowdy was laughing, also. After that the world did not
+look quite so forlorn as it had, nor the day's work so distasteful. So
+Pink, having accomplished his purpose, was content to turn the subject.
+
+"There's old Liney"--he pointed her out to Rowdy--"fresh as a
+meadow-lark. I had a big grouch against her yesterday, just because she
+batted her eyes and kept putting one foot ahead uh the other. I could
+'a' killed her. But she's all right, that old girl. The way she led out
+down that black coulee last night wasn't slow! Say, she's an ambitious
+old party. I wish you was riding point with me, Rowdy. The Silent One
+talks just about as much as that old cow. He sure loves to live up to
+his rep."
+
+"Oh, go on to work," Rowdy admonished. "You make me think of a magpie."
+All the same, he looked after him with smiling lips, and eyes that
+forgot their gloom. He even whistled while he helped round up the
+scattered herd, ready for that last day's drive.
+
+Every man in the outfit comforted himself with the thought that it
+was the last day's drive. After long weeks of trailing lean herds over
+barren, windbrushed hills, the last day meant much to them. Even the
+Silent One sang something they had never heard before, about "If Only I
+Knew You Were True."
+
+They crossed the Rocking R field, took down four panels of fence, passed
+out, and carefully put them up again behind them. Before them stretched
+level plain for two miles; beyond that a high, rocky ridge that promised
+some trouble with the herd, and after that more plain and a couleee or
+two, and then, on a far slope--the reservation.
+
+The cattle were rested and fed, and walked out briskly; the ridge neared
+perceptibly. Pink's shrill whistle carried far back down the line and
+mingled pleasantly with voices calling to one another across the herd.
+Not a man was humped listlessly in his saddle; instead, they rode with
+shoulders back and hats at divers jaunty angles to keep the sun from
+shining in eyes that faced the future cheerfully.
+
+The herd steadily climbed the ridge, choosing the smoothest path and the
+easiest slope. Pink assured the line-backed cow that she was a peach,
+and told her to "go to it, old girl." The Silent One's pockets were
+quite empty of rocks, and the prairiedogs chipped and flirted their
+funny little tails unassailed. And Rowdy, from wondering what had made
+Pink change his attitude so abruptly, began to plan industriously the
+next meeting with Jessie Conroy, and to build a new castle that was
+higher and airier than any he had ever before attempted--and perhaps
+had a more flimsy foundation; for it rested precariously on Pink's idle
+remarks.
+
+The point gained the top of the ridge, and Pink turned and swung his hat
+jubilantly at the others. The reservation was in sight, though it lay
+several miles distant. But in that clear air one could distinguish the
+line fence--if one had the eye of faith and knew just where to look.
+Presently he observed a familiar horseman climbing the ridge to meet
+them.
+
+"Eagle Creek's coming," he shouted to the man behind. "Come alive,
+there, and don't let 'em roam all over the map. Git some style on yuh!"
+
+Those who heard laughed; no one ever dreamed of being offended at what
+Pink said. Those who had not heard had the news passed on to them,
+in various forms. Wooden Shoes, who had been loitering in the rear
+gossiping with the men, rode on to meet Smith.
+
+Eagle Creek urged his horse up the last steep place, right in the face
+of the leaders, which halted and tried to turn back. Pink, swearing in a
+whisper, began to force them forward.
+
+"Let 'em alone," Eagle Creek bellowed harshly. "They ain't goin' no
+farther."
+
+"W-what?" Pink stopped short and eyed him critically. Eagle Creek could
+not justly be called a teetotaler; but Pink had never known him to
+get worse than a bit wobbly in his legs; his mind had never fogged
+perceptibly. Still, something was wrong with him, that was certain.
+Pink glanced dubiously across at the Silent One and saw him shrug his
+shoulders expressively.
+
+Eagle Creek rode up and stopped within ten feet of the line-backed cow;
+she seemed hurt at being held up in this manner, Pink thought.
+
+"Yuh'll have t' turn this herd back," Eagle Creek announced bluntly.
+
+"Where to?" Pink asked, too stunned to take in the meaning of it.
+
+"T' hell, I guess. It's the only place I know of where everybody's
+welcome." Eagle Creek's tone was not pleasant.
+
+"We just came from there," Pink said simply, thinking of the horrors of
+that drive.
+
+"Where's Wooden Shoes?" snapped the old man; and the foreman's hat-crown
+appeared at that instant over the ridge.
+
+"Well, we're up against it," Eagle Creek greeted. "That damn' agent--or
+the fellow he had workin' for him--reported his renting us pasture. Made
+the report read about twice as many as we're puttin' on. He's got orders
+now t' turn out every hoof but what b'longs there."
+
+"My Lord!" Wooden Shoes gasped at the catastrophe which faced the Cross
+L.
+
+"That's Harry Conroy's work," Pink cut in sharply' "He'd hurt the Cross
+L if he could, t' spite me and Rowdy. He--"
+
+"Don't matter--seein' it's done. Yuh might as well turn the herd loose
+right here, an' let 'em go t' the devil. I don't know what else t' do
+with 'em."
+
+"Anything gone wrong?" It was Rowdy, who had left his place and ridden
+forward to see what was holding the herd back.
+
+"Naw. We're fired off the reservation, is all. We got orders to take the
+herd to hell. Eagle Creek's leased it. Mr. Satan is going to keep house
+here in Montana; he says it's better for his trade," Pink informed him,
+in his girlish treble.
+
+Eagle Creek turned on him fiercely, then thought better of it and
+grinned. "Them arrangements wouldn't make us any worse off'n what we
+are," he commented. "Turn 'em loose, boys."
+
+"Man, if yuh turn 'em loose here, the first storm that hits 'em, they
+all die," Wooden Shoes interposed excitedly. "They ain't nothings for
+'em. We had t' turn 'em into the Rockin' R field last night, t'
+git water an' feed. Red Willow's gone dry outside dat field. They
+ain't--nothings. They'll die!"
+
+Eagle Creek looked at him dully. For the first time in his life he faced
+utter ruin. "Damn 'em, let 'em die, then!" he said.
+
+"That's what they'll sure do," Wooden Shoes reiterated stubbornly. "If
+they don't git feed and water now, yuh needn't start no round-up next
+spring."
+
+Pink's eyes went down over the close-huddled backs and the thicket
+of polished horns, and his eyelids stung. Would all of them die, he
+wondered! Four thousand! He hoped not. There must be some way out. Down
+the hill, he knew the cowboys were making cigarettes while they waited
+and wondered mightily what it was all about If they only knew, he
+thought, there would be more than one rope ready for Harry Conroy.
+
+"How about the Peck reservation? Couldn't you get them on there?" Rowdy
+ventured.
+
+"Not a hoof!" growled Eagle Creek, with his chin sunk against his chest.
+"There's thirty thousand Valley County cattle on there now." He looked
+down at the cattle, as Pink had done. "God! It's bad enough t' go
+broke," he groaned; "but t' think uh them poor brutes dyin' off in
+bunches, for want uh grass an' water! I've run that brand fer over
+thirty year."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11. Rowdy Promoted.
+
+Rowdy rode closer. "If you don't mind paying duty," he began
+tentatively, "I can put you next to a range over the line, where I'll
+guarantee feed and water the year round for every hoof you own."
+
+Eagle Creek lifted his head and looked at him "Whereabouts?" he demanded
+skeptically.
+
+"Up in the Red Deer country. Pink knows the place. There's range
+a-plenty, and creeks running through that never go dry; and the country
+isn't stocked and fenced to death, like this is."
+
+"And would we be ordered off soon as we got there?"
+
+"Sure not--if you paid duty, which would only be about double what you
+were going to pay for one year's pasture."
+
+Eagle Creek breathed deeply, like a man who has narrowly escaped
+suffocation. "Young man, I b'lieve you're a square dealer, and that yuh
+savvy the cow business. I've thought it ever since yuh started t' work."
+His keen old eyes twinkled at the memory of Rowdy's arrival, and Rowdy
+grinned. "I take yuh at your word, and yuh can consider yourself in
+charge uh this herd as it stands. Take it t' that cow heaven yuh tell
+about--and damn it, yuh won't be none the worse for it!"
+
+"We'll pass that up," said Rowdy quietly. "I'll take the herd through,
+though; and I'd advise you to get the rest on the road as soon as they
+can be gathered. It's a three-hundred-mile drive."
+
+"All right. From now on it's up to you," Eagle Creek told him briskly.
+"Take 'em back t' the Rockin' R field, and I'll send the wagons back
+t' you. Old Mullen'll likely make a roar--but that's most all gove'ment
+land he's got fenced, so I guess I can calm him down. Will yuh go near
+the ranch?"
+
+"I think so," said Rowdy. "It will be the shortest way."
+
+"Well, I'll give yuh some blank checks, an' you can load up with grub
+and anything else yuh need. I'll be over there by the time you are, and
+fix up that duty business. Wooden Shoes'll have t' get another outfit
+together, and get another bunch on the trail. One good thing--I got
+thirty days t' get off what cattle is on there; and thirty days uh grass
+and water'll put 'em in good shape for the trip. Wish this bunch was as
+well fixed."
+
+"That's what," Rowdy assented. "But I think they'll make it, all right."
+
+"I'll likely want yuh to stay up there and keep cases on 'em. Any
+objections?"
+
+"Sure not!" laughed Rowdy. "Only I'll want Pink and the Silent One to
+stay with me."
+
+"Keep what men yuh want. Anything else?"
+
+"I don't think of anything," said Rowdy. "Only I'd like to have
+a--talk--with Conroy." Creek eyed him sharply. "Yuh won't be apt t'
+meet him. Old Bill Brown, up home, would like to see him, too. Bill's
+a perseverin' old cuss, and wants to see Conroy so bad he's got the
+sheriff out lookin' for him. It's about a bunch uh horses that was run
+off, three years ago. Yuh brought one of 'em back into the country last
+spring, yuh mind."
+
+Rowdy and Pink looked at one another, but said nothing.
+
+"Old Bill, he follered your back trail and found out some things he
+wanted t' know. Conroy got wind of it, though, and he left the agency
+kind-a suddint. No use yuh lookin' for him."
+
+"Then we're ready to hit the grit, I guess." Rowdy glanced again at Pink
+who nodded.
+
+"Well, I ain't stoppin' yuh," Eagle Creek drawled laconically. "S'-long,
+and good luck t' yuh."
+
+He waited while Pink and the Silent One swung the point back down the
+hill, with Rowdy helping them, quite unmoved by his sudden promotion.
+When the herd was fairly started on the backward march, Eagle Creek
+nodded satisfaction the while he pried off a corner of plug-tobacco.
+
+"He's all right," he asserted emphatically. "That boy suits me, from
+the ground up. If he don't put that deal through in good shape, it'll be
+becaus' it can't be did."
+
+Wooden Shoes, with whom Rowdy had always been a prime favorite, agreed
+with Dutch heartiness. Then, leaving the herd to its new guardian they
+rode swiftly to overtake and turn back the wagons.
+
+"Three hundred miles! And part of it across howling desert!" Rowdy drew
+his brows together. "It's a big thing for me, all right, Pink; but it's
+sure a big contract to take this herd through, if anybody should happen
+to ask yuh."
+
+"Oh, buck up! You'll make good, all right--if only these creeks wasn't
+so bone dry!"
+
+"Well, there's water enough in the Rocking R field for to-day; we'll
+throw 'em in there till tomorrow. And I've a notion I can find a better
+trail across to North Fork than the way we came. I'm going to strike
+out this afternoon and see, anyway, if Quitter Creek hasn't got water
+farther up. Once we get up north uh the home ranch, I can see my way
+clear."
+
+"Go to it, boss," Pink cried heartily. "I don't see how I'm goin t'
+keep from sassing yuh, once in a while, though. That's what bothers me.
+What'll happen if I turn loose on yuh, some time?"
+
+"You'll get fired, I expect," laughed Rowdy, and rode off to announce
+the news to the rest of the outfit, who were very unhappy in their
+mystification.
+
+If their reception of the change of plans and foreman was a bit profane,
+and their manner toward him a bit familiar, Rowdy didn't mind. He knew
+that they did not grudge him his good luck, even while they hated
+the long drive. He also knew that they watched him furtively; for
+nothing--not even misfortune--is as sure a test of a man's character
+as success. They liked Rowdy, and they did not believe this would spoil
+him; still, every man of them was secretly a bit anxious.
+
+On the trail, he rode in his accustomed place, and, so far as
+appearances went, the party had no foreman. He went forward and helped
+Pink take down the fence that had been so carefully put up a few hours
+before, and he whistled while he put it in place again, just as if
+he had no responsibility in the world. Then the cattle were left to
+themselves, and the men rode down to their old campground, marked by
+empty tin-cans and a trodden place where had been the horse corral.
+
+Rowdy swung down and faced the men gravely. Instinctively they stood at
+attention, waiting for what he had to say; they felt that the situation
+was so far out of the ordinary that a few remarks pertaining to their
+new relations would not be out of place.
+
+He looked them over appraisingly, and met glances as grave as his own.
+Straight, capable fellows they were, every man of them.
+
+"Boys," he began impressively, "you all know that from to-day on you're
+working under my orders. I never was boss of anything but the cayuse I
+happened to have under me, and I'm going to extract all the honey there
+is in the situation. Maybe I'll never be boss again--but at present I'm
+it. I want you fellows to remember that important fact, and treat me
+with proper respect. From now on you can call me Mr. Vaughan; 'Rowdy'
+doesn't go, except on a legal holiday.
+
+"Furthermore, I'm not going to get out at daylight and catch up my own
+horse; I'll let yuh take turns being flunky, and I'll expect yuh
+to saddle my horse every morning and noon, and bring him to the
+cook-tent--and hold my stirrup for me. Also, you are expected, at
+all times and places, to anticipate my wants and fall over yourselves
+waiting on me. You're just common, ordinary, forty-dollar cow-punchers,
+and if I treat yuh white, it's because I pity yuh for not being up where
+I am. Remember, vassals, that I'm your superior, mentally, morally,
+socially--"
+
+"Chap him!" yelled Pink, and made for him "I'll stand for a lot, but
+don't yuh ever think I'm a vassal!"
+
+"Mutiny is strictly prohibited!" he thundered. "Villains, beware!
+Gadzooks--er--let's have a swim before the wagons come!"
+
+They laughed and made for the creek, feeling rather crestfallen and a
+bit puzzled.
+
+"If I had an outfit like this to run, and a three hundred-mile drive to
+make," Bob Nevin remarked to the Silent One, "blessed if I'd make a josh
+of it! I'd cultivate the corrugated brow and the stiff spine--me!"
+
+"My friend," the Silent One responded, "don't be too hasty in your
+judgment. It's because the corrugated brow will come later that he
+laughs now. You'll presently find yourself accomplishing the impossible
+in obedience to the flicker of Rowdy Vaughan's eyelids. Man, did you
+never observe the set of his head, and the look of his eye? Rowdy
+Vaughan will get more out of this crowd than any man ever did; and if he
+fails, he'll fail with the band playing 'Hot Time.'"
+
+"Maybe so," Bob admitted, not quite convinced; "but I wonder if he
+realizes what he's up against." At which the Silent One only smiled
+queerly as he splashed into the water.
+
+After dinner Rowdy caught up the blue roan, which was his favorite for
+a hard ride--he seemed to have forgotten his speech concerning
+"flunkies"--and rode away up the coulee which had brought them into the
+field the night before. The boys watched him go, speculated a lot, and
+went to sleep as the best way of putting in the afternoon.
+
+Pink, who knew quite well what was in Rowdy's mind, said nothing at all;
+it is possible that he was several degrees more jealous of the dignity
+of Rowdy's position than was Rowdy himself, who had no time to think of
+anything but the best way of getting the herd to Canada. He would like
+to have gone along, only that Rowdy did not ask him to. Pink assured
+himself that it was best for Rowdy not to start playing any favorites,
+and curled down in the bed-tent with the others and went to sleep.
+
+It was late that night when Rowdy crept silently into his corner of
+the tent; but Pink was awake, and whispered to know if he found water.
+Rowdy's "Yes" was a mere breath, but it was enough.
+
+At sunrise the herd trailed up the Rocking R coulee, and Pink and the
+Silent One pointed them north of the old trail.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12. "You Can Tell Jessie."
+
+In the days that followed Rowdy was much alone. There was water to
+hunt, far ahead of the herd, together with the most practicable way of
+reaching it. He did not take the shortest way across that arid country
+and leave the next day's camping-place to chance--as Wooden Shoes had
+done. He felt that there was too much at stake, and the cattle were too
+thin for any more dry drives; long drives there were, but such was his
+generalship that there was always water at the end.
+
+He rode miles and miles that he might have shirked, and he never slept
+until the next day's move, at least, was clearly defined in his mind and
+he felt sure that he could do no better by going another route.
+
+These lonely rides gave him over to the clutch of thoughts he had never
+before harbored in his sunny nature. Grim, ugly thoughts they were, and
+not nice to remember afterward. They swung persistently around a central
+subject, as the earth revolves around the sun; and, like the earth, they
+turned and turned on the axis of his love for a woman.
+
+In particularly ugly moods he thought that if Harry Conroy were caught
+and convicted of horsestealing, Jessie must perforce admit his guilt and
+general unworthiness--Rowdy called it general cussedness--and Rowdy be
+vindicated in her eyes. Then she would marry him, and go with him to
+the Red Deer country and--air-castles for miles! When he awoke to the
+argument again, he would tell himself savagely that if he could, by any
+means, bring about Conroy's speedy conviction, he would do so.
+
+This was unlike Rowdy, whose generous charity toward his enemies came
+near being a fault. He might feel any amount of resentment for wrong
+done, but cold-blooded revenge was not in him; that he had suffered
+so much at Conroy's hands was due largely to the fact that Conroy was
+astute enough to read Rowdy aright, and unscrupulous enough to take
+advantage. Add to that a smallminded jealousy of Rowdy's popularity and
+horsemanship, one can easily imagine him doing some rather nasty things.
+Perhaps the meanest, and the one which rankled most in Rowdy's memory,
+was the cutting of Rowdy's latigo just before a riding contest, in which
+the purse and the glory of a championship-belt seemed in danger of going
+to Rowdy.
+
+Rowdy had got a fall that crippled him for weeks, and Harry had won the
+purse and belt--and the enmity of several men better than he. For though
+morally sure of his guilt, no one could prove that he had cut the strap,
+and so he got off unpunished, except that Pink thrashed him--a bit
+unscientifically, it is true, since he resorted to throwing rocks toward
+the last, but with a thoroughness worthy even of Pink.
+
+But in moods less ugly he shrank from the hurt that must be Jessie's
+if she should discover the truth. Jessie's brother a convicted thief
+serving his sentence in Deer Lodge! The thought was horrible; it was
+brutal cruelty. If he could only know where to look for that lad, he'd
+help him out of the country. It was no good shutting him up in jail;
+that wouldn't help him any, or make him better. He hoped he would get
+off--go somewhere, where they couldn't find him, and stay there.
+
+He wondered where he was, and if he had money enough to see him through.
+He might be no good--he sure wasn't!--but he was Jessie's brother, and
+Jessie believed in him and thought a lot of him. It would be hard lines
+for that little girl if Harry were caught. Bill Brown, the meddlesome
+old freak!--he didn't blame Jessie for not wanting to stop there that
+night. She did just the right thing.
+
+With all this going round and round, monotonously persistent in his
+brain, and with the care of four thousand lean kine and more than a
+hundred saddle-horses--to say nothing of a dozen overworked, fretful
+cow-punchers--Rowdy acquired the "corrugated brow" fast enough without
+any cultivation.
+
+The men were as the Silent One had predicted. They made drives that
+lasted far into the night, stood guard, and got along with so little
+sleep that it was scarce worth mention, and did many things that shaved
+close the impossible--just because Rowdy looked at them straightly, with
+half-closed lids, and asked them if they thought they could.
+
+Pink began to speak of their new foreman as "Moses"; and when the
+curious asked him why, told them soberly that Rowdy could "hit a rock
+with his quirt and start a creek running bank full." When Rowdy heard
+that, he thought of the miles of weary searching, and wished that it
+were true.
+
+They had left the home ranch a day's drive behind them, and were going
+north. Rowdy had denied himself the luxury of riding over to see Jessie,
+and he was repenting the sacrifice in deep gloom and sincerity, when two
+men rode into camp and dismounted, as if they had a right. The taller
+one--with brawn and brain a-plenty, by the look of him--announced that
+he was the sheriff, and would like to stop overnight.
+
+Rowdy gave him welcome half-heartedly, and questioned him craftily.
+A sheriff is not a detective, and does not mind giving harmless
+information; so Rowdy learned that they had traced Conroy thus far, and
+believed that he was ahead of them and making for Canada. He had dodged
+them cleverly two or three times, but now they had reason to believe
+that he was not more than half a day's ride before them. They wanted to
+know if the outfit had seen any one that day, or sign of any one having
+passed that way.
+
+Rowdy shook his head.
+
+"I bet it was Harry Conroy driving that little bunch uh horses up the
+creek, just as we come over the ridge," spoke Pink eagerly.
+
+Rowdy could have choked him. "He wouldn't be driving a lot of horses,"
+he interposed quickly.
+
+"Well, he might," argued Pink. "If I was making a quick get-away, and
+my horse was about played out--like his was apt t' be--I'd sure round
+up the first bunch I seen, and catch me a fresh one--if I was a
+horse-thief. I'll bet yuh--"
+
+The sheriff had put down his cup of coffee. "Is there any place where a
+man could corral a bunch on the quiet?" he asked crisply. It was evident
+that Pink's theory had impressed him.
+
+"Yes, there is. There's an old corral up at the ford--Drowning Ford,
+they call it--that I'd use, if it was me. It was an old line camp,
+and there's a cabin. It's down on the flat by the creek, and it's as
+God-forsaken a place as a man'd want t' hide in, or t' change mounts."
+Pink hitched up his chapbelt and looked across at Rowdy. He was aching
+for a sight of Harry Conroy in handcuffs, and he was certain that Rowdy
+felt the same. "If it was me," he added speculatively, "and I thought I
+was far enough in the lead, I'd stop there till morning."
+
+"How far is it from here?" demanded the sheriff, standing up.
+
+Pink told him he guessed it was five miles. Whereupon the sheriff
+announced his intention of going up there at once, and Pink hinted
+rather strongly that he would like to go with them. The sheriff did not
+know Pink; he looked down at his slimness and at the yellow fringe of
+curls showing under his hat brim, at his pink cheeks and dimples and
+girlish hands, and threw back his head in a loud ha! ha!
+
+Pink asked him politely, but rather stiffly, what there was funny about
+it. The sheriff laughed louder and longer; then, being the sort of man
+who likes a joke now and then, even in the way of business, he solemnly
+deputized Pink, and patted him on the shoulder and told him gravely that
+they couldn't possibly do without him.
+
+It looked for a minute as if Pink were going at him with his fists--but
+he didn't. He reflected that one must not offer violence to an officer
+of the law, and that, being made a deputy, he would have to go, anyway;
+so he gritted his teeth and buckled on his gun, and went along sulkily.
+
+They rode silently, for the most part, and swiftly.
+
+Even in the dusk they could see where a band of horses had been driven
+at a gallop along the creek bank. When they neared the place it was
+dark. Pink pulled up and spoke for the first time since leaving the
+tent.
+
+"We better tie up our horses here and walk," he said, quite unconscious
+of the fact that he was usurping the leadership, and thinking only of
+their quest.
+
+But the sheriff was old at the business, and not too jealous of his
+position. He signed to his deputy proper, and they dismounted.
+
+When they started on, Pink was ahead. The sheriff observed that Pink's
+gun still swung in its scabbard at his hip, and he grinned--but that was
+because he didn't know Pink. That the gun swung at his hip would have
+been quite enough for any one who did know him; it didn't take Pink all
+day to get into action.
+
+Ten rods from the corral, which they could distinguish as a black blotch
+in the sparse willow growth, Pink turned and stopped them. "I know the
+layout here," he whispered. "I'll just sneak ahead and rubber around.
+You Rubes sound like the beginning of a stampede, in this brush."
+
+The sheriff had never before been called a Rube--to his face, at least.
+The audacity took his breath; and when he opened his mouth for scathing
+speech, Pink was not there. He had slipped away, like a slim, elusive
+shadow, and the sheriff did not even know the exact direction of his
+going. There was nothing for it but to wait.
+
+In five minutes Pink appeared with a silent suddenness that startled
+them more than they would like to own.
+
+"He's somewheres around," he announced, in a murmur that would not carry
+ten feet. "He's got a horse in the corral, and, from the sound, he's got
+him all saddled; and the gate's tied shut with a rope."
+
+"How d'yuh know?" grunted the sheriff crossly.
+
+"Felt of it, yuh chump. He's turned the bunch loose and kept up a fresh
+one, like I said he would. It's blame dark, but I could see the horse--a
+big white devil. It's him yuh hear makin' all that racket. If he gits
+away now--"
+
+"Well, we didn't come for a chin-whackin' bee," snapped the sheriff. "I
+come out here t' git him."
+
+Pink gritted his teeth again, and wished the sheriff was just a man,
+so he could lick him. He led them forward without a word, thinking that
+Rowdy wanted Harry Conroy captured.
+
+The sheriff circled warily the corral, peered through the rails at the
+great white horse that ran here and there, whinnying occasionally for
+the band, and heard the creak of leather and the rattle of the bit. Pink
+was right; the horse was saddled, ready for immediate flight.
+
+"Maybe he's in the cabin," he whispered, coming up where Pink stood
+listening tensely at all the little night sounds. Pink turned and crept
+silently to the right, keeping in the deepest shade, while the others
+followed willingly. They were beginning to see the great advantage of
+having Pink along, even if he had called them Rubes.
+
+The cabin door yawned wide open, and creaked weirdly as the light wind
+moved it; the interior was black and silent--suspiciously silent, in
+the opinion of the sheriff. He waited for some time before venturing
+in, fearing an ambush. Then he caught the flicker of a shielded match,
+called out to Conroy to surrender, and leveled his gun at the place.
+
+There was no answer but the faint shuffle of stealthy feet on the board
+floor. The sheriff called another warning, cocked his gun--and came near
+shooting Pink, who walked composedly out of the door into the sheriff's
+astonished face. The sheriff had been sure that Pink was just behind
+him.
+
+"What the hell," began the sheriff explosively.
+
+"He ain't here," said Pink simply. "I crawled in the window and hunted
+the place over."
+
+The sheriff glared at him dumbly; he could not reconcile Pink's
+daredevil behavior with Pink's innocent, girlish appearance.
+
+"I tell yuh the corral's what we want t' keep cases on," Pink added
+insistently. "He's sure somewheres around--I'd gamble on it. He saddled
+that horse t' git away on. That horse is sure the key t' this situation,
+old-timer. If you fellows'll keep cases on the gate, I'll cover the
+rear."
+
+He made his way quietly to the back of the corral, inwardly much amused
+at the tractability of the sheriff, who took his deputy obediently to
+watch the gate.
+
+Pink squatted comfortably in the shade of a willow and wished he dared
+indulge in a cigarette, and wondered what scheme Harry was trying to
+play.
+
+Fifty feet away the big white horse still circled round and round,
+rattling his bridle impatiently and shaking the saddle in an occasional
+access of rage, and whinnying lonesomely out into the gloom.
+
+So they waited and waited, and peered into the shadows, and listened to
+the trampling horse fretting for freedom and his mates.
+
+The cook had just called breakfast when Pink dashed up to the tent,
+flung himself from his horse, and confronted Rowdy--a hollow-eyed,
+haggard Rowdy who had not slept all night, and whose eyes questioned
+anxiously.
+
+"Well," Rowdy said, with what passed for composure, "did you get him?"
+
+Pink leaned against his horse, with one hand reaching up and gripping
+tightly the horn of the saddle. His cheeks held not a trace of color,
+and his eyes were full of a great horror.
+
+"They're bringin' him t' camp," he answered huskily. "We found a
+horse--a big white horse they call the Fern Outlaw"--the Silent One
+started and came closer, listening intently; evidently he knew the
+horse--"saddled in the corral, and the gate tied shut. We dubbed around
+a while, but we didn't find--Harry. So we camped down by the corral and
+waited. We set there all night--and the horse faunching around inside
+something fierce. When--it come daybreak--I seen something--by the
+fence, inside. It was--Harry." Pink shivered and moistened his dry lips.
+"That Fern Outlaw--some uh the boys know--is a devil t' mount. He'd got
+Harry down--hell, Rowdy! it--it was sure--awful. He'd been there all
+night--and that horse stomping."
+
+"Shut up!" Rowdy turned all at once deathly sick. He had once seen a man
+who had been trampled by a maddened, man-killing horse. It had not been
+a pretty sight. He sat down weakly and covered his face with his shaking
+hands.
+
+The others stood around horrified, muttering disjointed, shocked
+sentences.
+
+Pink lifted his head from where it had fallen upon his arm. "One thing,
+Rowdy--I done. You can tell Jessie. I shot that horse."
+
+Rowdy dropped his hands and stood up. Yes, he must tell Jessie.
+
+"You'll have to take the herd on," he told Pink in his masterful way.
+"I'll catch you to-morrow some time. I've got to go back and tell
+Jessie. You know the trail I was going to take--straight across to Wild
+Horse Lake. From there you strike across to North Fork--and if I don't
+overtake you on the way, I'll hit camp some time in the night. It's all
+plain sailing."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13. Rowdy Finds Happiness.
+
+Miss Conroy was rather listlessly endeavoring to persuade the First
+Reader class that "catch" should not be pronounced "ketch," when she saw
+Rowdy ride past the window. Intuition of something amiss sent her to the
+door before he reached it.
+
+"Can't you give the kids a day off?" he began, without preface. "I've
+got such a lot to talk about--and I don't come very often." He thought
+that his tone was perfectly natural; but all the same she turned
+white. He rode on to a little tree and tied his horse--not that it was
+necessary to tie him, but to avoid questions.
+
+Miss Conroy went in and dismissed the children, although it was only
+fifteen minutes after nine. They gathered up their lunch-pails and
+straggled out reluctantly, round-eyed, and curious. Rowdy waited until
+the last one had gone before he went in. Miss Conroy sat in her chair
+on the platform, and she was still white; otherwise she seemed to have
+herself well in hand.
+
+"It's about Harry," she asserted, rather sharply.
+
+"Have they--caught him?"
+
+Rowdy stopped half-way down the aisle and stared. "How did you know they
+were--after him?"
+
+"He came to me night before last, and--told me." She bit her lip, took
+firm hold on her honesty and her courage, and went on steadily. "He
+came because he--wanted money. I've wanted to see you since, to tell you
+that--I misjudged you. I know all about your--trouble, and I want you
+to know that I think you are--that you did quite right. You are to
+understand that I cannot honestly uphold--Harry. He is--not the kind of
+brother--I thought."
+
+Rowdy went clanking forward till only the table stood between. "Did he
+tell you?" he demanded, in a curious, breathless fashion.
+
+"No, he did not. He denied everything. It was Pink. He told me long
+ago--that evening, just after you--the last time I saw you. I told him
+he--lied. I tried not to believe it, but I did. Pink knew I would; he
+said so. The other night I asked Harry about--those things he did to
+you. He lied to me. I'd have forgiven him--but he lied. I--can't forgive
+that. I--"
+
+"Hush!" Rowdy threw out a gloved hand quickly. He could not bear to let
+her go on like that.
+
+She looked up at him, and all at once she was shaking. "There's
+something--tell me!"
+
+"They didn't take him," he said slowly, weighing each word and
+looking down at her pityingly "They never will. He--had an accident. A
+horse--fell with him--and--he was dead when they picked him up." It was
+as merciful a version as he could make it, but the words choked him,
+even then. "Girlie!" He went around and knelt, with his arms holding her
+close.
+
+After a long while he spoke again, smoothing her hair absently, and
+never noticing that he had not taken off his gloves. His gray hat was
+pushed aslant as his head rested against hers.
+
+"Perhaps, girlie, it's for the best. We couldn't have saved him
+from--the other; and that would have been worse, don't you think? We'll
+forget all but the good in him"--he could not help thinking that there
+would not be much to remember--"and I'll get a little home ready, and
+come back and get you before snow flies--and--you'll be kind of happy,
+won't you?
+
+"Maybe you haven't heard--but Eagle Creek has made me foreman of his
+outfit that's going to Canada. It's a good position. I can make you
+comfortable, girlie--and happy. Anyway, I'll try, mighty hard. You'll be
+ready for me when I come--won't you, girlie?"
+
+Miss Conroy raised her face, all tear-stained, but, with the light of
+happiness fighting the sorrow in her eyes, nodded just enough to make
+the movement perceptible, and settled her head to a more comfortable
+nestling-place on his shoulder.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rowdy of the Cross L, by 
+B.M. Sinclair, AKA B.M. Bower
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