there still glowed a spark of affection for the son of his body.
The appearance of the girl interrupted the conversation, and the cowboy had to submit while she thanked him prettily.
'Green is going to ride for the Double K, Joan,' Keith told her. 'I scarcely think any of that devil's brood will interfere with you again.' His voice grew stern. 'If they do, he has my instructions to deal with them as they deserve.'
'I hope the lesson they have received will be sufficient,' she said, but there was fear in her eyes.
Sudden made a mental note, and then--in response to the rancher's hail--Frosty came up from the corral. His face split in a broad grin when he learned that the Double K had hired a hand.
'Show him where he sleeps, and then'--Keith's thin smile was in evidence--'you can go with him to Dugout to fetch his things.'
As they went to the corral for their horses, Frosty looked at his new friend and said with a laugh:
'That's the 01' Man all over : lashes yu with that tongue o' his one minute, an' the next, does somethin' yu want but dasn't ask for. I'm thunderin' glad yo're joinin' us, Jim, an' Sam will be, too.'
'He's losin' a boarder.'
'He's gainin' a friend,' came the swift retort, 'an' bein' the colour he is, he don't have too many.'
His prophecy proved correct, for when they returned to Dugout with the news, the saloon-keeper's delight and relief were obvious.
'I'se pow'ful pleased yo' ain't leavin' us, sah,' he beamed. 'Shucks, them hombres would say I'd run away,'
Sudden excused. 'Ain't called for their guns, I s'pose?'
It appeared they had. Soon after the cowboys set out forthe Double K, a youth arrived, paid the money, and re- deemed the weapons. He left a message.
'I was to tell de stranger dat he'll suah see dem guns some mo',' the negro said.
Frosty chuckled. 'I'll take to totin' a couple, Jim; that'll even up.'
They devoured a meal, praised the cook until her grin of gratification threatened to engulf her ears, and headed once more for the Double K. By the time they reached it, riders were coming in from the range.
'Yu'll bring the strength up to fifteen, includin' the foreman,' Frosty informed. 'They's a middlin' good crew, though--well, mebbe it's my fault.'
'That they's a good crew?' came the artless question.
'No, yu flathead, an' don't yu go to copyin' the 01' Man--one like him is all this ranch'll stand,' Frosty said. 'My fault if I can't like one or two as well as the rest. I expect I don't make friends easy.'
'I've noticed it,' Sudden remarked gravely. 'Yu need to know a fella a long, long whiles before he captures yore youthful affection.'
'Oh, go to--chapel,' the young man told him, and gave his mount a swipe on the rump which sent it careering into the corral.
As they moved towards the bunkhouse a chubby, round-face cowboy approached, and was promptly hailed:
'Hi, Lazy, say `Howdy' to Jim Green, who's come to help the rest of us do yore job for yu.'
The maligned one grinned and shoved out a paw. 'Pleased to meetcha,' he said, 'My name's `Lacey'; these ignorant cow-wrestlers mis-pronounce it 'cause I do more work than any three of 'ern.' He looked at Frosty. 'Steve's wantin' to know where yu bin loafin' all the day?'
'Tell him to ask the Colonel.'
The Double K bunkhouse was a large one and the built-in bunks arranged along each side left ample room for the long table which served for meals. At the far end a door led to the kitchen. Most of the riders had already taken their seats and were exchanging good-humoured banter when Frosty and his companions entered. Frosty conducted the newcomer to the head of the table, where Lagley was standing in conversation with a small, middle-aged man with ferrety eyes and a sour expression. This was Turvey, supposed to be more or less in the foreman's confidence.
'Oh, Steve, this is Jim Green,' Frosty announced. 'I reckon the 01' Man will have told yu about him.'
The foreman spun round and glared when he saw the stranger who had humiliated him. Stark hostility shone in his eyes for an instant and as quickly died away. But Sudden noted it.
'I ain't seen Keith,' Lagley said gruffly. 'What was it he should 'a' told me?'
'Why, to put Jim on the pay-roll, o' course.'
'No `of course' about it till I've spoke with the owner,' the foreman snapped. 'What yu bin doin' to- day?'
'Better ask him 'bout that, too,' Frosty advised. 'C'mon, Jim, let's git started afore these fellas wolf the lot.' And, as they found seats, 'Me, I'm a small eater.'
'My Gawd!' the tall, thin man on his left breathed fervently.
'He's sayin' grace,' Frosty explained aloud. 'Well brought up, Lanky was. Fact is, they brought him up so far he never had a chance to fill out.'
'An' he still ain't, sittin' next yu at meals,' the long one complained. 'See here, stranger, lemme tell yu a true tale. Frosty here once went to a barbecue an' the rancher who was givin' the party took him to where they was roasting the ox--whole. `There,' he sez proudly, `how'll that do yu?' `It'll dome fine,' Frosty replies. `But what are the other folks goin' to have?' '
The story produced a burst of laughter in which the hero of it joined. 'Lanky, if yu on'y worked as well as yu lie, there'd be nothin' for the rest of us to do,' he complimented. 'Fortunately, it ain't possible.'
A harsh voice from the top of the table suddenly stilled the hum of conversation.
'What's this I'm told o' Black Sam committin' sooicide?'
The men looked up in surprise and shook their heads; save Frosty, not one of them had heard of the happenings in Dugout the previous afternoon. An oldish, grey-bearded puncher was the first to speak.
'That's bad news. I don't cotton much to niggers, but Sam was a good sort, an' I'm sorry he's passed out.'
'I didn't say he had--yet,' Lagley said.
'When a fella has committed sooicide, he's dead,' the other replied. 'Never knowed a case otherwise.'
'It amounts to the same thing, Goudie,' the foreman retorted. 'Sam flung four o' the Imps out'n his saloon yestiddy. How long d'yu figure they'll let him live?'
'Good for Sam,' one of the younger men shouted.
But the majority of the faces showed only concern. 'No, bad for Sam,' Goudie corrected. 'Yo're right, Steve; they'll kill him--shore.'
'Yore facts is wrong, Steve,' Frosty interjected, and gasped as Sudden's elbow administered a warning. 'It was a stranger what throwed them bums out.' He went on to tell the story, without, however, divulging that the chief actor was present. The recital elicited both amusement and jubila- , tion.
'Beat up four of 'em with his bare fists an' made 'em hock their guns?' laughed one. 'I'd 'a' give a blue stack to 'a' seen it.'
'I'd shore like to meet that stranger--in friendship,' Lazy contributed, blissfully unconscious that he was sitting next to him. 'He must be a born fighter.'
'A born fool, yu mean,' Lagley sneered. Suspicion suddenly came to him, and without another word, he got up and went out. Scowling heavily, he strode to the ranch-house, to find the owner sitting on the verandah.
'Well, Lagley, what is troubling you?' Keith asked. 'That new hand yu took on. What d'yu know about him?'
'Do I have to tell you?'
'I'm foreman, an' responsible to yu for the men.'
'You relieve me, I was beginning to think I was responsible to you,' came the caustic response. 'My knowledge of him is limited to the fact that he has done what the rest of you cannot--administered a rebuff to some of those gaol-birds from Hell City.'
'An' sneaks off here hopin' the Double K will protect him,' the foreman gibed.
'Nothing of the kind, he came at my invitation. Have you anything against him?'
'Don't like his looks,' was the sullen answer.
