every device of the 'bad' horse to unseat or destroy its rider. Half-fainting, but clinging desperately to the saddle, was a young girl, her face white beneath the tan, and her red-gold hair in a cloud round her head. It was obvious that her strength was nearly spent, and that she would be thrown and savaged by the maddened beast. The new hand acted without hesitation. Running swiftly forward, he made a sudden spring at the horse's head, and avoiding the flying forefeet by a miracle, gripped the reins by the bit.
Instantly the brute tried to rear, with the intention of falling backwards, but the man's iron strength pulled the head down, though it was all he could do to keep his footing. A quick snatch, and his right hand closed over and gripped the nostrils of the animal. It screamed with rage, and the great teeth clashed in a savage attempt to bite. But the clutch tightened, and, subdued for the moment, the horse snood quivering.
`Lift her down, Larry,' came the crisp command. No sooner had the cowboy got the half-senseless girl clear than Green, releasing the grip of his right hand, leapt into the empty saddle. This fresh outrage stirred the animal to an instant renewal of activity. It commenced bucking with redoubled fury, swapping ends, and employing, as Larry phrased it, 'all the old tricks, an' some new ones,' in its endeavor to injure the man on its back. The trio of onlookers watched the struggle with bated breath.
`He's a shore-enough killer, boss,' said the cowboy.
`That man knows his business,' replied Old Simon, his face pale yet with the fear he had felt for his daughter. The maddened horse was now leaping and twisting with a speed and suddenness which almost baffled the sight, yet still the rider kept his seat. His lean face, jaw grimly set, snapped back with each jolt, but the cruel bit, jammed to the back of the animal's mouth by arms of steel, prevented it from getting its head down. As though realizing this, the horse suddenly stood straight up on its hind legs. In another second it would have been on its back and the rider crushed to death, but, as Old Simon had said, the man knew his business. Down between the creature's ears crashed the loaded end of the quirt, with a force that jarred the brute almost into sensibility. Another attempt met with the same treatment, and, with a sharp scream of pain and rage, the horse darted for the open plain. The rancher turned to the girl, who, pale and shaky, was now somewhat recovered.
`What were yu doin' up on Blue Devil, Norry?' he asked. `Ain't I told yu not to touch him?'
`Yes, Dad; but you know I can ride, and I didn't think there was a horse I couldn't manage,' the girl replied.
`Well, yu know now there is, an' yu keep away from him in future,' retorted the old man grimly. `By the way, who helped yu rope an' saddle him?'
`Now, Dad,' she replied, with a laugh in which a sob was oddly mingled, `do you think I'd tell?' Then, as her father growled an oath, she slipped her arm coaxingly through his, and added, `You mustn't be angry with the boys, Dad; they just have to do what I say, you know, and Blue was as good as gold at first.' The ranch-owner replied with a non-committal grunt, and stood staring out over the open country. Presently came the drumming of hoofs, and soon the roan appeared, still running fast, but entirely under control, and evidently, for the time at least, a beaten horse. His rider, reining in, jumped lightly down, and stood stroking the heaving flanks. Simon stepped forward.
`I'm obliged to yu,' he said simply, and with a nod in the direction of Blue Devil. `What do yu think of him?'
`Grandest hoss I've ever crossed,' was the instant reply. `But yu won't never make a lady's pet of him.'
`I ain't aimin' to,' retorted Old Simon. `I once said I'd give that hoss to anyone that could ride him, an' I reckon that's why this girl o' mine was disobeyin' orders. He's yourn, an' it's fifty per for newcomers sometimes. Sabe.'
`I'll be proud to have the hoss, an' yu'll find I earn my pay,' was the quiet reply.
`I have to thank you too for saving, perhaps, my life,' Norry said, stepping forward with outstretched hand. The stranger took and held it for a moment, looking gravely into the deep blue eyes. Then he said: `Why, it don't need mentionin',' and turned away.
The girl watched him as he followed Larry to the corral, leading Blue Devil, who went docilely enough. She was rather puzzled by his abrupt departure; men, as a rule, were in no hurry to leave her. She did not think he had meant to be rude, and yet--her father's voice broke in upon her reflections.
`Now yu mind what I'm sayin', girl, an' when I tell yu to keep away from a four-legged earthquake yu gotta obey. It takes a bit to throw a scare into me, but I'll own up I was frightened good and plenty.'
`All right, Dad, I'll promise,' the girl replied. `I was scared good and plenty myself. I wonder where the new man comes from?'
`Dunn,' said Old Simon. `It ain't reckoned good form or good sense to be too curious in these parts, but he's worth his pay if he never does anythin' else for me.'
`You're just a dear,' Noreen responded tenderly, hugging him by the arm as they went into the house.
Meanwhile, the two punchers, having unsaddled and turned Blue Devil loose in the corral, proceeded to the bunkhouse, arriving just in time for the evening meal. Larry presented his new friend to the outfit:
`A new 'Wise head,' boys--name of Green; but I wouldn't recommend any of yu to gamble on that same cog-no-men meanin' much.'
The presentation elicited a laugh. Some of the men nodded, others vouchsafed a single word, `How,' and all of them went on eating. Green and his companion slid into a couple of empty places at the long table and tackled the food as though their last meal was a distant memory.
At length, when the plates had been cleared and replenished, coffee-cups emptied and refilled, the men began to find another use for their jaws. Green saw covert glances sent in his direction, and divined that he was being `looked over,' and that presently he would be `tried out.' Larry knew what was coming, and hugged himself mentally for not having `gassed' about the new man's performances.
`They're good boys--some of 'em; but it'll shore improve their eddication if they josh him,' he reflected.
A red-headed, merry-faced cowboy, who was called 'Ginger' because he hated it and had foolishly allowed that fact to become known, opened the attack.
`Gee, stranger, but I'm right glad yu happened along,' he said. `It'll save me somethin'.'
Green looked up inquiringly. `Shoot,' he said, with a smile.
`Well,' began Ginger, 'yu see, that Y Z has the meanest hoss this side o' the Mexican border, an' it's a custom o' the ranch that the latest comer has to try an' ride that hoss within a certain time, unless a new hand drifts in to take the job. Now my time is nearly up, so the hoss bein' a real man-killer, I'm obliged to yu.'
The stranger listened gravely, Ginger had not done it well; as he explained afterwards, he had had no time to think out something classy, in consequence of being hungry, but that was his chronic state, so the excuse failed also.
`It certainly is a fool trick to fork a hoss yu are scared of,' Green grinned. Ginger fell into the trap headlong, his face as red as his hair. `Scared nothin',' he shouted. `I never seen the thing on four legs or two that I was scared of, an' don't yu forget it.' A burst of laughter from the others apprised him that he had given himself away, and the stranger completed his discomfiture by saying:
`I was thinkin' yu weren't so obliged as yu were tryin' to tell me.'
`Betcha dollar I can name somethin' on two legs that yo're scared of, Ginger,' said Dirty (whose nickname was in reality a compliment, since it was due to his actual fondness for soap and water). The boys argued that anyone so keen on washing must badly need it.
`Take yu,' snapped Ginger unwisely.
`Why, yo're dead easy,' said Dirty, with a broad grin. `What about Miss Norry?'
`I ain't--' Ginger cut short his protest, for he knew that, uttered, it must be made good. He decided to cut his losses, and flung a dollar at his smirking friend.
`Think yo're blame smart, don't ye?' he said. `Who got chased outa Kansas City by a girl with a gun?'
Dirty flushed furiously, and then laughed. `She shore was awful gone on me, that girl was,' he remarked. `But I didn't go back. No, sir.'
`Gone on yu?' Ginger snorted. `Gone on yu? She musts bin out of her haid.'
`Ginger don't understand the gentle passion,' Dirty explained commiseratingly to Green. `He ain't never had a girl run after him!'
The newcomer added his quota to the good-natured wrangle which ensued, but his eyes were busy studying the men with whom he must spend his days and nights. He soon divined that there were two factions in the Y Z outfit, one composed of the younger, light-hearted crew, several of whom he now knew by name, and the others of
